BBA 4226, Risk Management 1
Course Learning Outcomes for Unit II
Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:
1. Examine the elements of the risk management process.
1.1 Illustrate the use of the risk management process.
2. Analyze the parameters used to categorize risks.
2.1 Categorize risks based on specific parameters.
Course/Unit
Learning Outcomes
Learning Activity
1.1 Unit II Scholarly Activity
2.1
Chapter 3
Unit II Lesson
Unit II Scholarly Activity
Reading Assignment

Chapter 3: Risk
Unit Lesson
We live in interesting and uncertain times, and they are only
going to become more complex and risky as the
future unfolds. Individuals and organizations must adapt to an
increasingly uncertain environment in order to
identify, mitigate, and survive potential damaging risks. Often,
when we think of corporate risks, we think of
natural disasters (e.g., earthquakes and tornados) or even man-
made disasters (e.g., fires or attacks such as
the one on September 11, 2001, an oil spill such as the one
caused by BP in the Gulf of Mexico, or
information technology (IT) security breaches). Yet, we tend to
forget man-made disasters such as the
financial crisis of 2008, which is considered one of the worst
global financial crises of all time because of its
ripple effect around the world. We also tend to overlook
disruptions in the supply chain of corporations that
could be equally distressing to a company’s survival. Because
of the interconnectedness of the world, an
interruption of supplies in one side of the world can have very
disruptive and lasting negative effects in
another side.
In today’s economy, many risks have an effect around the
world. Thus, it is critical that corporations and
governments implement risk management strategies. First,
however, let’s start with defining what risks are all
about.
Risk

Risk is defined as the probability and consequence of not
achieving a specific goal. As an example, can the
project be completed within budget? Risk is the probability of
loss or the expectation of an unfavorable
outcome as a result of a particular action. Risk is really a
measure of future uncertainties or the combination
of an event occurring and the consequences of that event.
Newsome (2014) noted that there are different
standards of risk definitions but settled on risks as the
“changes, effects, and consequences” of an event’s
potential returns (p. 25). Thus, risk is associated with all future
adverse outcomes of an action.
A good description of risks facilitates the understanding,
identification, and analysis of risks (Newsome, 2014).
A detailed risk definition and description is the first step to
identifying risks. An example of a structured
standardized version of risk description is depicted in Table 3.2
on page 29 of your textbook.
UNIT II STUDY GUIDE
Risk
BBA 4226, Risk Management 2
UNIT x STUDY GUIDE
Title

Components of Risk
Risks have three main components: 1) A future cause (yet to
take place), that if corrected prevents a probable
consequence from occurring, 2) risk as a probability of a
potential undesirable event occurring, and 3) the
consequence of the potential future event. A future (not yet
identifiable) root cause is the main reason for the
presence of risk. Risks should not be confused with issues; if a
root cause has already been identified in the
past tense, then it has already occurred. Therefore, it is an issue
to be resolved, but it is not a risk.
Risks are undesirable occurrences that have not yet taken place.
Newsome (2014) provides a formula for risk
that mathematically is represented as risk being the product of
probability (p) and return (R) or consequence,
giving us risk as risk = p x R. Depending on the definition of
risk, another well-known conceptual risk
representation can be defined as a function of uncertainty and
loss (damage) denoted by the equation risk =
(event, uncertainty, damage). Therefore, as uncertainty and
damage increase, so does risk.
Another element of risk is the cause of risk. The presence or
absence of something introduces or causes a
risk. The awareness of the hazard (something) minimizes the
danger of it. As an example, a pothole in the
road presents a greater danger to the unware driver than the
driver who is aware of the hole’s existence and
drives around it. This leads to another conceptual equation of
risk as risk = (hazard, safeguard). For this
course, we will use the broader more accepted definition of risk
as risk = (Probability of an event) times the
(Consequences of an event). This simplified equation evaluates

risk in terms of two distinct elements: 1) the
likelihood that an event will occur and 2) the consequences or
effect of the occurrence of the event.
Analysis of Probability and Consequence
An analysis of risk probability and the consequences of that risk
can be illustrated by estimating the likelihood
of each of the risks occurring in an event. Pinto (2016)
recommended that a risk impact analysis matrix be
used to identify risks prioritized according to the probability of
occurrence. The matrix, shown below, also
depicts the potential consequences of the event. Probability
combined with consequence can provide a better
sense of overall impact to a project.
The fundamental reason to use a risk matrix is to develop a
better sense of urgency and priority when
addressing potential risk events. Further, a risk matrix helps in
identifying the types of risks that are more
relevant to the success of an endeavor. High risks, those falling
into the high probability and high
consequence quadrant combination, can then adequately be
given priority in the contingency planning when
CORE CONCEPTS
Risk as function of probability and consequence of an event
represented by the equation:
Risk = (Probability of Event) x (Consequences of Event)

BBA 4226, Risk Management 3
UNIT x STUDY GUIDE
Title
executing a project. We will be covering the use and advantages
of using a risk matrix to mitigate risks in
future units.
Risks Identification
Most literature on risk management uses “risk analysis and risk
assessment” as an umbrella that includes
both risk identification and risk analysis. For this course, we
will first concentrate on the definition of risk. Risk
analysis helps in identifying and calculating the potential
consequences of risks, but before a risk can be
analyzed or assessed, it must be identified. The goal of risk
identification is to be able to answer the question:
“What can go wrong?” As an example, a given project risk
identification can be initiated by answering the
following questions:
supplier, operational employment, resources,
and dependencies?
itoring results, specifically
failures?

against expectations?
In most activities or projects, risk identification is the process
of examining each element to identify the
potential root causes. Risk identification should begin as early
as possible in any future activity and
throughout the lifecycle of any endeavor. As this course
progresses, we will review risk analysis and
assessment leading to the risk management process model
(RMPM).
Summary
As the course progresses, we will examine risks in more detail
along with qualitative and quantitative
techniques to assist us in the proper assessment of risks. Other
tools are available to calculate risk and its
elements, including the different combinations of probability
and consequence. While there are many
approaches on risk analysis, assessment, and mitigation, we will
concentrate on the business and general
concepts of risk management.
References
Newsome, B. (2014). A practical introduction to security and
risk management. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Pinto, J. K. (2016). Project management: Achieving competitive
advantage (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Pearson.

2
Presentation of the Findings
Whistleblower incentives and protection has become a
significant issue of concern in the field of finance. Many
organizations are unable to address unethical practices
effectively as a result of lack of adequate whistleblower
incentives and protection. This section presents the findings
obtained after conducting the study. Various themes that
emerged from the findings are discussed in detail. Sample of

quotation from the respondents are also included to highlight
the themes that have been discovered. In addition, a discussion
of how the findings relate to the research questions, anticipated
themes and the literature is provided. Finally, a summary
capturing the main points of the sections is provided.
Overview of Themes Discovered
Three themes were discovered from the findings of the study
including ethical leadership, mutual trust, and social welfare.
The respondents indicated that ethical leadership is an
important factor in ensuring employees do not engage in
corruption or unethical practices in the organization. The
findings also indicate that mutual trust must be developed in the
finance department to ensure that leaders do not micromanage
staff members. Micro-management has its negative effects and
may encourage employees to engage in unethical practices when
the supervisor is not around. The findings also indicate that by
promoting ethical practices in the organization, it is possible to
achieve social justice and welfare in the society.
Discussion of Themes
Ethical Leadership
Most of the participants indicate that the organization has
not developed effective policies and procedures for whistle
blower incentives and protection. This has made it difficult for
whistle blowers in the finance department to be compensated. In
addition, most employees in the department have information
concerning unethical behaviors but cannot report because they
are afraid that they may be victimized. This is particularly true
in cases where the suspects hold senior positions in the
department. One of the respondents claimed that “personally I
have information concerning a staff member in this department
who has been engaging in corruption, but I cannot give the
information as I can get victimized”. This highlights how the
leadership of the department and the organization has failed.

Mutual Trust
The findings of this study indicate that the leadership of
the finance departments and staff members do not trust each
other. As a result, the leaders as supervisors are closely
monitoring what the employees are doing. However, since the
department has many employees, it is difficult for supervisors
to pay close attention to what each employee is doing. This
gives an opportunity to some employees to engage in unethical
practices. One of the participants said; “employees do not
believe that their seniors will protect them once they give
details about an unethical behavior. In addition, they are
hesitant to do so because they will gain nothing from doing so”.
This clearly shows lack of mutual trust has negative impacts on
whistle blowing in the organization.
Social Welfare
The participants indicated that the organization has lost a
lot of financial resources and profitability as a result of
unethical practices. These resources could have been used to
improve the welfare of the society. However, it is not possible
for these to be achieved as whistleblowers who should report
malpractices in the department are not well protected. The
finance department has not developed any strategies to help
provide whistleblowers incentives and protection. One of the
respondents claimed that “some people holding senior position
in this department engage in unethical practices and as a result
do not want to promote policies that support whistleblower
incentives and protection”. It is difficult to achieve social
justice without providing whistle blower incentives and
protection.
Qualitative analysis and results
From the responses provided by the participants, finance
departments do not provide adequate incentives and protection
for whistleblowers. This makes it difficult for them to reports
employees who engage in corruptions and other unethical
behaviors. Some employees indicated that they had critical

information concerning unethical behaviors in the department.
However, they would not disclose it because they are afraid of
being victimized. The responses also indicate that the
management does not provide whistleblower incentives and
protection because some of managers are involved in unethical
practices.
Analysis and results for Triangulation
Interpretivist was the method of triangulation that was
used in this study. Since data was obtain from interview and
questionnaires, two analyses were conducted. The first analysis
was based on the exiting theoretical information that is
available for reviews while the second analysis was conducted
to deduce crucial information from the interviews and the
specific case study. After conducting triangulations, it was
observed that the responses obtained through interviews were
consistent with those obtained from questionnaires.
Relationship to Findings
The Research questions
RQ1
The findings of this study indicate that whistleblowers
play a crucial role of exposing corruption and other unethical
practices within organizations. Failure to provide adequate
whistleblowers incentives and protection makes it difficult for
them to assume their roles and this result in increased unethical
practices in the organization.
RQ2
The findings of this study are closely related to this
research question as they indicate the various types of incentive
including financial incentives and protection. The findings
therefore attempt to answer this question and provide insights to
area that the organization needs to improve to reduce unethical
practices in the finance department.
RQ3
The findings have indicated that the reasons as to why the
organization and particularly the finance department does not
provide adequate whistleblowers incentives and protection is

because some of the senior individuals engage in unethical
behaviors. As a result, they discourage whistleblowers from
exposing these activities.
RQ4
The findings of the study are closely related to this
research question because they provide insights on the impacts
of Whistleblower legislations in the organization. The
organization has inadequate whistleblower legislations that have
not been reviewed for a long period of time. However, the
problem is mainly in the implementation because there is no
framework to ensure whistleblowers are protected and
compensated.
The Research Framework
The problem being addressed in this study is the lack of
adequate whistleblower incentives in the financial department
resulting in increase of unethical practices. The findings of the
study are closely related to this problem because they highli ght
the causes of inadequate whistleblower incentives and outline
the roles that whistleblowers should play in curbing these
practices. The purpose of this study was to strategies that can be
utilized to implement incentives and protection laws in finance
departments. The findings of the study have explored some of
the strategies that finance departments in the banking sector can
adopt to minimize the impacts of unethical behaviors.
Anticipated Themes
The anticipated themes for this study have been clearl y
reflected in the findings. Three themes including ethical
leadership, mutual trust, and social welfare were anticipated
before the start of the study. All these themes have been
discovered in the findings. The responses provided by the
participants linked the lack of adequate whistleblower
incentives and protection to unethical leadership. Similarly,
lack of mutual trust has been found to be a key factor in the
failure of the organization to provide whistleblower incentives
and protection. On the other hand, the findings indicated that
poor reporting of corruption in the finance department promotes

unethical behaviors that result in the theme of social welfare.
There are no new themes that emerged during the study.
Literature
The findings of this study are closely related with the
literature. In the literature sections, previous studies indicated
that mutual trust and poor leadership are the factors that affect
whistleblowing. The findings of these study have validated
these suggestions by coming up with detailed explanations from
the responses of the study participants. Various other concepts
introduced in the literature section have been validated by the
findings.
Summary of the Findings
In summary, the findings of this study indicate that
whistleblowers fail to report corruption and other unethical
practices in the finance department because of the lack of
whistleblower incentives and protection. Whistleblowers play a
significant role in address unethical behaviors in the finance
department by exposing such scandals. The findings also
indicate incentives and protection encourage whistle blowing
among staff members in the finance department. The finance
department in Bank ABC has failed to provide these incentives
and protection to whistleblowers because senior individuals in
the department are involved in unethical behaviors.