ENTERPRISE RISK MANAGEMENT AT QATAR'S CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

Abstract

Lately, enterprise risk management (ERM) is an emerging topic, which has attracted the worldwide attention. All organizations around the world recognize the importance of risk management regardless of their size or industry as it has been a response to the volatile environment. The Government of Qatar has recognized the importance of risk management and some of the ministries have applied risk management principles in their organizations. Because of the multitude in their operations, construction firms are prime candidates for ERM adoption. Although there is an increased number of studies on risk management around the world, limited studies have strived to provide an understanding of the implementation of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) in the construction industry. This research investigates and provides an understanding of ERM implementation in the Qatari construction industry. This research tries to investigate the existing level of ERM in the Qatari construction industry. In addition, the research investigates the criteria that affect the ERM implementation and the factors that drive or hinder the ERM implementation in Qatar. By using a survey as the main data collection method, almost 80 construction companies have responded. The results reported a medium-level overall the ERM maturity in these companies. In addition, a total of 16 important maturity criteria and 64 applicable ERM best practices were identified and included in the survey questionnaire. The research found that 14 drivers and 32 hindrances had significantly positive and negative influence on ERM implementation in the construction companies in Qatar. The research has reviewed the literature and adapted the proposed ERM framework by Zhao proposes in his book on ERM in International construction operations. Since few studies have discussed the ERM implementation in construction firms in the Gulf region, this study is a pioneering contribution to the current literature of the ERM in Qatar’s construction Industry.