Public Sector Leadership in Assessing and Addressing Risk explores risk management in practice, focusing on the identification of risks in the European public sector while contextualising its Eurocentric analysis within a global setting; it lays the groundwork for understanding the main philosophical premises of risk management.
Public Sector Leadership in Assessing and Addressing Risk explores risk management in practice, focusing on the identification of risks in the European public sector while contextualising its Eurocentric analysis within a global setting; it lays the groundwork for understanding the main philosophical premises of risk management.
The management of risk is a fundamental purpose of government. Whether risks arise from the physical environment, the economic environment, or even from changes in voter preferences, public institutions have a broad responsibility to assess and address the risks that impact the community they serve and their organisation. Public bodies are operating in a dynamic environment. The imposition of a Best Value regime is forcing them not only to perform more efficiently, effectively and responsively but also to develop best practices and benchmarking criteria to demonstrate their performance. At the same time, the ever-increasing delegation of responsibilities from central government and the European Union has widened their exposure to risk. Public institutions are now encouraged to partner with the private sector and outsource some of their traditionally retained services, generating agency and delegation exposures. In such an environment, controlling the cost of risk has become a real priority. But risk management is not just about preventing losses and reducing costs. Increasingly, risk management is defined as the co-ordinated management of all risks. This definition serves to encompass risk-taking where it serves to meet overall organisational objectives. This broader view of risk management, known as 'organisation risk management,' asserts that risk management is a general management function that permeates an organisation, is linked to the organisation's overall strategic plan, and serves to enable the operational achievement of organisational goals and objectives. Under this frame of reference, risk management is not something a risk management department practices on a public body; but rather an organisational value that informs and supports all managers' and employees' duties and activities. Risk management is a central purpose of public institutions. 'Public Sector Risk Management' addresses the major challenges facing public bodies today and provides the basic tools necessary for implementing a risk management programme. It introduces the subject of risk management through the development of a framework known as 'Organisation Risk Management' (ORM), which establishes the premise of risk management as an organisation-wide endeavour. Readers will learn of the governing concepts and principles of ORM in the public sector, but will also see how those concepts and principles translate into practice. Various ready-to-use tools and techniques are provided, which will enable readers to translate information into immediate use within their organisations. 'Public Sector Risk Management' is ideal for practising risk managers, senior managers, and elected members desiring an accessible, but thorough, introduction to the subject . Provides a comprehensive framework for the management of Public Sector Risk Management Endorsed by The Institute of Risk Management (IRM) and by The Association of Local Authority Risk Managers (ALARM) on their public risk management programs
Conceptualising Risk Assessment and Management across the Public Sector explores concepts and applications of risk across the public sector to aid risk professionals in establishing a clearer understanding of what risk assessment and management is, how it might be unified across sectors, and how and where deviations are needed.
The regulation of potentially hazardous substances has become a controversial issue. This volume evaluates past efforts to develop and use risk assessment guidelines, reviews the experience of regulatory agencies with different administrative arrangements for risk assessment, and evaluates various proposals to modify procedures. The book's conclusions and recommendations can be applied across the entire field of environmental health.
Every decision that is made by managers and policy-makers in a public sector organization requires an evaluation and a judgement of the risks involved. This vital requirement has been recognised in the growth of risk management. However, risks can never be fully prevented, which means that public managers also have to be crisis managers. Today’s crises develop in unseen ways; they escalate rapidly and transform through the interdependencies of modern society, and their frequency is growing: the global financial crisis, the European volcanic ash cloud, the Japanese tsunami and subsequent Fukushima nuclear plant meltdown, the Christchurch earthquake and the Queensland floods. All highlight the extreme challenges that public sector organizations across the world have had to face in recent years. Risk and Crisis Management in the Public Sector Second Edition responds to these challenges by presenting the only guide for public managers and public management students which combines lessons about risk and crisis management together in a single, accessible text. It equips readers and public managers with the knowledge and skills to understand key issues and debates, as well as the capacity to treat risks and better prepare for, respond to and recover from crisis episodes. This exciting new edition enhances the original text with contemporary cases and a greater focus on the international, trans-boundary and multi-agency dimensions of risk and crisis management. These enhancements reflect the fact that today’s public manager must increasingly operate within a global and interdependent governance context.
Sustainability is based on a simple and long-recognized factual premise: Everything that humans require for their survival and well-being depends, directly or indirectly, on the natural environment. The environment provides the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat. Recognizing the importance of sustainability to its work, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been working to create programs and applications in a variety of areas to better incorporate sustainability into decision-making at the agency. To further strengthen the scientific basis for sustainability as it applies to human health and environmental protection, the EPA asked the National Research Council (NRC) to provide a framework for incorporating sustainability into the EPA's principles and decision-making. This framework, Sustainability and the U.S. EPA, provides recommendations for a sustainability approach that both incorporates and goes beyond an approach based on assessing and managing the risks posed by pollutants that has largely shaped environmental policy since the 1980s. Although risk-based methods have led to many successes and remain important tools, the report concludes that they are not adequate to address many of the complex problems that put current and future generations at risk, such as depletion of natural resources, climate change, and loss of biodiversity. Moreover, sophisticated tools are increasingly available to address cross-cutting, complex, and challenging issues that go beyond risk management. The report recommends that EPA formally adopt as its sustainability paradigm the widely used "three pillars" approach, which means considering the environmental, social, and economic impacts of an action or decision. Health should be expressly included in the "social" pillar. EPA should also articulate its vision for sustainability and develop a set of sustainability principles that would underlie all agency policies and programs.
Every decision that is made by managers and policy-makers in a public sector organization requires an evaluation and a judgement of the risks involved. This vital requirement has been recognised in the growth of risk management. However, risks can never be fully prevented, which means that public managers also have to be crisis managers. Today’s crises develop in unseen ways; they escalate rapidly and transform through the interdependencies of modern society, and their frequency is growing: the global financial crisis, the European volcanic ash cloud, the Japanese tsunami and subsequent Fukushima nuclear plant meltdown, the Christchurch earthquake and the Queensland floods. All highlight the extreme challenges that public sector organizations across the world have had to face in recent years. Risk and Crisis Management in the Public Sector Second Edition responds to these challenges by presenting the only guide for public managers and public management students which combines lessons about risk and crisis management together in a single, accessible text. It equips readers and public managers with the knowledge and skills to understand key issues and debates, as well as the capacity to treat risks and better prepare for, respond to and recover from crisis episodes. This exciting new edition enhances the original text with contemporary cases and a greater focus on the international, trans-boundary and multi-agency dimensions of risk and crisis management. These enhancements reflect the fact that today’s public manager must increasingly operate within a global and interdependent governance context.
