Development of a Pandemic Residual Risk Assessment Tool for Building Organizational Resilience within Polish Enterprises

Abstract

The purpose of the research paper was to develop a universal residual risk assessment tool based on the use of risk control measures related to Covid-19 in order to determine the state of organizational resilience of individual industries or organizations. The article proposes and analyzes a pandemic residual risk assessment tool, which is a simple and universal source for residual risk estimation based on a five-step consequence/probability matrix, a five-step hierarchy of risk controls, and a general formula for calculating residual risk. The methodology of the survey is based on a questionnaire with 16 questions used for the initial validation of the residual risk scale, of which six related to the potential of organizational resilience. The pilot survey was conducted in 66 enterprises in Poland. On the basis of the survey, four measures related to the use of control measures against threats after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic have been proposed. These are personal protective equipment (PPE) controls, administrative controls, engineering controls, and substitution controls. Using the survey results, we estimated averages of the response results, and, on their basis, we estimated the residual risks for individual types of enterprises according to the type of business and its size. Based on the calculations, a strong correlation was found between the potential of organizational resilience and the individual use of control measures. Therefore, the main finding of the survey proves that effective risk management builds organizational resilience in enterprises. The practical implications of the study allow the management staff to find out what aspects related to the use of control measures need to be paid attention to in order to minimize residual risk.