Review and discussion of basic concepts and principles in integrated risk management

In recent years there has been an increased focus on risk management in organisations. There is a strong belief that risk management provides the adequate tool for balancing the conflicts inherent in exploring opportunities on the one hand, and avoiding losses, accidents, and disasters, on the other. Different frameworks have been developed to effectively identify, assess and manage risk, and in this paper we review and discuss some of these frameworks including the COSO Enterprise risk management framework and the UK Cabinet office approach. A structure for comparison is suggested, based on an evaluation of concepts and overall philosophy for the risk assessments and management. It is concluded that the basic ideas of the frameworks are quite similar although there are considerable differences in formal definitions.