Description of study and results

The studywork is carried in Prishtina and Ferizaj municipalities of Kosovo and includes direct interviews with 20 managers ofenterprises. The enterprises arefrom privateand public sector situated in two municipalities of Kosovo, respectivelly16 enterprises fromprivate sector and 4 from public sector. Frommanagers is requested to define what is riskand how theydeal with it, how risk influences on decision makingand how they manage it, how the organization influencesat the decision making process and theuse of information technologyto managerisk. Protocol with questions is previously delivered to managers whohave not been selected byrandom sample. They were asked to describeone decision taken under risk situation during the lastyear. Taking into account the small number of managerswho accepted to participate in the study, we cannot state the results of this study may beapplicable. However, itis considered that it is done some effort to cast light on relation to decision taking under the conditions of risk and uncertainty, which is not much explored.

Results of study

Based on the literature analyses andafter careful elaboration of the received repliesfrom managers, the results of study are presented as following:Question no.1:What is risk and how it is defined?

Majority of managers’ point out financial,commercial and investment risk, while thesituation when the result is unknownfor decision taker is arisky situation that may led to amistaken solution. Around 68% of themconsider asrisk decisions theones they takeforinvestments. Here is included the investmenton new constructions, purchase of newequipments, development ofnew products and introduction ofgoods in new markets. Theywere not sure if the investment done for new machinery will fora shorter time bring bigger product after comparing it with the amount invested in them. The majorityof managers saytheyare not able to calculate properlythe typesof risk theyare faced with therefore theyconcentrate on investment of projects they believe to begood investment and profitable. Around 18% of them were convinced that it is necessity to undertake risk and the uncertaintyis in fact the reason of risk existence.

Question no.2: Selection of alternatives to deal with risk

Managers were asked to rank alternatives theywill choose once they are faced withproblems that involverisk and uncertainty. The managers ofenterprises considered to be notenough strongfinanciallywould avoid all the decisions with risk. At the table are shown twotypes ofresponses. In the first group are managers who take decisions themselves, majorityof them selectan alternative of avoiding risk in decision, while 2.80% of themgatheradditional information and only2.10 % try to decrease therisk upon decision making.In thesecond group the biggest number of managers declared that they delaywith the decisionmaking because theyfollow it up to other instances, to Board of directors, steering committeeor to the owner of enterprise.

Question no. 3:Can risk be managed? What do you think for people dealing with risk? Theythink risk can be managed if there is neededexperience onrespective field, sufficientknowledge for an issue and it is worked earlier on reduction of risk. More than half of themsaid they make subjective evaluations and theyget based on their intuition and experience in their efforts trying to manage risk.At public enterprises there are cases where for certainprojects involving risk the decison is taken by ordinary directors and not by field experts.

Question no.4:Culturein organisation, including the level of trust by subordinates. In thisquestion about 52% of respondents declared that final decisions are always taken at thehigher level of organisation and there isgood faith to its subordinates. A number of themwith 27% declared that in the organisations where they work prevails autocraticculturethat ischaracterised with low trust to subordinates, and 21% confess that the owners are the oneswho decide foreverything by themselves and there is no type of democratic culture thus thechange of managers in this kind of enterprises is often.

Question no.5:Haveyou used information technology to evaluate risk? The respondentshave said theyused information technology only to collect information butnot to evaluate therisk. Only three out of all respondents could use Excel application to calculate financial risk.