Through the environmental scan, key external and internal factors and risks influencing an organization's policy and management agenda are identified. Identifying major trends and their variation over time is particularly relevant in providing potential early warnings. Some external factors to be considered for potential risks include:
Political: the influence of international governments and other governing bodies;
Economic: international and national markets, globalization;
Social: major demographic and social trends, level of citizen engagement; and
Technological: new technologies.
Internally, the following factors are considered relevant to the development of an organization's risk profile: the overall management framework; governance and accountability structures; values and ethics; operational work environment; individual and corporate risk management culture and tolerances; existing risk management expertise and practices; human resources capacity; level of transparency required; and local and corporate policies, procedures and processes.
The environmental scan increases the organization'
In assessing internal risk management capacity, the mandate, governance and decision-making structures, planning processes, infrastructure, and human and financial resources are examined from the perspective of risk. The assessment requires an examination of the prevailing risk management culture, risk management processes and practices to determine if adjustments are necessary to deal with the evolving risk environment.
Furthermore, the following factors are considered key in assessing an organization's current risk management capacity: individual factors (knowledge, skills, experience, risk tolerance, propensity to take risk); group fac ...