IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/riskan/v32y2012i9p1547-1560.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Integrating a Top‐Down and a Bottom‐Up Approach: Formal and Informal Risk‐Handling Strategies in a Utility Company

Author

Listed:
  • Peter Mascini
  • Yannis Bacharias

Abstract

In this study, we bring together a top‐down and a bottom‐up approach of risk handling. We do so by conceptualizing and qualitatively and quantitatively measuring formal and informal risk‐handling strategies in a Dutch utility company. We conceive of formal risk handling as regulating, training, and educating safety and enforcing rule compliance, while we distinguish three different informal risk‐handling strategies: discretionary specialization, tacit knowledge, and taking personal responsibility. We show that the formal risk‐handling strategy and the three informal risk‐handling strategies can be measured separately. Hence, we have validated the measurement of all four strategies derived from two different risk‐handling approaches. Moreover, we have demonstrated that the perceived use of the four strategies has different effects on unsafe behavior: formal risk handling and tacit knowledge decrease it, discretion increases it, and taking personal responsibility has no effect on unsafe behavior.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Mascini & Yannis Bacharias, 2012. "Integrating a Top‐Down and a Bottom‐Up Approach: Formal and Informal Risk‐Handling Strategies in a Utility Company," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(9), pages 1547-1560, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:riskan:v:32:y:2012:i:9:p:1547-1560
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1539-6924.2011.01778.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1539-6924.2011.01778.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1539-6924.2011.01778.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Adcock, Robert & Collier, David, 2001. "Measurement Validity: A Shared Standard for Qualitative and Quantitative Research," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 95(3), pages 529-546, September.
    2. Johan M. Sanne, 2008. "Framing risks in a safety-critical and hazardous job: risk-taking as responsibility in railway maintenance," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(5), pages 645-658, July.
    3. Kathryn Mearns & Sean M. Whitaker & Rhona Flin, 2001. "Benchmarking Safety Climate in Hazardous Environments: A Longitudinal, Interorganizational Approach," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(4), pages 771-786, August.
    4. Bourrier, Mathilde, 2005. "The Contribution of Organizational Design to Safety," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 98-104, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Schakel, Arjan Hille, 2009. "A Postfunctionalist Theory of Regional Government," MPRA Paper 21596, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Vedant Singh & Anita Verma, 2019. "Influence of respondent type on relationships between safety climate and safety performance in manufacturing firm," Journal of Risk and Reliability, , vol. 233(2), pages 268-284, April.
    3. Zim Nwokora & Riccardo Pelizzo, 2017. "Measuring Party System Change: A Systems Perspective," Research Africa Network Working Papers 17/048, Research Africa Network (RAN).
    4. Gustav Lidén, 2013. "What about theory? The consequences on a widened perspective of social theory," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 213-225, January.
    5. Malte Luebker, 2019. "Can the Structure of Inequality Explain Fiscal Redistribution? Revisiting the Social Affinity Hypothesis," LIS Working papers 762, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    6. J. C. Sharman, 2007. "Rationalist and Constructivist Perspectives on Reputation," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 55(1), pages 20-37, March.
    7. Jørgen Møller, 2016. "Composite and Loose Concepts, Historical Analogies, and the Logic of Control in Comparative Historical Analysis," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 45(4), pages 651-677, November.
    8. Nora Lustig, 2013. "Commitment to Equity: Diagnostic Questionnaire," Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Working Paper Series 02, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    9. Nuno Garoupa & Rok Spruk, 2024. "Measuring Political Institutions in the Long Run: A Latent Variable Analysis of Political Regimes, 1810–2018," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 173(3), pages 867-914, July.
    10. Muhammad Nabeel Siddiqui, 2013. "Impact Of Work Life Conflict On Employee Performance," Far East Journal of Psychology and Business, Far East Research Centre, vol. 12(3), pages 26-40, September.
    11. Liesbet Hooghe & Gary Marks, 2015. "Delegation and pooling in international organizations," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 10(3), pages 305-328, September.
    12. Jose Antonio Alonso & Ana Luiza Cortez & Stephan Klasen, 2014. "LDC and other country groupings: How useful are current approaches to classify countries in a more hetergeneous developing world?," CDP Background Papers 021, United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs.
    13. Jacint Jordana & Xavier Fernández‐i‐Marín & Andrea C. Bianculli, 2018. "Agency proliferation and the globalization of the regulatory state: Introducing a data set on the institutional features of regulatory agencies," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 12(4), pages 524-540, December.
    14. Vanessa Alexandra Boese & Matthew Charles Wilson, 2023. "Contestation and participation: Concepts, measurement, and inference," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 26(2), pages 89-106, June.
    15. Willem E. Saris & André Pirralha & Diana Zavala-Rojas, 2018. "Testing the Comparability of Different Types of Social Indicators Across Groups," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 135(3), pages 927-939, February.
    16. Reader, Tom W. & Gillespie, Alex, 2023. "Developing a battery of measures for unobtrusive indicators of organisational culture: a research note," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 115776, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    17. Anete Veidemane & Frans Kaiser & Daniela Craciun, 2021. "Inclusive Higher Education Access for Underrepresented Groups: It Matters, But How Can Universities Measure It?," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(3), pages 44-57.
    18. Svend-Erik Skaaning, 2018. "Different Types of Data and the Validity of Democracy Measures," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 6(1), pages 105-116.
    19. Maria J. Debre & Hylke Dijkstra, 2023. "Are international organisations in decline? An absolute and relative perspective on institutional change," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 14(1), pages 16-30, February.
    20. Todd Landman, 2018. "Democracy and Human Rights: Concepts, Measures, and Relationships," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 6(1), pages 48-59.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:riskan:v:32:y:2012:i:9:p:1547-1560. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1539-6924 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.