Special Issue "Risk Management Trends in Project-Based Organizations"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Engineering and Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2021.

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Konstantinos Kirytopoulos
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Mechanical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Athens 15780, Greece
Interests: project management; risk management; standards development; education

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

With the very recent revision of the risk management standard “ISO31000:2018—Risk Management—Principles and Guidelines” risk management has become a focal point for business and academia. The discipline of risk management, however, has not yet achieved a maturity phase and new processes, approaches and areas of application are continuously explored within engineering disciplines. COVID-19 has significantly affected the operation of engineering, construction, architecture and IT firms and risk management and continuity management plans have proved effective, leading more organisations to seek guidance on the implementation of relevant systems.

On the other hand, risk management provides a typical toolset for fostering the sustainability of organisations and society in general. Nowadays, sustainability is viewed through the lenses of the triple bottom line, that is, sustainable development in environmental, economic and societal terms.

This Special Issue on “Risk Management Trends in Project-Based Organisations” aims to explore and bring out recent developments, new methods, tools and/or application examples (case studies) regarding risk management (including business continuity and crisis management) in the main project-based industries, for instance engineering, construction or information technology, without excluding other project-based industries. The connection of such developments with the sustainability of organisations in any or all aspects of the triple bottom line should be emphasised and will constitute the distinguishing factor of this Special Issue.

Dr. Konstantinos Kirytopoulos
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • risk management
  • continuity management
  • project-based industries
  • construction
  • IT
  • engineering

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

Article
Stakeholders and Risks in Liquified Natural Gas Bunkering Projects: The Hidden Link
Sustainability 2021, 13(15), 8140; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13158140 - 21 Jul 2021
Viewed by 311
Abstract
The importance of stakeholders’ analysis for the effective management of risks in any business sector has been widely recognized and depicted in International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards. This kind of analysis is even more necessary in businesses and organizations dealing with significant [...] Read more.
The importance of stakeholders’ analysis for the effective management of risks in any business sector has been widely recognized and depicted in International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards. This kind of analysis is even more necessary in businesses and organizations dealing with significant technological and market changes, such as the provision and usage of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) as a marine fuel. In the LNG bunkering industry, several methods have been proposed to support risk management. However, they all suffer from an important drawback: they guide risk management mainly to the identification, analysis, and control of potential accidental events within a health and safety or a technical reliability analysis framework, failing to structure the correlation of risks with the actual actors, i.e., the numerous stakeholders whose decisions may influence directly or indirectly the organization’s objectives. This paper presents a method to systematically analyze the role of stakeholders and their ability to pose threats and/or opportunities to an organization. The proposed approach employs the Social Network Analysis (SNA) methodology to model and analyze stakeholder interests, interactions, and relationships that are important to the organization’s objectives. The method is applied in a small-scale LNG bunkering project at a Greek port. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Risk Management Trends in Project-Based Organizations)
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Article
Risk Handling Responsibilities in Tanzanian Project-Based Organisations
Sustainability 2021, 13(14), 8078; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13148078 - 20 Jul 2021
Viewed by 391
Abstract
Risk handling is one of the elements and essential parts of risk management when properly incorporated into a project. However, there is inadequate knowledge amongst the contractual parties on risk handling responsibilities in road projects, particularly in Sub-Saharan African developing countries. This study [...] Read more.
Risk handling is one of the elements and essential parts of risk management when properly incorporated into a project. However, there is inadequate knowledge amongst the contractual parties on risk handling responsibilities in road projects, particularly in Sub-Saharan African developing countries. This study is aimed at bridging that knowledge gap by investigating the perceptions of contractors and consultants on the risk handling responsibilities in road projects in Tanzania. The primary data were collected from 80 registered foreign and local civil contractors and engineering consultants based in Dar es Salaam. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were used for the data analysis. The results show that both contractors and consultants ranked safety project provision and ensuring quality provision in terms of construction as shared risk responsibilities among contractual parties. The findings further show that consultant-related risk responsibilities are: safety provision, the use of historical cost deviation, ensuring quality provision, and review of knowledge on budgeting. On the other hand, contractor-related risk responsibilities include: safety provision and ensuring quality provision. The findings of this study can be used by the practitioners and stakeholders as important lessons useful for controlling risks and making decisions when they intend to participate in such projects during the construction stage. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Risk Management Trends in Project-Based Organizations)
Article
Game Theory-Based Minimization of the Ostracism Risk in Construction Companies
Sustainability 2021, 13(12), 6545; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13126545 - 08 Jun 2021
Viewed by 597
Abstract
Strategic and managemerial decision-making in an organization can have a crucial effect for the whole entity; however, it rarely involves the organization’s employees evenly at the different organizational levels. The result is—what is addressed in this paper as—the ostracism risk, namely the risk [...] Read more.
Strategic and managemerial decision-making in an organization can have a crucial effect for the whole entity; however, it rarely involves the organization’s employees evenly at the different organizational levels. The result is—what is addressed in this paper as—the ostracism risk, namely the risk accruing from the lack of satisfaction of underprivileged employees’ groups during the decision-making process. The ostracism risk could jeopardize the organization’s integrity and therefore requires effective treatment. This paper aims at verifying a conceptual approach, which is proposed as a methodology for assessing the probability of organizational cooperation when deciding under risk, thus minimizing ostracism risk. The proposed approach is based on organizational and human resources management (HRM) theories and is contextualized for construction through the understanding of systems theory. The proposed methodology presents a potential modelling via game theory of a medium-sized construction company that is organized according to Mintzberg’s organizational model. The utilization of the bounded Pareto distribution is presented as an approach of the model’s probabilistic processing, and the potential for estimating the probabilities to adopt a favorable cooperational decision is verified. The paper concludes with the reference to the next steps required for the methodology’s validation and further improvement. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Risk Management Trends in Project-Based Organizations)
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