The Risk Culture Framework: Introducing an integrative framework for
holistic risk analysis
Abstract
Risk culture shapes individual, group, organizational and societal risk
perception and behavior, and, therefore, is a promising concept in risk
analysis. Risk culture concepts are popular among practitioners since
they have the potential to integrate different research strands and
provide practical guidelines. However, such concepts are still
ill-defined and their empirical foundations are limited. We introduce a
new framework for risk culture that is derived from research on
organizational culture and risk climate, and which aims to overcome the
shortcomings of current models. The Risk Culture Framework is a 3x3
matrix that differentiates three influence domains (i.e. person, social
context & risk situation) and three cultural layers (i.e. observable,
non-observable & implicit factors). The framework can be applied in
different contexts and fields of risk research. Each cell of the matrix
can be filled with specific, proven factors that are relevant to the
context of interest. The framework aims to enable integration of
different disciplines and approaches, to enlarge the understanding of
mechanisms that shape risk perception and behavior, to navigate the
conception of research studies, to provide a blueprint for comprehensive
risk measures, to guide practical risk analysis, and to facilitate
benchmarking for appropriate risk cultures. Considerations for the
application of the Risk Culture Framework, as well as its validation
through future research, are outlined.