Risk management is critical for government agencies

Successfully managing risk in government agencies allows policy makers and government managers to establish the sound policies and organizational cohesion required to mitigate risks and increase agency productivity. Faced with the challenges of widespread budget cuts, political turmoil, and increased scrutiny from congressional committees and oversight bodies, government leaders must embrace and implement sound risk management practices to avoid potentially embarrassing missteps and the erosion of public trust.

Managing Risk and Performance: A Guide for Government Decision Makers is a comprehensive professional resource that will inform and empower you to:

• Understand and appreciate the need for sound risk management by Government Decision Makers
• Consider and assess the major types of risk that could prevent your agency from achieving its mission
• Build a risk management process and agency protocols that help stakeholders understand the nature of risk-reward tradeoffs and their consequences in major decisions

This book directly addresses the unique obstacles faced by government agencies in attempting to identify, assess, and ultimately mitigate the vast and disparate risks that threaten them. Stanton and Webster bring their decades of collective government agency and private sector risk management experience to the fore and provide you with real-world insights and instructions for successful risk management within government agencies. The four main sections of the book address critical risk management concepts as they specifically apply to government agencies, including:

• Building a risk management team that bridges silos within an organization
• Understanding Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) for government agencies
• Government risk management in times of crisis
• Risk management successes and failures from the financial crisis

Managing Risk and Performance: A Guide for Government Decision Makers is intended to help readers build and cultivate the necessary risk management strategies before, rather than after, their agencies experience a potentially painful lesson.