Towards sustainable development: risk management for organizational security

Controlling risk and skilful planning of the continuity of the organization’s operation positively influences the value of the organization, its image and the ability to achieve the planned goals in the economic, social and environmental dimensions. This article presents risk management as a determinant of the implementation of sustainable development assumptions in an organization. The process consisting of: identification and analysis of stakeholders, setting partial goals and relations between the key perspectives of the organization’s functioning (legal, economic, social and environmental), risk identification, its measurement, regulation, monitoring and control contributes to the improvement of the organization’s safety. Thanks to the focus on the concept of sustainability, organizations manage risk in a systematic manner. One of the basic assumptions of the “triple bottom line” concept is the organization’s focus on economic goals, i.e. profit maximization. The second foundation is focusing on the human aspect in the organization and achieving goals under the assumption of corporate social responsibility. The third is to focus on environmental goals and eco-efficiency. The aim of the research was to identify critical variables for improving risk management in the organization in the context of the implementation of the concept of sustainable development, and to indicate the approach applied to risk management by organizations that manage many aspects in a systemic manner. The research was carried out in 150 organizations in Poland that have at least one certified management system, e.g. ISO 9001, ISO 14001. It was determined that such a number of surveyed organizations is representative, taking into account the fact that the ISO 9001 certificate in Poland can be found in almost 15,000 organizations.