From High Risk to High Reliability - Through Effective EHS Governance

With the advent of very serious incidents which have claimed people’s lives and has tremendous impact on the environment, EHS has gained attention. Examples of these are the Deep Water Horizon Incident in the Gulf of Mexico in May 2010 or even the Texas BP Refinery explosion in late 2005 etc. The wider implications of incidents and matters that relate to organisational, financial, reputational and business continuity and sustainability issues are far reaching.  This is why in the past few years or even up to a decade, the role of leaders and governors in organisations has come under great scrutiny by regulators, the shareholders and all other stakeholders including the public. The losses from such incidents have become near organisationally crippling such as what happened more than 30 years ago to Union Carbide after the Bhopal incident/catastrophe.

This research paper presents on the perceptions of senior managers of the role that the Board Members play in terms of EHS leadership and Governance in different organisations in GCC/ME.