ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the role of the human element in managing risks and crises especially in the context of the shipping industry. It provides an overview of risk and crisis management, reviews the concept of risk and its characteristics and discusses risk management fundamentals and steps. The chapter presents an analysis on the organisation's most valuable resource – employees – which is the common thread across the management of risks, business continuity and crises. The emerging models for risk management are integrating how leaders think about risk with how they manage their businesses and are designed to monitor how risk management provides value. Risk management should not be conducted alone without the incorporation of business continuity management, which uses some steps of risk management as the inputs, because an organisation's ultimate goal is to sustain its business operations during and after a materialised risk.
