Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of boxes
- List of figures
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 A psychological framework for analysing risk
- 2 Hazard perception
- 3 Individual and group differences in risk perception
- 4 Decision-making about risks
- 5 Risk and emotion
- 6 Risk communication
- 7 Errors, accidents and emergencies
- 8 Risk and complex organisations
- 9 Social amplification and social representations of risk
- 10 Changing risk responses
- References
- Index
8 - Risk and complex organisations
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 December 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of boxes
- List of figures
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 A psychological framework for analysing risk
- 2 Hazard perception
- 3 Individual and group differences in risk perception
- 4 Decision-making about risks
- 5 Risk and emotion
- 6 Risk communication
- 7 Errors, accidents and emergencies
- 8 Risk and complex organisations
- 9 Social amplification and social representations of risk
- 10 Changing risk responses
- References
- Index
Summary
Chapter preview
Chapter 8 analyses how risk is typically managed by complex organisations. The use of risk mapping and risk registers is explained and the limitations of both methods are examined. Business continuity management processes are described. The concept of safety culture is defined and the methods used to measure it are presented. The way safety culture relates to the occurrence of accidents is summarised and the ways safety culture may be improved are introduced. Aspects of the role of regulatory agencies in the process of risk management are considered. Organisational factors that inhibit effective risk management are considered. The significance of an organisation's ‘risk reputation’ is discussed.
Risk management
The framework for risk management
Risk management is now a major preoccupation of most large or complex organisations. This does not solely refer to the management of hazards that the organisation might create (for example, in the case of a chemical company, the possibility of toxic waste from an incinerator or, for a nuclear power generator, the potential of an off-site release of radiation). It refers also to the management of risks that might damage the organisation itself. These types of risk are diverse. For instance, they might be commercial or market-based, they might be structural and deal with human resources, or they might be financial or technological. It is worth briefly exploring this focus upon risk management in this broader sense.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Psychology of Risk , pp. 196 - 223Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007