Risk Management as Practice

Risk management within an organization is often perceived from the functionalistic view, understanding that risk management is a tool in humans hands. Opposing this view, a stream of research in the field of management accounting demonstrates that the functionalistic view of risk management is too limited to respond to changes in the external environment. In particular, this is relevant as many organizations in contemporary society have to face a background of unpredictable and dynamic complexities. 
This also applies to network operator TenneT as this company has the responsibility to facilitate the secure electricity transmission against the background of the intended switch to the use of electricity from renewable sources like wind and sun. Given this background, the TenneT risk management practices to plan and prioritize investment projects come to the fore as open-ended in nature. This understanding is supportive to use risk management to explore novel risks.
This thesis foregrounds studying the risk management practices as an alternative research approach to perceiving the organization’s risk management as a systematic approach. Humans cannot determine or prescribe which practices and actions belong to the organization’s risk management and which do not.