Crisis Management Initiatives and Contingency Planning competencies within the Kazakhstani companies to mitigate the risks and uncertainty

Abstract

The current diploma research work examines the crisis/risk management and contingency planning competences as well as effectiveness among the Kazakhstani enterprises. The mixed research methodology including quantitative and qualitative methods was applied to investigate the current state of risk management practices and contingency planning activities. Overall 74 complete survey responses and five interviews were collected. The research findings demonstrated that implementation of the crisis/risk management and contingency planning practices have gained considerable attention by the companies in recent years, which was mainly dictated by the political, social and economic factors. Moreover, it was found that risk reporting effectiveness as well as risk investigation, control and monitoring were weak. Also, employee risk awareness and training, employee engagement in risk management practices, training of new employees about potential risks, employee responsibility in risk management and employee risk perception levels were weak in selected companies. In addition, it was found that the main risk factor for Kazakhstani companies was economic factors. Interview findings demonstrated that risk management and contingency planning practices were influenced by the firm-specific and industry-specific factors. Based on the results of the research several recommendations have been made on to develop required competencies in achieving effective risk management and contingency planning practices.