Effective risk management in modern industrial organizations in Nigeria

Abstract

Risk exists in all human societies in the form of natural disaster or a result of socio-technical failures, both of which lead to either loss of human life, damage to limb or loss of asset. The paper underscores that in modern and post-modern organizations the importance of perceiving and treating issues in their inter-relatedness and inter-connectedness is imperative in the reduction of incidences of organizational risks. It employed Weber’s Bureaucratic Model as a theoretical framework to explain a widespread specification of tasks, anonymity of rules, circumscribed statuses in organizations, wherein most aspects of modern life are organized. By the nature of bureaucratic organizations, employees are unequivocally exposed to risks at their workplaces, arising from human and technical error. Public inquiries and ‘risk communication’ do not provide sufficient leverage for risk reductions as they lack strong basis on the organizational culture. This paper stresses the need for a safety culture that offers an expository medium for effective risk management, repudiating a unilateral decision by the management, but integrating the employees in policy decisions on health and safety to obtain a consensual opinion on safety management that could be enriched through frequent research and development (R & D).

Keywords: Organizations, Safety, Risk, Culture, Socio-technical, Employees