Ethical management of risk: active shooters in higher education

Abstract

This paper considers the response of higher educational institutions to the risk posed by active shooters. Such response is founded on risk management frameworks that determine expenditures incurred to reduce risk. We examine the principles on which such risk management may be based and show that the annual expenditures made by institutions will vary, depending on ethical values and how broadly organizational risk is understood. We derive an ethical risk maturity model and compare results of a quantitative risk analysis for each ethical maturity level, factoring in the relevant controls at each level. We also analyse a scenario via a qualitative analysis and Sandman’s outrage factor and evaluate several examples spent by various institutions within the framework of the model. We conclude that higher education would be well served to take a broad perspective of risk.

Keywords:

• Higher education
• ethical risk
• numerical risk analysis
• school shootings

Acknowledgment

We would like to acknowledge the ready cooperation we received from UW-Parkside’s Chief Risk Officer, Robert Grieshaber, and Director of Active Shooter Response, Kurt Bergendahl. We also thank this journal’s reviewers for their valuable insights, and Katherine La Fond, who started much of this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The web site www.measuringworth.com estimates that $8 million in 1984 is worth conservatively $18.20 million when considering inflation adjusted prices, and $26.20 million when considering changes in income value (or economic status).