A Relational Construction of Organizational Risk: Normalizing Versus Problematizing Through Risk Work on Concerns Versus Measures

TOPAL Ç., Gephart R. P.

Journal of Management Inquiry, vol.34, no.1, pp.78-102, 2025 (SSCI) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 34 Issue: 1
  • Publication Date: 2025
  • Doi Number: 10.1177/10564926241232319
  • Journal Name: Journal of Management Inquiry
  • Journal Indexes: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, ABI/INFORM, Business Source Elite, Business Source Premier
  • Page Numbers: pp.78-102
  • Keywords: concern, measure, normalizing, problematizing, risk construction, risk consultation, risk work
  • Middle East Technical University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

This study examines a public hearing, in which a company normalizes a high-risk project while a group of residents and landowners problematize it through three types of relational risk work including the construction of concerns versus measures, consultations on concerns and measures, and company approach in addressing concerns with measures. They construct risk meanings in a relational context where they respond to the normalizing and problematizing attempts of one another. Accordingly, this study has two main contributions. First, it identifies three types of risk work used by public and business stakeholders to relationally construct and normalize/problematize risk and risk management and thus analyzes the tension between normalizing and problematizing as an issue of interdependence. Second, it brings forward the opposition between concerns and measures as an important topic for risk research and emphasizes the critical role of risk consultations with cooperative approaches in addressing this opposition.