Dissertation Addresses One of the Most Popular Management Control Practices Adopted Worldwide Over the Last Three Decades: the Practice of Risk Management
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A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics Neerup Themsen, Tim Doctoral Thesis Risk Management in Large Danish Public Capital Investment Programmes PhD Series, No. 41.2014 Provided in Cooperation with: Copenhagen Business School (CBS) Suggested Citation: Neerup Themsen, Tim (2014) : Risk Management in Large Danish Public Capital Investment Programmes, PhD Series, No. 41.2014, ISBN 9788793155831, Copenhagen Business School (CBS), Frederiksberg, http://hdl.handle.net/10398/9053 This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/208917 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. personal and scholarly purposes. 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All rights reserved. No parts of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. English abstract This dissertation addresses one of the most popular management control practices adopted worldwide over the last three decades: the practice of risk management. The current risk management literature has argued that our knowledge of the par- ticularities of risk management practices is limited. It has been stressed that knowledge is particularly lacking about the long-term effects of practising risk management. This dissertation responds to these calls by carrying out two longitu- dinal case studies of two large Danish public capital investment programmes, also known as mega-projects. The focus of the two studies has been on three key risk management-related aspects: (1) the translation of uncertainties into risks, (2) the relationship between frameworks and practices of risk management, and (3) the effects of practising risk management on knowledge and project management roles. The dissertation further advances current risk management literature into the study of mega-projects and draws upon actor-network theory. It consists of three papers, which each deals with one of the above aspects. The dissertation presents three major findings. Firstly, it is demonstrated that, con- trary to expectations, only some types of uncertainties are included as risks, termed pure risks, while others, termed impure risks, are systematically excluded despite the finding that people found them relevant to include. This finding is ex- plained with reference to technical risk devices as these were found to define the boundaries between what can and what cannot be defined as an acceptable risk and thus be included. Secondly, the dissertation demonstrates that by enacting cer- tain realities of ‘risk’ and ‘risk management’, frameworks of risk management make the practice produce the risks that confirm its propositions and thus its suc- cess. In addition, the dissertation shows that when provisional situations arise iii which undermine the frameworks’ propositions, reconfiguring the risk manage- ment control system, risk terminologies and the roles of actors become key actions performed to re-establish the practice. Lastly, the dissertation demonstrates that during project processes, new uncertainties emerge which challenge project and risk management objectives as new knowledge about the conditions is produced that cannot be included. In sum, this dissertation contributes by shedding light on how practices of risk management are constructed and the effects they produce over longer periods of time. iv Danish abstract Denne afhandling omhandler en af de mest populære økonomistyringspraksisser i moderne tid: risikostyring. I risikostyringslitteraturen er det blevet fremført, at vo- res viden om risikostyringspraksissers særlige karakteristika og dynamikker er be- grænset. Forskere har yderligere understreget, at vores viden om de langsigtede ef- fekter af risikostyring er begrænset. Denne afhandling imødekommer denne litteratur ved at beskrive to længerevarende casestudier af to større danske offent- lige anlægsprojekter. Afhandlingen fokuserer særligt på tre risikostyringsrelatere- de aspekter: (1) translationen af usikkerheder til risici, (2) forholdet mellem ram- meværktøjer og risikostyringspraksis, og (3) virkningen af at praktisere risikostyring i forhold til viden og projektstyring. Afhandlingen bidrager endvide- re ved at undersøge risikostyring i mega-projekter, hvilket tidligere studier kun har gjort i begrænset omfang. Afhandlingen trækker endvidere på aktør- netværksteorien og består af tre forskningspapirer, som hver især tager udgangs- punkt i hver af de tre nævnte aspekter. Afhandlingen bidrager på tre punkter. Den viser, at i modsætning til hvad man ville forvente er det kun visse typer usikkerheder, der indregnes som risici, såkald- te pure risks, mens andre typer, impure risks, ekskluderes fra processen, men lever videre i praksis. Afhandlingen forklarer dette med reference til de risikostyrings- værktøjer, der anvendes hertil, da de sætter grænserne for, hvad der kan accepteres som risici, og hvad der ikke kan. For det andet viser afhandlingen, at risikosty- ringsrammeværktøjer ved at skabe visse forståelser af risici og risikostyring ender med at få praksis til at producere de risici, der bekræfter rammeværktøjernes po- stuleringer. Afhandlingen viser endvidere, at der kan opstå situationer, hvor der bliver tvivl om de resultater, som risikostyringen producerer. Dette er en usikker- v hed, som risikostyringen i sig selv producerer. I sådanne situationer kan risikole- delsen begynde med at undersøge de anvendte metoder og derefter igangsætte en mere eller mindre omfattende omdefinering af risikostyringskontrolsystemerne, ri- sikoterminologier og nøglepersoners rolle for på den måde at genetablere praksis. Afhandlingen viser for det tredje, hvordan der på grund af risikostyringspraksis som sådan opstår nye usikkerheder, der udfordrer projektet og risikostyringens målsætninger. Sammenlagt bidrager denne afhandling med at sætte fokus på den måde man laver risikostyring på, samt de effekter dette genererer. vi Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude to Rail Net Denmark (Banedanmark) and es- pecially Jesper Hansen, CEO, and the Signalling Programme Director, Morten Søndergaard, for allowing me into their organisation. Without their visionary out- look I would never have been able to undertake this project. I would also like to express my gratitude to the many employees, external consultants and stakehold- ers at large for letting me follow their intriguing work of risk management throughout the last five years. In particular I would like to thank Lars Frisk from Ramboll Denmark for his unrelenting efforts to invite me to risk meetings, facili- tate new contacts, and for answering all the questions I had along the way. It was his, and their, open-mindedness that made the difference for this project. It is moreover a long and tiresome journey to find one’s way around academia. I have had the very good fortune to have two very competent and engaged supervi- sors to guide my way. I would like to thank Peter Skærbæk, my main supervisor, for his countless numbers of comments on my work. He always kept his door open to me when I was lost and guided me through the long and winding road that led me to this point. I would also like to thank Kjell Tryggestad, my co-supervisor, for his excellent comments on my ideas and research papers along