Implementing Risk Management within Middle Eastern Oil and Gas Companies (MECO) was faced with many challenges making it hard to attain a full implementation of best practices and risk management ( Penrose, 2013) . This case study, therefore, intends to bring out some of the challenges experienced in the implementation process in any of the MECO departments for the purpose of effectively managing the risk. After the launching of the Activity Risk Holder (ARH) for every team in the projects, many risks were captured in the MECO projects and the whole organization at large. The documented risks were as a result of the various challenges incurred in the risk management process. Some of the challenges experienced included a lack of adequate resources, poor support management, lack of key performance indicators or the set tolerance at the corporate level ( Penrose, 2013) . Furthermore, a shortage of organizational Risk Framework to allow escalation of the main project risk was a challenge.
These challenges affected all the departments in the project. In the implementation process, the five administrative departments in the MECO organization structure were considered in setting up the project’s departments ( Kerzner& Kerzner, 2017) . The Information technology department was one of the departments instituted to undertake the process of developing and implementing the risk management process in the organization. Therefore, these challenges were encountered by the departments alongside the project management departments while undertaking their duties.
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All the projects operation of MECO organization were connected to the main sever under the IT department. However, the IT security was a major risk in the operations since many facilities were affected by cyber-attacks. In many instances, the operations of the project departments were hindered as a result of frequent attacks leading to system shutdown ( Bronk & Tikk-Ringas, 2013). In the quest to prevent further attacks, the IT department did not manage to deal with all the cases and fully control its systems since it lacked skilled and adequate personnel for dealing with the issue.
The project management department was responsible for all the activities in the MECO organization ( Vidic et al., 2013) . Moreover, it coordinated the projects and implemented viable decisions for risk management process. However, the activities of the project management department were hampered due to lack of essential elements for effectively running the projects and activities. A shortage of finance was a great challenge in the risk management process ( Vidic et al., 2013) . This was motivated by lack of risk measures by the organization leading to poor implementation of policies. Therefore, for effective operations to have been attained in the risk management process, all departments needed adequate finances for the smooth running of the activities.
The environmental department had three departments which ensure the project's environment were well protected and complied with the set regulations to improve the performance and projects standard ( Vidic et al., 2013) . This is aimed at reducing the environmental issues that may have adverse effects on the surrounding. This process was however faced with many challenges due to different environmental policies in different Middle East nations to support the risk management process as a well. Furthermore, the auditing and monitoring of the projects sites or survey lacked coordination with other stakeholders due to the competing risks. To undertake this task effectively, the responsible departments ought to have worked and coordinated with the relevant agencies and ministry so as to adequately initiate the process.
According to Penrose (2013) , lack of adequate personnel was another concern in the MECO organization. The departments did not have adequate expertise to undertake the duties and assigned tasks in the departments effectively. This rendered the risk management process ineffective thus hampering the operations. For instance, the Law departments had 26 members who were in charge of all the legal issues in the organization ( Penrose, 2013) . Such a small number of staffs were overloaded with tasks. The organization needed more than a hundred lawyers to undertake the legal duties. To subdue this challenge, all departments needed employee expansions for the tasks to be effectively done in each department.
The IT department and the project management department were the central departments that connected all the other departments in the organization. However, these two departments undertook different tasks in all the operations. According to Bronk and Tikk-Ringas (2013), t he IT department facilitated the coordination between all the departments in the organization. The organization data and information were accessed through the company servers which were managed by the IT department. Consequently, Kerzner and Kerzner (2017) asserts that the project management department supervised all the activities in the MECO organization. It ensured that the departments work together effectively to attain positive and recommendable results.
The evaluation and assessment of the top risks facing the organization through the workshop approach had both the positive and negative effects. Firstly, when the risk management team tabled their findings, the findings were open to approval or denial since they were discussed on an open table ( Malhotra, 2011) . Some of the conclusions brought about many controversies. On the other hand, inadequate time was a setback for the process. Therefore, the findings were not fully discussed.
After the comprehensive research process on the possible risks to MECO organization in 2011, the risk management team presented the top risks to the Management Committee ( Malhotra, 2011) . The reported risks, however, created mixed reactions to the members of the committee since some of the members cited some of the alleged threats were invalid. Some of this risks tabled by the team included increased competition, environmental risks, business interruption, commodity price risks, economic slowdown and supply chain failure. The risk management team further observed that change in legislative laws, fluctuation in exchange rates and lack of innovations in MECO organization posed a significant risk to the company in the future ( Malhotra, 2011) . For the risk management processes to be entirely undertaken in the organization, the challenges should be adequately addressed and workable strategies put in place for better results to be attained.
References
Bronk, C., & Tikk-Ringas, E. (2013). The cyber-attack on Saudi Aramco. Survival , 55 (2), 81-96.
Kerzner, H., & Kerzner, H. R. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling . John Wiley & Sons.
Malhotra, N. K. (2011). Review of marketing research. In Review of Marketing Research (pp. v-v). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Penrose, E. (2013). The Large International Firm (RLE International Business) . Routledge.
Vidic, R. D., Brantley, S. L., Vandenbossche, J. M., Yoxtheimer, D., & Abad, J. D. (2013). Impact of shale gas development on regional water quality. Science , 340 (6134), 1235009.
