How do risk managers become influential?

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 toolmake--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.