Tracing the Implementation of a Risk Management Process in a Public Sector Organisation – a Longitudinal Study

This paper presents the results from a longitudinal study of the process of developing and implementing a method for risk assessment in a public sector organisation over a period of 3.5 years. The study explores how people involved in this process viewed factors influencing the implementation and what effects the risk management process gave rise to. While a large share of previous research on this topic has been confined to analysing the final outcome of such process, i.e. the documented risk assessment report, this study explores factors affecting the process leading to such outcome. Data collection was conducted through a questionnaire used on five occasions during the study period. The results from this questionnaire were complemented with an interview study to gain deeper insights and understanding of factors shaping the risk management process. The findings illustrate a range of practical challenges connected to the transition from small-scale testing to full-scale implementation. The most clearly visible impact from the risk management process includes an increased risk awareness among persons involved. Moreover, the risk assessment was considered important as a means to uncover dependencies between departments and to contribute to increased crisis preparedness for the organisation as a whole. However, the results also indicate that the outcomes from the risk management process were only to a limited extent spread to the rest of the organisation. Finally, it can be concluded that persons at the management level, who were not as active in the process, showed a declining commitment over the 3.5-year period