2 November 2009

Call for papers: Risk Management and Related Standards – the Role of Standards in the Management of Business and Related Risks

A special issue of International Journal of Business Continuity and Risk Management

The IJBCRM goal is to provide an academic and professional forum to develop and disseminate research, practical methods, theories, and experiences in the advancing area of business continuity and risk management. This growing body of knowledge provides a vital lead within organisations in the process of systematic decisions to protect people, assets and operations and ensures the continuation of an organisation following disaster.

Risk standards are one means used by organizations to assure systematic decisions when managing risk. Standards are accepted specifications which define terms, concepts, methods, processes and practices. There is no shortage of standards, codes and guidelines in the area of risk management and the international community has developed many. One of the difficulties, however, is that this large body of information has grown in an uncoordinated manner. Some have argued this divergent growth of standards and guidelines in risk management has resulted in there being no universal approach and terminology that is recognized as the industry standard.

Several of the well known risk management standards include: the risk standard of AIRMIC/ALARM/IRM 2002, the Australian/New Zealand Standard AS/NZS 4360:2004; the Enterprise Risk Management - Integrated Framework, COSO 2004 and the ISO/DIS 31000 International Standard or BSI British Standards - BS 31100:2008. Other standards exist such as the ISO/IEC Guide 73:2002 Risk Management — Vocabulary, the CSA Q 850:1997 Risk Management Guidelines for Decision Makers; the JIS Q 2001:2001 Guidelines for development and implementation of risk management system and the BS 25999-1:2006 Business continuity management Code of practice.

Such standards vary in scope, purpose, perceived benefits, guidelines, principles, frameworks, components, terminology, objective, implementation advice, risk processes, structural recommendations and in adoption, certification and compliance monitoring processes. Standards also vary regarding their primary reason for creation - the thinking behind them.

Adoption of and compliance with a standard requires the allocation of internal or external resources and represents an additional business cost. Standards too can be expensive to implement and to maintain. This may have an impact on the competitiveness of corporations. Companies seeking to implement risk standards must know whether benefits are really worth the costs involved. Whatever their nature, standards and technical regulations will have no effect unless they are properly implemented.

Aside from identifying and establishing the general worth of standards, we might question:
Whether risk specialists and practitioners think in ways that are consistent with the standards?
Are changes needed and if so, what changes are needed and why?
What are the objectives of a risk standard?
What have organizations learned whilst implementing these standards?

Therefore, the aim of this special issue is to clarify the role of risk management and related standards and to assess their impact. Bringing together such a body of knowledge through case studies, research and literature review on topics such as implementation and enterprise risk management, as well as a standards update, will enable practitioners to make immediate improvements to their risk management activities and to plan for the future. The special issue should enable a better understanding of the tools that are available to manage the risks, sharing best practice on how to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of standards. It will also help academics and researchers to ground future work.

Potential authors are invited to submit contributions which evaluate existing risk management standards, critically analyzing their role and contributing to our knowledge of why standards should or should not be adopted. Contributions will also further knowledge concerning the implementation issues of how, where and when such risk management standards might be applied. The goal is to prepare a reference issue that could be of immediate use to those interested in the management of risk and business continuity assurance and the implications of risk standards for business, whether they are academics, practitioners or researchers.

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to:
  • Comparison of standards worldwide
  • Critical evaluation of standards
  • Role of standards in specific branches/industries, e.g. banking, telecomms, healthcare etc.
  • Role of standards in specific functions, e.g. IT/IS risk, operations, project management etc.
  • Frameworks for the management of risk
  • Influence of laws and policy makers
  • Economic performance and business benefits of organizations adopting risk standards
  • Regulation and other drivers for adoption
  • Standards and the regulatory environment
  • Communicating risk standards
  • Case studies on implementation and adoption of risk standards
Important Dates
1-2 page abstract due: 1 February 2010
Notification to authors: 1 March 2010
Submission of manuscripts due: 30 August 2010
Notification to authors: 15 October 2010
Final drafts of papers: 31 December 2010

2 comments:

Dale Ritter said...

In regard to risk management concerning nanotechnical risk assessment, or chemical or electrical risk, the primary issue of strict standards for definition of; atoms, electrons, waves, rays, energy, force, temperature, pressure, or related subjects has recently been put on a valid basis by exact mathematical modeling.

Recent advancements in quantum science have produced the picoyoctometric, 3D, interactive video atomic model imaging function, in terms of chronons and spacons for exact, quantized, relativistic animation. This format returns clear numerical data for a full spectrum of variables. The atom's RQT (relative quantum topological) data point imaging function is built by combination of the relativistic Einstein-Lorenz transform functions for time, mass, and energy with the workon quantized electromagnetic wave equations for frequency and wavelength.

The atom labeled psi (Z) pulsates at the frequency {Nhu=e/h} by cycles of {e=m(c^2)} transformation of nuclear surface mass to forcons with joule values, followed by nuclear force absorption. This radiation process is limited only by spacetime boundaries of {Gravity-Time}, where gravity is the force binding space to psi, forming the GT integral atomic wavefunction. The expression is defined as the series expansion differential of nuclear output rates with quantum symmetry numbers assigned along the progression to give topology to the solutions.

Next, the correlation function for the manifold of internal heat capacity energy particle 3D functions is extracted by rearranging the total internal momentum function to the photon gain rule and integrating it for GT limits. This produces a series of 26 topological waveparticle functions of the five classes; {+Positron, Workon, Thermon, -Electromagneton, Magnemedon}, each the 3D data image of a type of energy intermedon of the 5/2 kT J internal energy cloud, accounting for all of them.

Those 26 energy data values intersect the sizes of the fundamental physical constants: h, h-bar, delta, nuclear magneton, beta magneton, k (series). They quantize atomic dynamics by acting as fulcrum particles. Now an ideal, forensic infotool for risk assessment is found; the result is the picoyoctometric, 3D, interactive video atomic model data point imaging function, responsive to keyboard input of virtual photon gain events by relativistic, quantized shifts of electron, force, and energy field states and positions.



Images of the h-bar magnetic energy waveparticle of ~175 picoyoctometers are available online at http://www.symmecon.com with the complete RQT atomic modeling manual titled The Crystalon Door, copyright TXu1-266-788. TCD conforms to the unopposed motion of disclosure in U.S. District (NM) Court of 04/02/2001 titled The Solution to the Equation of Schrodinger.

Unknown said...

Hi there,

I thought you might like to know about this new Risk Management Standard...

http://infostore.saiglobal.com/store/getpage.aspx?path=/publishing/shop/promotions/ISO_31000:2009_Risk_Management_Principles_and_guidelines.htm

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has developed, for the first time, an invaluable Standard for the effective management of organizational risk - ISO 31000:2009. It is applicable across all industries to any entity implementing organizational objectives which may involve uncertain outcomes.

ISO 31000:2009 gives practical advice on how your organization can develop, implement and improve the way it manages risk. The Standard focuses attention on tackling organizational risk, by identifying and treating both external and internal influences and factors that give rise to that risk. It includes:

* How to integrate and embed risk management
* Principles to more effectively manage risk
* How to improve your current framework and processes

Regards,
______________________

Simon Berglund
Director, Sales and Marketing
Information Services (Asia Pacific)
SAI Global
Phone: +61 (0) 2 8206 6855

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