A Communicative Approach to Integrated Risk Management

Abstract

Induced by exponential environmental changes, risk has become a ubiquitous occurrence amidst the diverse organizational realities, and central to their management. As unidimensional approaches are deemed to be insufficient to manage organizational risks, the present article advances that efficient risk management has to be (1) integrative by design and default, reflecting a strategic, systemic and inclusive model, whereby (2) communication is not a mere circumstantial organizational function. Communication is rather viewed as a transversal organizational phenomenon, and further, as constitutive of the organization, lubricating the generation and sustaining of organizations against and through the multitude of current and potential risks. Based on a theoretical meta-analysis, the article justifies integrated risks management, through highlighting their intersectional nature. It underscores the role of organizational communication in integrated risk management, as to how risks are perceived, identified, analyzed and managed. It sheds light on organizations and organizing as communicative phenomena, and on the complexity of human and non-human communicative flows and agencies. In parallel, it delimits the communicative issues in relation to integrated risk management stages