3.2 Stakeholder Risk Attitudes
Risk attitudes of the stakeholders determine the extent to which an individual risk or overall risk matters. Wide range of factors influence risk attitude and this include: Scale of the project, strength of public commitments, stakeholders sensitivity to issues (environmental, industrial relations, etc.). Stakeholders risk attitudes are strongly influenced by an organizations culture and impacts how risk can be applied.
Note that your tolerance of risk is partly a matter of personality and attitude. This article describes a range of attitudes toward risk, ranging from “risk paranoid” to “risk addicted”: Article
Table 3-1 compares issues, threats, and risks on different projects.
| Project | Issue | Threat | Risk |
| Developing a new cell phone | The phone must be released on schedule or consumers will consider it obsolete. | Introduction of new features in a competing product, which would necessitate adding the same feature to your product. | The probability that a competitor will introduce a new feature times the consequences in time and money required to remain competitive. |
| Constructing a sea wall | The sea wall must be resilient even if exposed to the most severe storm surge that can be anticipated given our current knowledge. | Rising sea levels caused by climate change make it hard to predict the future meaning of the words “the most severe storm surge.” | The probability of sea levels rising higher than the sea wall times the monetary and safety consequences of flooding. |
| Constructing an addition to a clinic | Cost of capital has significant impact on capital project decision-making. | The Federal Reserve raises interest rates, increasing the cost of borrowing money for the project. | The probability of rising interest rates times the increase to overall project cost if interest rates do go up. |