Risk, Planning, and Continuity

Catalog description

This course examines the multi-disciplinary literature and applied practices associated with the concepts of risk, planning, and continuity from a number of perspectives across organizations and sectors of society. The notions of risk and risk management will be considered with an emphasis on organizational/societal adaptation to both familiar and novel/unanticipated contingencies across a variety of hypothetical probability/consequence constellations. This will provide a point of departure for considering the role of various forms of planning - and alternative planning modes, doctrines, and paradigms - in efforts to facilitate response to and recovery from disasters and other forms of crises. Pulling together these threads, the course will also explore the evolving field of business/government continuity management which aspires to integrate risk analysis and planning to promote organizational resilience in the face of potentially disruptive events. Prerequisite(s): junior or senior standing or permission of instructor.