Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Working Knowledge
Business Research for Business Leaders
  • Browse All Articles
  • Popular Articles
  • Cold Call Podcasts
  • About Us
  • Leadership
  • Marketing
  • Finance
  • Management
  • Entrepreneurship
  • All Topics...
  • Topics
    • COVID-19
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Finance
    • Gender
    • Globalization
    • Leadership
    • Management
    • Negotiation
    • Social Enterprise
    • Strategy
  • Sections
    • Book
    • Cold Call Podcast
    • HBS Case
    • In Practice
    • Lessons from the Classroom
    • Op-Ed
    • Research & Ideas
    • Research Event
    • Sharpening Your Skills
    • What Do You Think?
    • Working Paper Summaries
  • Browse All
    • COVID-19 Business Impact Center
      COVID-19 Business Impact Center
      How Do Risk Managers Become Influential? A Field Study of Toolmaking and Expertise in Two Financial Institutions
      03 May 2011Working Paper Summaries

      How Do Risk Managers Become Influential? A Field Study of Toolmaking and Expertise in Two Financial Institutions

      by Matthew Hall, Anette Mikes and Yuval Millo
      Most organizations have technical experts on staff—accountants, finance professionals, internal auditors, risk managers-but not all experts are listened to at higher levels. To understand how expert influence on strategic thinking can be increased, Matthew Hall, Anette Mikes, and Yuval Millo followed the organizational transformation of risk experts in two large UK banks. One transformation was successful, the other not. Are your experts merely "box-tickers," or are they influential "frame-makers"? Key concepts include:
      • In the first bank, the transformation of the role of experts was a movement from tacit knowledge, communicable person-to-person, to tools-mediated, highly communicable knowledge that was evident from a variety of organizational documents, practices, and technologies, and embedded in the organization's decision-making processes.
      • These transformed experts, called frame-makers, avoided detaching themselves completely from the resulting knowledge and maintained a high degree of personal involvement in producing analysis and interpretation while participating in executive decision-making.
      • While toolmakers may be successful in becoming frame-makers they might also fall into one of three less influential roles: box-ticker, disconnected technician, or ad hoc advisor.
      • The second bank saw a struggle between conflicting risk management worldviews, which ultimately divided the risk function, and prevented the risk managers from reaching the influential role of frame-makers.
      LinkedIn
      Email

      Author Abstract

      In this study, we examine transformations in the influence of risk managers in two large UK banks over a period of five years. Our analysis highlights that a process we term toolmaking, whereby experts adopt, adjust, and reconfigure tools that embody their expertise, is central to the way in which the risk managers in our study attempt to gather influence in their organizations. Based on our longitudinal field study, we identify two dimensions that help to explain the organizational influence of experts: their ability to (a) incorporate their expertise into highly communicable tools and (b) develop a personal involvement in the deployment and interpretation of those tools in important decision-making forums. Based on the different combinations of these two processes, we distinguish analytically among four clusters of actions and tools-those of the compliance expert, the technical champion, the trusted advisor, and the engaged toolmaker-and explain the dynamics of expert influence as risk managers adopt different practices. Our empirical findings and theoretical framework contribute to our understanding of the nature of expert influence and how risk managers may become influential.

      Paper Information

      • Full Working Paper Text
      • Working Paper Publication Date: January 2011 (Revised January 2013)
      • HBS Working Paper Number: 11-068
      • Faculty Unit(s): Accounting and Management
        Trending
          • 25 Feb 2019
          • Research & Ideas

          How Gender Stereotypes Kill a Woman’s Self-Confidence

          • 24 Oct 2016
          • Research & Ideas

          Bernie Madoff Explains Himself

          • 08 Mar 2021
          • In Practice

          COVID Killed the Traditional Workplace. What Should Companies Do Now?

          • 14 Apr 2021
          • Research & Ideas

          The High Cost of the Slow COVID Vaccine Rollout

          • 17 May 2017
          • Research & Ideas

          Minorities Who 'Whiten' Job Resumes Get More Interviews

      Find Related Articles
      • Organizational Design
      • Banking
      • Europe

      Sign up for our weekly newsletter

      Interested in improving your business? Learn about fresh research and ideas from Harvard Business School faculty.
      ǁ
      Campus Map
      Harvard Business School Working Knowledge
      Baker Library | Bloomberg Center
      Soldiers Field
      Boston, MA 02163
      Email: Editor-in-Chief
      →Map & Directions
      →More Contact Information
      • Make a Gift
      • Site Map
      • Jobs
      • Harvard University
      • Trademarks
      • Policies
      • Digital Accessibility
      Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College