Assessing the impact of project atmosphere and leaders on risk management in chaotic environments

Abstract

Risk management is one of the most important activities in organizations and has been widely investigated by researchers. Predate studies generally focused on various reasons of risk and similarly on various tools and methodologies for risk mitigation. Although existing risk related researches cover most of the affecting parameters of risk, they ignore the influence of the atmosphere and the role of the leaders in affirming it. This study defines atmosphere as an umbrella concept to explain the total result of all constructive and destructive attitudes of project stakeholders. The impact of the atmosphere and the role of a leader have become more critical especially in chaotic environments. This study proposes both conceptual and analytical tools for the assessment of project atmosphere and determines roles for leaders from the perspective of risk management. The authors coin this methodology as “atmosphere management” and bottom line the leaders’ vital role in the success of projects especially under conditions of high complexity and chaos.