Prof Michael Power KSW.3.12 and Dr Tommaso Palermo KSW.3.07

This course is available on the CEMS Exchange, Global MSc in Management, Global MSc in Management (CEMS MiM), Global MSc in Management (MBA Exchange), MBA Exchange, MPA Dual Degree (LSE and Columbia), MPA Dual Degree (LSE and Hertie), MPA Dual Degree (LSE and NUS), MPA Dual Degree (LSE and Sciences Po), MPA Dual Degree (LSE and Tokyo), MPA in International Development, MPA in Public Policy and Management, MPA in Public and Economic Policy, MPA in Public and Social Policy, MPA in Social Impact, MPhil/PhD in Accounting, MSc in Accounting and Finance, MSc in Economy, Risk and Society , MSc in Law and Accounting, MSc in Public Administration and Government (LSE and Peking University), MSc in Public Policy and Administration, MSc in Risk and Finance and Master of Public Administration. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

Other students may be admitted only with the agreement, in writing, of the MSc (Accounting) Course Tutor.

This is an advanced course focusing on the organisational and institutional settings within which risk is managed.

On the one hand, the course explores the intersections of risk and corporate governance, by focusing on the risks that arise at top management and board of directors level, including lack of external oversight, executive pay issues, board interlocks, and strategic irreversibility. The course deals, on the other hand, with key issues in organisational responses to risk and uncertainty, including the impact of disasters and accidents and the growing formalisation and standardisation of risk management practice. The overall purpose of the course is to provide students with a critical appreciation of the management of risk as an organisational and social process. The course is necessarily cross-disciplinary, drawing on scholarship within accounting, organisational sociology and regulation studies.

33 hours of seminars in the LT.

Two pieces of written work will be assessed during the term but the grades will not count towards the overall course assessment.

No single book covers the entire course. Key readings include: Bebchuk & Fried, Pay Without Performance (Harvard, 2004); Coffee, Gatekeepers: The Professions and Corporate Governance (Oxford, 2006); Hutter & Power (eds) Organizational Encounters with Risk, (Cambridge, 2005); Power, Organized Uncertainty: Designing a World of Risk Management (Oxford, 2007); Turner & Pidgeon, Man-Made Disasters, (Butterworth/Heinemann, 1997); Vaughan, The Challenger Launch Decision, (Chicago, 1997); Short & Clarke (eds) Organizations, Uncertainties and Risks (Westview, 1992); Weick & Sutcliffe, Managing the Unexpected: Assuring High Performance in an Age of Complexity (Jossey-Bass, 2007).

Exam (100%, duration: 2 hours) in the summer exam period.