The Benefits of Business Continuity Management in Czech Organizations

This contribution is concerned with identifying benefits of applying business continuity management based on international standards; it also makes an effort to provide an assessment of causes leading to and consequences arising from its implementation or non-implementation. This article presents the verification of theoretical benefits mentioned in foreign literature in comparison with a practical application of business continuity management according to the standards in Czech organizations. Furthermore, it also points out its negative aspects. Primary data was assessed statistically by means of a factor analysis which confirmed the initial suppositions. Moreover, the outcomes obtained were compared with the outcomes of similar surveys conducted abroad. The data for verification was gathered by means of a questionnaire survey and through interviews. The results confirm that organizations applying business continuity management according to the standards see benefits primarily in the area of employees' awareness of potential threats and in the improvement of crisis management, particularly in large organizations operating in the tertiary sector. The results affirm that the application of business continuity management does not primarily lead to increasing the organizations' performance but it rather results in minimizing disruptions of organizations' business activities and in maintaining their performance level.