Risk Management

Taking risks is part of the essence of entrepreneurial activity. At the same time, it is the task of risk management to ensure that the company does not move disoriented through its volatile environment and take risks completely uncontrolled. From the perspective of communication-centered management, however, risk management serves less the purpose of avoiding risks than of being able to take risks in a controlled manner. Risks – like crises – are to be understood as social constructs that can be shaped by means of communication in stakeholder relationships. Internal risk communication pursues two parallel thrusts. On the one hand, it supports the quality of early risk identification by making employees aware of the impact of theirobserving the environment. Secondly, it aims to communicate corporate values and guidelines on acceptable risks so effectively that as few unintended risks as possible arise from the individual or collective behavior of employees. Against this background, the establishment of a company-specific risk culture is regarded as an additional management concept that not only can, but must, complement the plan- and process-driven risk management systems. From a communication-centered perspective, promoting an appropriate risk culture in the company is at the same time the management concept that is best suited to avoid stifling entrepreneurial action that is inevitably fraught with risk and, at the same time, to provide effective risk prevention in an unclear environment in which rigid management systems will in any case reach their limits.