Maturity of risk management culture

Abstract

Risk management culture is an element of management philosophy in an organization. Private, public and non-profit organisations differ in the objectives pursued while doing their business, but the activity of each of them entails taking and mitigating risks. To maximise the likelihood of reaching the objectives of an organization is essentially the sense of management. Yet, risk can create a threat that the objectives will not be met; therefore, to manage an organisation is to manage risk in such a way as to maximise the likelihood of achieving objectives. In this way, organisations build risk management culture, and, within it, they build such a system where the risk management process will be effective in maximising objectives. The article addresses the problem of building and improving risk management culture. It is part of broader research into the culture of risk management in companies and public organisations in Poland. The research, a basis for analysis and assessment of the maturity of risk management culture, was carried out involving survey questionnaires, free interviews and participant observations. To analyse the results and to assess the maturity of risk management culture in the surveyed organisations a categorization method and the author's risk management culture maturity model were applied.