Risk Management: Event Managers’ Attitudes, Beliefs and Perceived Constraints

Abstract

Events draw large crowds of people together within defined spaces and as such have the potential to have significant impacts. Occupational health and safety requirements, legal duty of care, and the capacity of organizations to deal with risks and crisis are important considerations for the sustainability of event organizations and events themselves. To date there has been a paucity of research analyzing the adoption and implementation of event risk management by event organizers, and in particular the influence that managerial attitudes and beliefs may have on the implementation of risk planning behavior. This article aims to identify event managers’ attitude and beliefs concerning risk management as well as explore social influencers and perceived constraints to implementing risk management planning. The research adopts a qualitative methodology to address the research aim and uses Ajzen’s theory of planned behavior (TPB) as a framework for exploring event managers’ risk, attitudes, beliefs, and perceived constraints. Semistructured interviews with 11 event managers were undertaken, drawn from South East Queensland, Australia. Respondents had positive event risk planning attitudes, which were influenced by beliefs relating to safety, compliance, decision making, and professionalism. However, seven perceived constraints were also identified as important in influencing risk planning in an event context. The findings suggest event managers’ attitudes, beliefs, and perceived constraints vary considerably based on previous experience, size of event organization, and level of professionalism. The article discusses these findings and recommends future research to inform more sustainable event practices in the future.