How to Measure Risk Culture in Australian Superannuation Funds

In financial services these days, there is increasing interest in the concept of ‘risk culture.’ Risk culture has been identified as a dimension of organisational culture which is important for encouraging desirable risk management behaviour in the workplace and ultimately for producing both better organisational and customer/member outcomes in the financial services industry. Using a valid and reliable scale is very important when conducting surveys; an invalid measure may not measure what it purports to measure and therefore may mislead. The Macquarie University Risk Culture Scale is a set of 18 survey items initially developed for assessing risk culture in banks. The scale has now been validated for use in superannuation (pension) funds. This paper explains the validation process, giving confidence to those wishing to assess risk culture.