Risk Management in an Educational Center - Case Study Example

Task Date Name Risk management in a Educational Centre Introduction This paper aims at health related hazards that are likely to occur in the finly’s (appendix A has the organization structure). The problem surmounts from the dangerous traffic flow between the offices and the classes considering the proximity of both to each other. The basic overview of the environment in which the risks are likely to occur will be hence discussed. Finly’s educational center fondly referred to by the locals as the finly’s located within the city center. This means that there is quite a huge traffic that flows within and without the educational center. The number of staff within the institution is approximately 100 and the student population is 2000. Looking at this population and reading from previous statistics, it has escalated to some unprecedented levels as the traffic flow into and out of offices and classes is quite huge. As the institution is located in the city center, there are three major houses that are located by the main entrances where also the traffic to and from the institution have a lot of traffic. In between the classes and the offices, there are various feeder roads that connect the two and also the other departments that are within the institution. The pedestrian crossings are located in the most important crossing points which are within the institutions’ most frequented classes. This paper will begin by a highlight of the risk management processes and consequentially an outline of the processes that will be undertaken so as to tackle the risk management process. These processes will have to entail detailed data collection so as to come up with the best procedure and automatically the best conclusion. The paper will then assess the risks in terms of how frequent the incidences or the likelihood of the incidences will or have occurred. This can be inferred from the casualties and the misses. The risk assessment procedures involved will rank, analyze and assess the potential consequences available. In the risk control stage, the paper will seek to get ways in which to control the accidents from happening. There will be an in depth analysis of how the risks will be controlled such that the accidents will be highly unlikely to happen (Coombs, 2006). This can be through the use of various highway rules. The next phase will be the assignation of responsibilities and the implementation of control measures that will have to be out rolled so o control such accidents from happening. In this phase of risk management, the paper will explain how the processes will be adapted. In the end, the risk management process will be implemented and the essay concluded (Barton, 2007). The conclusion will be an overview of the findings and the probable measures that will prevent the occurrence of accident within finly’s institution and in most cases along the pedestrian paths which are the most vulnerable. Hazard identification The chief reason of this stage of the paper is to determine the probability of occurrence of accidents within finly’s college. Despite the fact that there has not been a single reported case, the issue of near misses has been raising worries within the institution. The main source of this information has mainly been rumors so a thorough investigation is of great essence. From some of the findings, there is a great flow of people between the various buildings within the institution. The problem arises from the separation of some of these buildings with each there as you will find some of them separated by major highways and roads. This has caused a major health and safety issue in the institution. Further inside investigation into the institution showed that the major problem is the observance of the highway rules along the pedestrian crossing by both the drivers and the pedestrians. The markings on the roads are not up to the mark and also there has been a traffic lighting problem which has affected control of the two subjects. A further look also showed evidently that some students tend to rush to classes once they discover that they are late and end up not properly observing the traffic thus creating commotions. The WHS management can gather some relevant information from surveying the employees from various departments n the severity of the accident probability. This will help the WHS from avoiding dependence on rumors as he can get help from the witnesses and the victims also. Such data can be collected by distributing questionnaires to the employees and also conducting random interviews from within the institution and at times from the environment just outside the campus. This ascertains credible inferences are made before making any decisions (Borodzicz, 2005). Such an issue can badly affect the business in the institution. Owing to the presence of human and vehicle traffic within this institution, the probability of a collision between man and car is very possible. This will not only lead to a loss of life but will lead to a tainting of the institution’s name and also cause fear and panic to the students and staff and also to the general public. Risk assessment This is the second step in risk management which follows the identification of the risk. According to Gordon (2004), risk assessment is ‘the evaluation of the likelihood a potential hazard will actually cause harm, while also taking into account the frequency of exposure and severity of outcomes’. This means that the management of finly’s must keep in mind that they have the obligation of keeping their students safe from accidents at all costs. There are various approaches that the management can follow. Some of the probable risk management approaches are possible to out roll though others can be a bit tricky or at the same time impossible. This depends on various factors like the available resources and also the severity of the risk. This means that finly’s must intervene in the proper way in order to manage the risks that are likely to happen. In connection to this they should consider the probability of harm which is the probability o the risk occurring due to its presence. Martin (2004) has it that ‘It is important to note workplace hazards vary considerably across organizations in terms of their potential to cause death, injury or disease’. Due to the fact that there will never cease to be a traffic flow in the organization and also that the people involved will ever need to go to the various departments within the institution, then there need to be a comprehensive analysis of the situation so as to try the as best as possible to ground the risk. In this assessment, it was found out that there was a tendency of rush-hour problems which was during the start of classes and switching of classes. Some other problem was during the near closure of offices which led to the tendency of many students having to avoid thinking of the traffic risk and ignoring some rules. The severity of this happening is quite high and therefore very highly rated. The other problem is due to speeding motorists. Though low a speeding motorist has a very great likelihood of causing severe accidents as they are less probable to observe the traffic rules (Moffet, 2010). It therefore means that the probability of an accident happening is very high and relevant measures should be thus taken. Risk control This is the third step in the risk management process. It involves the measures which are to be taken by the management so as to eradicate are at least manage the probability of pedestrian and motor accidents happening within finly’s. The measures which are to be applied in the first place have to be cost effective and in a hierarchical order depending on the findings of the assessment. In observing the matter, the main problem lies in the pedestrian crossing and thus first steps should be taken there. The pedestrian crossings should be clearly repainted to avoid further occurrence of such incidents. The normal black and white colors should be very bright and observable from a distance. This will make them clearly observable by the drivers and the other people and so decrease the accident occurrences. Despite this, the students should undergo workshops on the necessity to observe the traffic rules as it is evident that it is impossible for human to compete with machine. One more step that can be taken is the erection of road bumps in the areas which are more prevent to get severe accidents (Hopkin, 2005). Erection of bumps forces the drivers to slow down and so the probability of accidents happening really goes down. In the roads also, there needs to be traffic lights just before the heavily populated traffic lights as this will enhance that the traffic is controlled on both sides. This can be a very effective way where the busy hours are observed so as to make sure that no side feels pressed by the action (Ulmer, 2006). Implementing the control strategies/ assigning responsibilities This is the main part of the process as it involves putting into action what has been gotten from the work that has been done. In this area there will be assumptions that the management of the institution accepted all the remedies that were discussed as the control measures. The WHS is responsible for this factor of implementation according to the hierarchy. In the assignment of responsibilities, the top level management will be responsible for identifying the key areas that are most hit by the problem. After this is done proper workforce should be hired and the work started (Altemeyer, 2004). Supervisors will be responsible for ensuring that all the work that has been assigned to a particular company is going well and finished on the stipulated time. The human traffic which includes the students and the staff will be advised to keep off the working areas and alternative routes assigned. Risk monitoring Once the control measures are over, the WHS should keep into account the progress of the work. This can be through collection of data from the people involved in the traffic sessions and also interviewing the community on the success of the project. It is wise to write a report after a certain period of time so as to keep track of process (Alexander, 2005). This process will have helped to prevent traffic accidents and the learning atmosphere within the institution will have been improved. Conclusion This paper was concerned on the risk management approach to decreasing the probable risks that would have occurred at the finly’s educational institution. The described risks which had caused a health and safety scare in the institution have been assessed from the five steps involved and at the end a constructive method of reducing or grounding the risks has been deployed. This processes are briefly identification of the hazard which was the probable collisions, assessment of the risks within the institution which was due to the rush, control measures to be undertaken which involved erection of bumps and repairing of the pedestrian crossings, implementation where the necessary responsibilities were awarded to various people and the work implemented and lastly the monitoring of the success or failure. If the processes described are consistently followed, then it means that the security standard of finly’s will be safe for every one. References Alexander, Carol and Sheedy, Elizabeth (2005). The Professional Risk Managers' Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide to Current Theory and Best Practices. PRMIA Publications. Altemeyer, Lynn (2004). An Assessment of Texas State Government: Implementation of Enterprise Risk Management, Applied Research Project. Texas State University. Barton, L. (2007). Crisis leadership now: A real-world guide to preparing for threats, disaster, sabotage, and scandal. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Borodzicz, Edward P. (2005). Risk, Crisis and Security Management. West Sussex, England: John Wiley and Sons Ltd. Coombs, W. T. (2006). Code Red in the Boardroom: Crisis Management as Organizational DNA. Westport, CT: Praeger. Gorrod, Martin (2004). Risk Management Systems : Technology Trends (Finance and Capital Markets). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Hopkin, Paul (2010). Fundamentals of Risk Management: Kogan-Page Moteff, John (2005) Risk Management and Critical Infrastructure Protection: Assessing, Integrating, and Managing Threats, Vulnerabilities and Consequences. Washington DC: Congressional Research Service. (Report). Stoneburner, Gary; Goguen, Alice and Feringa, Alexis (July 2002) (PDF). Risk Management Guide for Information Technology Systems. Gaithersburg, MD: National Institute of Standards and Technology. Ulmer, R. R.; Sellnow, T. L., & Seeger, M. W. (2006). Effective crisis communication: Moving from crisis to opportunity. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Appendix A Centennial college Centennial College is an institution of tertiary learning which is located at the heart of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The institution which is composed of four campuses ranges from 1966. The institution has a staff capacity of over 100 members who are located within and without the institution. The college is highly culturally diverse where you find over 80 spoken languages in the campus. For reasons based on this paper alone, it is assumed that the college which has over 20, 000 students pursuing various course has about 2000 students and only 100 staff members. The purpose of the study is for the WHS to come up with a well laid out procedure on the health and safety issues which are as a result of the dilapidated state of the pedestrian crossings which are within the institution and also the viable nature of the high accident probability. For quite some time now the state of these college pedestrian crossings has been wanting and the various genres of people within this community have been affecting them so much. This is due to the various unreported probable accident which are caused by the non visible crossings by motorists and alls by constant rush by student and staff as they try to connect to the offices and the classes. The staff of this institution led by the WHS has the initiative of raising the health and the safety concerns by ascertaining that the student population is safe and sound at any one time. Another obligation is to make sure that the students do not miss their lectures or such kind of excuses blaming the dilapidation of the institution. The paper will lastly assume that there is a major highway which passes in between the institution as it is located within the city center. The purpose of this highway is to increase the vulnerability of the students and the staff as they commute between the lecture halls and the offices. The highway does not have an effective security system to ensure the safety of the students. Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Campus: urban Affiliations: CCAA, ACCC, AUCC, CBIE Website: www.centennialcollege.ca/ Appendix B Accident Risk Identification: tick 1(checklist form) Proximity of major road: near/far Number of pedestrian crossings: few/many Human traffic: light/heavy Motor traffic: light/heavy NB: This form is due to the management alone. Appendix C Accident probability index 10: inevitable 9: almost certain 8: very likely 7: probable 6: more than even chance 5: even chance 4: less than even chance 3: improbable 2: very improbable 1: impossible Read More