Harnessing psychological science and AI to improve culture and risk in organisations

RESEARCH

Based at LSE, we harness advances in psychological science, digital textual data, and AI to study how organisations can develop resilient cultures that are good at managing risk and coping with uncertainty

Our research has been published in leading scientific journals, funded by research councils, foundations, and corporations, and led to demonstrated impact in industries such as healthcare, aviation, and finance

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Understanding culture

We conceptualise organisational culture in terms of patterns of thought and behaviour that are common and persistent in organisations, and guided by the norms and values that employees share and the design of workplace environments. Our research uses advanced quantitative and qualitative methods and AI to develop theory and empirically establish how culture drives the successful management of risk and uncertainty high-hazard domains and situations (e.g., in healthcare, finance, aviation, energy, manufacturing).

Assessing Culture

Our research aims to create a paradigm shift in culture assessment. We investigate how digital textual data sources (e.g., documents, employee feedback, consumer complaints, transcribed speeches, online discourse) coupled with AI-algorithms can make organisational culture truly visible, with analyses being situated in everyday words and actions, and using real-time measurements that provide quantitative and qualitative insight on the norms and behaviours that shape risk outcomes.

Changing culture

We conceptualise culture as something that must be led and designed: it is created not only by communication and role modelling, but by the development of social structures, institutional processes, and organisational systems that guide how people think and act. Taking a a social psychology and human factors design perspective, our research focuses on utilising new technologies to generate data and create interventions that change norms and behaviours for managing risk in organisations.