A focus on the management of risk through culture raises important questions about the nature of organisational culture and the degree to which it can be guided and managed toward certain ends. Organisational culture, often thought of as “the way we do things around here,” is both a highly valued and poorly understood characteristic of organisational life. Mindfully creating and managing culture can guide organisational members in acting in line with valued goals. Yet, scholars caution that steering culture is a difficult and subtle task. In this chapter I explore how organisational theorists treat organisational culture, as both a deep structure that is resilient against change, and as a set of patterned actions that people use in their day to day organisational lives. The latter perspective foregrounds individual agency while the former foregrounds collective characteristics. I explore the implications of each perspective for questions related to risk governance.

Objective: Understand the options and processes for bringing data into the spreadsheet environment, as well as concepts and methods for making it ready for further analysis and reporting.

The chapter analyses the role of financial regulation in facilitating the development of organizational norms to enhance risk culture in financial institutions. The paper suggests that shortcomings in risk culture – particularly as understood through the lens of human agency theory – in large financial institutions are the result of collective agency problems. The paper argues that regulation has a role to play in addressing collective agency problems but that regulators should be selective in what tools they use to enhance risk culture in institutions with consideration given to the regulation of remuneration and trusted financial products. It further suggests that to address collective agency problems in large financial institutions policymakers should consider the utility of a senior managers’ liability regime to incentivize senior officers and board directors to be more proactive and aware of misconduct and other behavior that results in agency costs for the firm and society. The paper concludes that a effective regulation involves a balance between official sector regulation and self-regulation that can channel the collective actions of individuals to improve governance and operations in a way that benefits overall firm performance and which mitigates socially costly behavior.

Objective: Appreciate the wide range of intentions, focal methods, and general characteristics of effective decision support tools.

Risk culture warrants a broad and multidisciplinary view. Our authors have provided insights and brought new thinking to this topic as an antidote to approaching the subject with linear thinking and prescriptive solutions. Their chapters provide multiple lenses for understanding and exploring risk culture as an organisational phenomenon.