Incorporating risk communication into business management education

In a turbulent world, business managers increasingly see risk management as a central concern---especially as some familiar risks take on more extreme, 'hyper-risk' forms. Risk management should therefore be a core theme in business management education. Yet tertiary curricula do not typically reflect this importance. Where risk management is studied, it is usually in specialized academic 'silos', such as a course on derivatives and risk. Even less attention is devoted to risk communication as a vital sub-discipline of risk management. Risk communication can help to avert an organizational crisis by lowering the risk to organisations from stakeholder-driven social conflict. It can also help devolve responsibility for risk mitigation by enabling individuals, groups and communities to take appropriate steps to minimize the likelihood that given risks will materialize in actual harm. This paper explores how both risk management and risk communication could be introduced into business management curricula. It then examines risk communication as a particular case, discussing approaches educators could use to teach both its theory and its practice.