“It’ll be right…” Insights into business continuity integration at a public sector organisation
A business disruption can occur anytime, interrupting an organisation’s daily operations and services to its customers and other interested parties. In May 2012, the International Standard Organisation (ISO) published the ISO 22301 Societal security – Business continuity management systems – requirement. This outlined the standard requirements for setting up and managing a successful business continuity management system (BCMS) for any size organisation in order to assist with a successful continuation of critical operations through a business disruption. Developing a BCMS is relatively new for New Zealand public sector organisations. This paper presents the findings of a research study regarding the implementation of a BCMS that was carried out within a New Zealand public sector organisation. It will describe the experiences of middle management and their recommendations for the improved delivery of business continuity.
An insider action research (IAR) methodology was utilised that provided participants with an opportunity to voice their BC needs to gain ownership of the research process and its outputs. Participants were purposively sampled including those responsible for integrating BC practice within their team. The research was carried out in two phases, firstly through semi-structured interviews and the thematic analysis of the collected data and secondly through two workshops that generated an action plan designed to enhance and improve the BCMS of the public sector organisation. This presentation will describe the key themes such as perception of BC, clear leadership and collective engagement to integrate BCM into organisational culture that emerged from the research and the recommendations of participants for improved implementation and delivery of a BCMS that were made through the action plan.