The research explores risk practitioners' communication and leadership practices to achieve and maintain Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) effectiveness. The study contributes to the descriptive literature by observing and elaborating phenomena in ERM in German non-financial companies and forms a practical guide for viewing ERM effectiveness as a set of organisational practices. It allows organisations to identify potentials for strengthening ERM units and optimising risk practitioner development programs. A cross-sectional field study approach using semi-structured interviews has been applied to understand and connect risk practitioners' perceptions to the organisational context. Leadership and senior risk practitioners with broad and deep ERM experience participated in this study. They represent multiple industries. The research identifies four practice episodes. Creating shared understanding aims to enable effective knowledge management across boundaries by creating shared knowledge and meaning of the business and the organisational ERM. The second episode emphasises the value-creating capabilities of the organisational ERM approaches and processes. Leadership practice, the third practice episode, centres on fostering dialogue and direction to increases risk practitioners' influence in decision-making processes. The final practice episode comprises relationship-management practices to establish informal networks, helping risk practitioners balance independence and involvement. Executing these practices implies risk practitioners gaining and using referent and expert power and applying a participatory leadership style. The research contributes to an enhanced understanding of the means available for risk practitioners to increase ERM effectiveness. The study's focus on the German context constitutes a limitation as cultural differences in risk practitioners' practices remain unconsidered.
Permanent link to this resource: https://doi.org/10.24384/tedk-ep96
Wolter, Thomas
Oxford Brookes Business School
Year: 2021
© Wolter, Thomas All rights reserved.