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This paper examines the management of risk in a large public sector organization. Accounting research on “new” risk management in the public sector has focused on how formal risk management systems emerge through a top–down approach, primarily driven by external demands. Our study contributes to this body of work by detailing the emergence and operation of vernacular risk management systems, that is, systems self‐generated by organizational actors in the context of their work and not officially sanctioned within the organizational hierarchy (cf., Kilfoyle, Richardson & MacDonald, 2013). In this, we theorize how such systems interact with formal risk management systems, thereby also contributing to other disciplines such as crisis management and project management. Drawing on Fischer and Ferlie (2013), we detail how several vernacular systems co‐exist and have different interaction modes with the formal risk management system, and consider how these modes of interaction also change over time. Finally, our results highlight the link between the operation of “new” risk management and inter‐organizational relationships, demonstrating that such relationships can be an important asset to build on in risk management work.

This paper traces the evolution of risk management practices in a global technology company between 2000 and 2015. We extend recent research that has highlighted the emotional aspects of riskwork. We detail how a passionate interest—‘we can do better at risk management’—emotionally ‘hooked’ the staff in the company's Sourcing Unit. Risk management, emotion, and management controls were intertwined. When top management singled out one of the key metrics clearly as a risk‐related metric for the Sourcing Unit, the employees felt a strong sense of relief, which gave rise to subsequent extensive risk measurement. We also contribute to the more general debate about accounting and its entanglement with emotions. Little is known about the ‘birth’ and the reasons for durability of passionate interests. Following Tarde (1903/2013), such ‘birth’ and endurance can be explained by analyzing how passionate imitation emerges as a result of a series of dislocal events—in our case a fire, new performance metrics, and natural disasters. These events triggered emotions that provided the necessary energy for three forms of passionate imitation: a) ‘we need to imitate our main competitor’ and risk mapping; b) ‘others in the organization are imitating us and our suppliers should imitate us’ and risk measurement; and c) ‘others in the organization (more specifically the Product Development Unit) should imitate us’ and proactive risk avoidance. This passionate imitation helped explain why the sourcing staff continued to be emotionally ‘hooked’ to risk management, that is, how the passionate interest endured and became vested.

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