ABSTRACT
Experience in the private sector indicates that organizations with effective risk management approaches demonstrate strong leadership and integrate risk management throughout the culture and structure of the organization (Marsh and Noonan 2005). Within agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security and law enforcement, the experience with innovations such as community policing and problem-oriented policing suggests a tendency for organizational resistance and the isolation of risk management responsibilities into “innovation ghettos” (Toch and Grant 1991). Yet, the isolation of risk management to particular units or particular levels of government will inhibit the information gathering, intelligence analysis and sharing, and preparedness processes necessary to address the threats posed by terrorism. Additional organizational challenges, identified by the National Research Council’s Committee on Risk Characterization, emerge from the tendencies for organizations to let down their guard against low probability risks and to operate sub-optimally in crisis situations (Stern and Fineberg 1996).
