Understanding and Managing Risk Attitude

Despite many years of development, risk management remains problematic for the majority of organizations. The common root problem is the human dimension, in other words, people. Risk management processes and techniques are operated by people, each of whom is a complex individual, influenced by many different factors. And the problem is compounded by the fact that most risk management involves people working in groups, which introduces further layers of complexity through relationships and group dynamics.

David Hillson's and Ruth Murray-Webster's Understanding and Managing Risk Attitude will help you understand the human aspects of risk management and to manage proactively the influence of human behaviour on the risk process. The authors introduce a range of models, perspectives and examples to define and detail the range of possible risk attitudes; looking both at individuals and groups. Using leading-edge thinking on self-awareness and emotional literacy they develop a powerful approach to address the most common shortfall in current risk management: the failure to manage the human aspects of the process.

All this is presented in a practical and applied framework, rather than as a theoretical or academic treatise, based on the authors' shared experiences and expertise, rather than empirical research.

Anyone involved in implementing risk management will benefit from this book, including risk practitioners, senior managers and directors responsible for corporate governance, project managers and their teams. It is also essential reading for HR professionals and others interested in organizational or behavioural psychology.

• The Problem: Risk management status quo - efficient but not effective?
• The importance of human factors in risk management
• Risk Attitudes: General principles of risk attitudes
• Individual risk attitudes and heuristics
• Group risk attitudes and heuristics
• Emotional literacy: Emotion - definition and relevance
• Emotional literacy for individuals
• Emotional literacy for groups
• Implementation Issues: Applying emotional literacy to risk attitudes
• Final thoughts and the way ahead
• Appendix 1: EI tools
• References
• Index.