Risk Management - Differences in Use Between Public and Private Organizations. Benchmarking Municipalities from an Enterprise Perspective

Sammanfattning: Purpose: The purpose of the study is to contribute to the knowledge on the use of risk management and especially ERM in different context. More specifically the aim is to find what similarities and differences there are in the use of ERM between public and private sector, as well as to find what variations there are within each sector. Methodology: The method used during this multiple case study, is an inductive approach with a qualitative strategy. Documents from two private organizations and two public organizations have been reviewed, as well as semi-structured interviews conducted with employees in each organization. Theoretical perspectives: For the theoretical perspective framework, the legitimacy theory, stakeholder theory, levers of control and management control systems package has been used. The practical framework mainly consists of internal control and its framework as well as enterprise risk management and its framework. Empirical foundation: The empirical foundation consists of documents and interviews. The results have then been presented in accordance to sector and has further been divided into themes for an accessible overview. Conclusions: An indication was found that despite different conditions and stakeholders, all respondents work with risk management. Further indication show that the definition of ERM is most likely not crucial. Even though the municipalities have several documents clarifying the responsibility of internal control but the responsibility might not be as clear in reality.