The Risk Culture Framework: Introducing an integrative framework for holistic risk analysis

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.