Integrating Risk Management Framework in Collections Care: A Strategic Approach
CIMUSET Conference Paper — May 2025
Overview
Risk management in collections care is often treated as a technical requirement rather than a decision-making system. This paper examines how risk frameworks can be integrated into organisational priorities, governance, and accountability, particularly in contexts where resources are constrained and there are no ideal options.
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Abstract
This paper examines how risk management frameworks can be integrated into collections care as a strategic decision-support system, rather than treated as a standalone technical exercise. Drawing on practice-based experience across museums, libraries, archives, and historic houses, it argues that many organisations adopt risk methods in principle while priorities and resourcing remain reactive, fragmented, or driven by implicit values. As a result, risks are identified without clear agreement on trade-offs, thresholds, or responsibility.
The paper positions risk management as a means of clarifying what matters most, why it matters, and who is accountable for deciding—especially under constraint: limited staffing, ageing buildings, competing expectations, and decisions with ethical and reputational consequences. It distinguishes “risk tools” from “risk thinking,” showing that registers, matrices, and scoring systems only become useful when embedded in governance, planning cycles, project controls, and emergency arrangements.
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Using a Positive Organisational Psychology lens, the paper explores how pressure, uncertainty, and organisational context shape judgement in collections care. It highlights cognitive load, role ambiguity, moral pressure, and social dynamics that influence decisions during emergencies, major conservation or relocation projects, and periods of change. Rather than proposing a universal model, it recommends context-sensitive implementation: align risk language with objectives, agree decision thresholds, link mitigation to budgets and work programmes, and review choices over time. The paper concludes that effective integration is primarily a leadership and governance task: risk frameworks succeed when they make priorities, responsibilities, and trade-offs visible—and support sustainable practice.
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Citation
Vince, A. (2025). Integrating Risk Management Framework in Collections Care: A Strategic Approach. Paper presented at the CIMUSET Conference, May 2025.
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