Risk Management Practices in Six Organizations in the Government of Canada

Abstract

This thesis is an exploratory study that measured the alignment of corporate risk management practices in six organizations in the Government of Canada with best practices described in the 2009 ISO 31000, as well as five independent variables believed to influence risk management practices in an organization. The objective was to determine if risk management practices vary from one organization to another in a single government, and if so why, as well as building a number of testable hypotheses for future research. The thesis found that risk management practices do vary significantly from one organization to another. It also found that there is a strong correlation between an organization’s budget, total workforce and the policy instruments it uses, and the alignment of its corporate risk management practices with ISO 31000:2009. This study furthers our understanding of how risk management is implemented in public sector organizations.