Managerial Perception of Risk in an Organization in a Post-COVID-19 Work Environment

The COVID-19 pandemic drew the attention of all industries and organizations to the importance of comprehensive preparation for various types of crises and disruptions. Without proper risk management for crisis situations, it is impossible to talk about organizational resilience, maintaining organizational continuity, or ensuring the company’s ability to protect workers’ lives and health in a crisis. While the COVID-19 pandemic is rapidly reshaping the work environment, significant challenges related to risk management are emerging. The purpose of this research paper is to examine the impact of a pandemic on the risk perception in an organization by managers of all three levels (strategic, operational, and line level) and to examine the impact of broadly understood risk management on organizational performance. For the examination of operational risk perception, empirical research was conducted in Polish enterprises. The methodology of the survey is based on a questionnaire of operational risk and risk management perception in a post-COVID-19 work environment. According to the survey results, risk management was generally perceived better than the level of operational risk, compared to the period before the pandemic. Therefore, a substantial improvement in risk management during the crisis allowed the surveyed organizations to cope with the pandemic, and even slightly enhance their performance. Organizations have been able to achieve their goals mainly by slightly reducing risk appetite and lowering the tolerable risk level threshold. Even so, organizations have improved their ability to adapt and seize opportunities.