An in-depth analysis of organizational risk management in health care, and in particular the concepts of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM), has identified a five part model that can be used by Canadian health care leaders as an evidence supported approach to successful organizational risk management. The Model for Organizational Risk Management has been developed as a basis for linking the components of an ERM framework into a Canadian health organization in order to overcome the barriers that commonly disrupt strategic risk management. The Model addresses how an ERM framework can fit within an existing health organization by building off of and enhancing existing processes and resources in order to ensure familiarity, acceptance, and sustainability of the risk management program. By approaching the Model in a stepwise fashion (based on individual organizational context) health care leaders are provided with a roadmap from which to advance their own organizational risk management program.

An in-depth analysis of organizational risk management in health care, and in particular the concepts of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM), has identified a five part model that can be used by Canadian health care leaders as an evidence supported approach to successful organizational risk management. The Model for Organizational Risk Management has been developed as a basis for linking the components of an ERM framework into a Canadian health organization in order to overcome the barriers that commonly disrupt strategic risk management. The Model addresses how an ERM framework can fit within an existing health organization by building off of and enhancing existing processes and resources in order to ensure familiarity, acceptance, and sustainability of the risk management program. By approaching the Model in a stepwise fashion (based on individual organizational context) health care leaders are provided with a roadmap from which to advance their own organizational risk management program.

The study focuses on tariff-linked (or commodity-linked) agreements entered into between a power utility and commodity producers. The main purpose of these types of agreements is to link electricity tariff payable by commodity producers to the price of the commodity produced thereby transferring a certain level of commodity price risk to the power utility. The study looks at risk management practices of a power utility company with a particular reference to tariff-linked agreements. Also, the study critically analyses risk hedging mechanisms put in place by the power utility. The report makes practical recommendations, where applicable, in dealing with these risks. Risk management continuously evolve to meet the challenges of complex financial world. Despite the latest sophisticated risk management tools available commodity producers still encounter difficulties to hedge the price risk. The challenge for the power utility is the application of new risk management tools to effectively manage price risk. / Business Management / M.Com. (Business Economics)

This diploma thesis "Methods of risk aggregation on financial markets" introduces all kinds of risk that are present on the financial markets. In the first part there are explained the ways and methods of measurement of these risks. Next there are shown the methods of aggregation of credit, market and operational risks. One of these methods are copula functions which are constructed in practical part of this thesis.

It has been suggested that projects in the construction industry are subject to risks more than other industries. However, there is often little parity in allocation of risks in the construction industry. Usually, project participants allocate risks by aversion where owners tend to shift risks to the primary contractor, who in turn transfers them to the subcontractors. As a result of this, risks are not necessarily allocated/ re-allocated to the party that is best able to manage them efficiently and effectively. Risk allocation can significantly influence the behavior of the project participants and hence affects project schedule, cost and performance. Inappropriate risk allocation has led to adversarial relationships between contracting participants and has consequently increased project cost. The objective of this dissertation is to shed light on the current practices of risk allocation in the construction industry. The dissertation consists of three sections. The first section investigates and evaluates the problems of the current practice of risks allocation and their impacts on project performance. The second section investigates, identifies, and classifies barriers to optimal risk allocation. The third section looks into allocating construction risk from a more cooperative and rational perspective. The goal is to provide the construction industry with a rational decision-making mechanism that will provide an alternative to the current practice of typically allocating risks by aversion. To meet the objectives, structured survey questionnaires for Sections One and Two were used. The first survey found that the current practice of risk allocation has four major problems. These problems include: 1. Dispute, claims and tension leads to adversarial relationships. 2. Competitive relationship leads to aggressive relationships. 3. Subjective pricing of risk leading to higher contingency. 4. Allocation by aversion that leads to misallocation of risks. The second survey found thirteen barriers to optimal risk allocation, which were classified into three main categories: behavioral, technical, and organizational barriers. Lack of an efficient risk allocation mechanism ranks at the top of the identified barriers. These findings were linked, in causal-effects relationships, to formulate an analytic model for the current practice of risk allocation. This dissertation uses the research findings and the rational decision-making process to develop a practical mechanism for optimizing risk allocation. The developed mechanism was then fine-tuned and validated by a Delphi expert panel technique. The developed mechanism should aid construction industry professionals and construction project participants in making rational and economical risk allocation decisions to alleviate the identified above-mentioned problems, overcome the identified barriers, and improve project efficiency by minimizing the negative impacts of the current practice of risk allocation on project cost, schedule and overall project performance. / Graduation date: 2013 / Access restricted to the OSU Community at author's request from Jan. 4, 2013 - July 4, 2013

The study focuses on tariff-linked (or commodity-linked) agreements entered into between a power utility and commodity producers. The main purpose of these types of agreements is to link electricity tariff payable by commodity producers to the price of the commodity produced thereby transferring a certain level of commodity price risk to the power utility. The study looks at risk management practices of a power utility company with a particular reference to tariff-linked agreements. Also, the study critically analyses risk hedging mechanisms put in place by the power utility. The report makes practical recommendations, where applicable, in dealing with these risks. Risk management continuously evolve to meet the challenges of complex financial world. Despite the latest sophisticated risk management tools available commodity producers still encounter difficulties to hedge the price risk. The challenge for the power utility is the application of new risk management tools to effectively manage price risk. / Business Management / M.Com. (Business Economics)

The economic development in Sweden in recent years has led to increased financial savings in Swedish households. Financial savings have mostly increased on bank accounts with low interest rates, since private individuals generally have a more cautious position on stocks and stock trading. The reason for this passive position is believed to be due to the fact that decisions that benefit most economically often challenge the feeling of being in control. At the same time, cautious position that a particular individual possess is affected by the risk-tolerance. As a consequence, the risk tolerance of private individuals affects the investment decision and hence the development of the stock market. Savings and investment are two important factors that affect a nation's economic growth, which makes it important to study underlying factors to what affects an individual when making a financial decision. When talking about risk tolerance in everyday life, previous research has revealed that there are four different aspects that affect this complex concept, namely the economic aspect, physical aspect, social aspect and ethical aspect. As investment decisions are affected by financial risk tolerance and the four aspects in turn, affect risk tolerance, the issue becomes how these aspects affect a private investor's financial risk tolerance when investing in stocks. The purpose of this study has been to explain the four aspects of a person’s risk tolerance when investing in stocks. The study has been conducted using a quantitative method and deductive approach. The selection group that the study turned to is Swedish stock investors and the data collection has been done by a survey that was answered by 232 people. The underlying factors for the four aspects tested in the study are income, gender, age, education, marital status and ethical character. The study shows that all four aspects together have a combined impact on private individuals' financial risk tolerance. The study has also shown that all the four aspects, each one separately, are linked to financial risk tolerance, by the underlying factors, income level, gender, marital status and ethical character. / De senaste årens ekonomiska utveckling i Sverige har lett till ett ökat finansiellt sparande i de svenska hushållen. Detta sparande har mestadels ökat på bankkonton med låga räntor då privatpersoner i allmänhet har ett mer försiktigt ställningstagande till aktie och börshandel. Anledningen till detta passiva ställningstagande tros bero på att beslut som gynnar mest ekonomiskt ofta utmanar känslan av att ha kontroll. Samtidigt påverkas ställningstagandet av den risktoleransnivå som en viss individ besitter. Följden av detta blir att privatpersoners risktolerans påverkar investeringsbeslutet och därmed även utvecklingen av aktiemarknaden. Sparande och investering är två viktiga faktorer som påverkar en nations ekonomiska tillväxt vilket gör det viktigt att studera bakomliggande faktorer till vad som påverkar en privatperson när ett finansiellt beslut ska tas. När det pratas om risktolerans i vardagslivet har tidigare forskning delgett att det finns fyra olika aspekter som påverkar detta komplexa begrepp, nämligen den ekonomiska aspekten, fysiska aspekten, sociala aspekten och etiska aspekten. Då investeringsbeslut påverkas av den finansiella risktoleransen och risktoleransen i sin tur påverkas av de fyra aspekterna blir problemfrågan hur dessa aspekter påverkar en privatpersons finansiella risktolerans vid investering i aktier.  Syftet med denna studie har varit att förklara de fyra aspekterna för privatpersoners finansiella risktolerans vid aktieinvestering. Studien har genomförts med hjälp av en kvantitativ metod och deduktiv ansats. Den urvalsgrupp som studien vänt sig till är svenska aktieinvesterare och datainsamlingen har gjorts med hjälp av en enkätundersökning som besvarats av 232 personer.  De bakomliggande faktorerna för de fyra aspekterna som har testats i studien är inkomst, kön, ålder, utbildning, civilstånd och etisk karaktär. Studien visar att alla fyra aspekter tillsammans har sammantagen påverkan på privatpersoners finansiella risktolerans. Studien har även visat att alla de fyra aspekterna har en koppling till den finansiella risktoleransen, var och en för sig, genom de underliggande faktorerna inkomstnivå, kön, civilstånd och etisk karaktär.

In a country like Ethiopia, where information and communication systems are in the early stage of development, software projects may face several challenges. Projects may suffer from schedule or budget overrun or unmet specifications, leading to failure. Risk is one of the factors that challenges project performance, and even causes failure. Hence, risk management helps project managers to control the effect of risks. However, risk management appears to be the least practiced component of project management. This study aims at assessing the risk management practice in the Ethiopian software projects. This study was undertaken using a survey conducted on 45 banks, insurance companies and UN agency offices in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The findings of the study suggest that formal risk management is not widely practiced in Ethiopian software projects. Only 16% of organisations reported that they applied one or more documented formal risk management techniques. Overall, 67% of organisations were found to exercise one or more risk management process steps. Though the risk management practice was found to be reasonably high, the proportion of organisations that carry out all the risk management process phases, through formal or informal methods, was only 27%, showing that risk management practice in Ethiopia cannot be considered adequate. The study thus recommends that Ethiopian software project managers should give more emphasis for risk management in their project management. The risk items that Ethiopian software projects face most were found to be technical complexity risks, with the highest risk item being use of new technology. This may be an indication that project managers should give adequate attention to the risks arising from technical complexity. No statistically significant relationship was observed between formal risk management and project success, and also between risk management practice and project success. / College of Engineering, Science and Technology / M.Sc. (Computing)

Research in risk awareness has been relatively neglected in the health informatics literature, which tends largely to examine project managers’ perspectives of risk awareness; very few studies explicitly address the perspectives held by senior executives such as directors. Another limitation evident in the current risk literature is that studies are often based on American data and/or they are restricted to American culture. Both factors highlight the need to examine how senior executives (i.e., directors) who oversee or direct eHealth projects in Canada perceive risk awareness. This research explores and discusses the perspectives of risk awareness (i.e., identification, analysis, and prioritization) held by directors and project managers who implement Canadian eHealth projects. Semi-structured interviews with nine directors and project managers uncovered six key distinctions in these two groups’ awareness of risk. First, all project managers valued transparency over anonymity, whereas directors believed that an anonymous reporting system for communicating risks had merit. Secondly, most directors emphasized the importance of evidence-based planning and decision making when balancing risks and opportunities, an aspect none of the project managers voiced. Thirdly, while project managers noted that the level of risk tolerance may evolve from being risk-averse to risk-neutral, directors believed that risk tolerance evolved toward risk-seeking. Directors also noted the importance of employing risk officers, a view that was not shared by project managers. Directors also believed the risk of too little end-user engagement and change management was the most important risk, whereas project managers ranked it as the least important. Finally, when directors and project managers were asked to identify and define the root cause(s) of eHealth risks, directors identified the complexity of health care industry, while project managers attributed it to political pressure and a lack of resources where eHealth projects are concerned. This research proposes that the varied perspectives of risk awareness held by directors and project managers must be considered and integrated to properly align expectations and build partnerships for successful eHealth project outcomes. Understanding risk awareness offers a means to systematically identify and analyze the complex nature of eHealth projects by embracing uncertainties, thereby enabling forward thinking (i.e., staying one step ahead of risks) and the ability to prevent avoidable risks and seize opportunities. / Graduate / 0723 / 0489 / 0454 / randbpark@gmail.com

The influx of youth abusing substances is a major problem. The effect of substance abuse may have far-reaching consequences for defining the vulnerability of the offending group as well as for contributing to the disaster risk faced by the community as a whole. The effects of substance abuse on young people have the potential to contribute to an increased vulnerability of this group. It becomes the responsibility of the family and community to bear the burden of its drug-afflicted members and the implications of their addiction. The study was conducted in Bekkersdal, which is a community that has a significant problem with youth abusing substances. The degree to which their abuse affects families and the broader community in terms of increasing risk has not been examined. The dissertation aims to evaluate the effect of substance abuse among the youth on the risk profile of the Bekkersdal community. According to Disaster Risk Reduction, one of the important activities of the state is to increase capacity of communities and households to minimize the risk that may occur and also most importantly, monitoring the likelihood of and the state of alertness to disasters that may occur. A qualitative, explorative research design was employed and data gathered using structured interviews involving 30 adults namely School Principals, Teachers, Community Social workers, Community Leaders, Religious Leaders, Disaster managers and a Nurse from the area. The interviews were analysed by means of themes. The research indicated that substance-abusing youth create conditions which undermine human, physical and social capital and hence contribute to instability in the livelihood-based system. It was also evident to this research that it encourages the importance of engaging community members in discussions about aspects that concern them which is an empowerment process in itself. As they become more involved, they also have hope that things will work better for them by actively rebuilding their own lives and communities. All the information gathered revealed the link between the negative impacts of substance abuse and its risk profile in the Bekkersdal community. / M Development and Management, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015