Abstract:
Although the specifics of water utility ownership, regulation and management culture have
been explored in terms of their impact on economic and customer value, there has been little
meaningful engagement with their influence on the risk environment and risk management.
Using a two phase case study approach as the primary source of information, this thesis asks
what are the particular features of regulation, ownership arrangements and management
culture which influence risk management, and what are the implications of these
relationships in the context of ambitions for resilient organizations? In addressing these
queries, the thesis considers the mindful choices and adjustments a utility must make to its
risk management strategy to manage strategic tensions between efficiency, risk and delivery
of safe drinking water. The case studies expose a tension between the ambition of the water
service providers` strategic objectives to provide safe drinking water and the priority that
executives place on corporate financial health. This leads to the conclusion that public health
risk rankings need re-evaluation in relation to financial risks. There was no evidence to
demonstrate that public health risk mitigation had been costed and evaluated against the
strategic objectives of the studied organisations. Furthermore, the nature of risk
conversations varied within organisations, changing the meaning of risk vertically within the
business. A proposed model for the reporting of risk tolerance and risk appetite with respect
to mitigating public health risk is the result. Such approaches to risk reporting and costing will
support water authorities in meeting corporate aspirations to become ‘high reliability’
services while retaining the capacity to out-perform financial and service level targets,
irrespective of regulation, ownership arrangements or management culture.
