Masters Degrees (Information Science)

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Browsing Masters Degrees (Information Science) by Author "Amien, Ishtiaq"

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    Learning from risk : facilitating organisational learning through enterprise risk management
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2014-04) Amien, Ishtiaq; Le Roux, D. C.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Information Science.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Modern business environments are characterized by rapid changes and organizations that are able to survive and to thrive in such environments must be able to adapt and respond to this environmental change. Risk management is an activity that strives to continuously evaluate and deal with changes to the environment. Organisational learning is the capability of organizations to evaluate stimuli from the environment, to interpret the signals and to learn. Organisational learning can thus be seen as the capability to adapt to environmental change. First the thesis considers the concepts of risk and risk management by looking at its historical development as a discipline. The concept is situated in a broader societal perspective of the risk society in which the individual is expected to carry a much greater burden of risk, where self-criticism is an inherent feature of life and risk management is essential for everyone. Current risk management practice has seen the establishment of enterprise-wide risk management as an extension of traditional risk management practice, which seeks to manage all the risks facing the organization, but also to manage it in an integrated manner. Increased regulation and policies, as a result of organizational failures such as Enron, has called for organizations to better manage risk in order to establish more resilient organizations and to protect shareholder value in an increasingly turbulent business environment. As a result we see development of enterprise risk management frameworks and standards. Most of these standards and frameworks recommend similar risk management activities, such as objective and context setting; risk assessment (risk identification, analysis and evaluation); risk treatment or response determination; and risk communication, monitoring and reporting. Next the thesis considers some of the defining features of organizational learning, such as the differences between organizational learning and learning organizations, the individual and organizational perspective on learning, and the role of the individual in organizational learning. Selected organizational learning models are described that focus on scanning, interpreting and learning, and the aspects that have an impact on organizational learning, including organizational memory and mental models, organizational culture, uncertainty and ambiguity, single and double loop learning, and tacit and explicit knowledge. Lastly the thesis identifies points of convergence in theory and practice between enterprise risk management and organizational learning. It is shown that principles and processes governing enterprise risk management activities and techniques can be utilized as management activities to formalise and support organizational learning.