Value of enterprise risk management in the South Africa business environment

Abstract

The research question and phenomenon that is addressed by this research study is: “What is the perceived importance and level of acceptance of ERM in the South African business environment, and what is the perceived value of ERM in South African organisations?” The definition of ERM utilised throughout this research study is: “Enterprise Risk Management is a process, effected by an entity’s board of directors, management and other personnel, applied in strategy setting and across the enterprise, designed to identify potential events that may affect the entity, and manage risk to be within its risk appetite, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the achievement of business objectives”. (Committee of Sponsoring Organisations of the Treadway Commission – COSO, 2004: 4) Enterprise Risk Management is perceived by many as being a necessity, but a burden to business caused by increased investor confidence requirements, such as adherence to King II, Basel II, JSE listing requirements, and the Public Finance Management Act in South Africa, and Sarbanes Oxley requirements placed on organisations listed in the USA, resulting primarily from recent international corporate failures. This causes ERM to be implemented for compliance reasons without obtaining the true value that ERM provides. The main research problem is therefore to firstly identify the extent of acceptance and implementation of ERM in organisations in the South African business environment, secondly identify the reasons why organisations implement ERM in these organisations, and thirdly identify factors that describe the perceived value that ERM provides to these organisations.