Perception of Enterprise Risk Management in Brazilian Higher Education Institutions

Abstract

Enterprise risk management (ERM) has been used as a methodology for evaluating the risks to an organization’s achievement of its objectives. In private companies, plenty of initiatives and related works have addressed this topic, but studies in the public sector are lacking. Studying how the top managers of public sector federal universities perceive risk management can provide insight into developmental gaps in ERM and related software. This work used a survey to capture public servants’ perceptions of risk management using both quantitative and qualitative questions. The main findings can be used to inform decision making and ERM implementation as well as to promote related objectives, planned responses, efficient resource usage, error reduction, and organizational self-knowledge. The top difficulties perceived were related to lack of training, limited staff, absence of risk culture, undefined department structure, lack of interest shown by public servants, reduced budget, and low engagement of top management with ERM. Management practices such as ERM could improve public sector managers’ work performance, enabling them to provide better service to society.