Business Continuity Management - Risk Management - Essay Example

There are generally two types of risks that businesses face, the first is the risk of natural calamities and the second is the entrepreneurial risk. Here we are going to discuss the second type of risk factors of Royal Bank of Scotland. The second risk is the risk associated with the business functions, operations and the strategic decisions of the management. The concept of enterprise risk management arises in this scenario. Enterprise risk management is the process that affects the board of directors and other top level management of the organisation (Sadgrove, 2005, p. 3). The enterprise risk management process includes identification of and management of the risks that arises within the organisation.

Enterprise risk management has many significant benefits, but at the same time few limitations also exists. It is many depended on the judgment of the human resource (Casualty Actuarial Society, 2003). So this signifies that if the human resource that is the employees or the management commits errors, then that might affect the measures taken for risk measurement. Apart from this, clash of decisions or view points between two individuals might also result in overriding the decisions of the management (Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission, 2004, p.5). The Business continuity management strategies is the core business function of any organisation for understanding the risk and also for designing the risk assessment measures.

Business Continuity management helps the management to identify the difference between the problems and the risks. Crisis management and crisis communication are also involved in business continuity management because the risk faced by the organisations is generally for sudden crisis situations. Crisis is basically the unstable situations that may take place related to political, economical or social affair. So crisis management deals with management of risk of uncertainties. Business continuity policies or plans involve the utilisation of resources to eliminate or transfer the risk that the organisations face during crisis situations (Blyth, 2009, Crisis Management).

The process of risk management should be continuous and effective. It is the function of the business continuity management process to address the risk factors and understand the type of risks or crisis that the organisation is facing or about to face. This study would also deal with organisational crisis situations of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). It is one of the renowned banks in the world. RBS had a strong culture for risk management and controlling the activities for financial strength. The RBS was literally brought to its knees by the top level management of the organisation.

The report of the Financial Services Authorities (FSA) stated that the crisis of the organisation was due to the deficiencies of the management and the organisational environment and culture of RBS before the crisis. The policies were liberal and they were not even revised for the betterment of the organisation (Barkho, 2011, p. 44). Crisis Management and Crisis Communication Crisis management and crisis communication are often used as interchangeable words in organisations, but there is little distinction between these two events.

The crisis management basically deals with the reality part of any crisis that occurs in the organisation, while crisis communicat