From time to time, large numbers of organisations of all types and sizes throughout the world suffer from large destruction, either as a direct or an indirect consequence of events triggered by Unpredictable Risk (UR); hence, potentially impacting upon the existence of the organisations affected. UR is a risk that occurs at a considerably low-frequency, is sudden, and carries high-impact, due to its low frequency is often considered as the “unknown unknowns”. The aim of this study is to develop a set of guidelines to enable Saudi Arabian Organisations to improve upon their robustness and resilience in the event of URs. To achieve this aim, this study reviewed and examined relevant literature on UR, its philosophies and practice in order to determine the level of understanding of concepts and characteristics of UR. Another objective integral to achieving the research aim is the critical examination of significance and effectiveness of risk management strategies in enhancing robustness and resilience of organisations in managing UR in Saudi Arabia.\ud
Impacts of UR identified in existing literature and engagement with experts in Saudi revealed that UR can be severe, extreme and of low frequency, and negatively impact organisations and the society where they occur. Secondary data collected through existing literature on UR, crisis and risk management, indicated that capacity to deal with URs require a combined strategy. The primary data sources which included semi-structured interview with thirteen experts and directors in Saudi Arabia and two focus group sessions with middle level, experienced practitioners in public and private sectors in Saudi, confirmed that there is low knowledge level on the significance and effectiveness of resilience, robustness and risk management strategies in mitigating the impacts of URs in organisations in Saudi Arabia.\ud
The research findings led to the development of set of guidelines that can inform practice and management of URs in Saudi Arabian organisations. The result also informed recommendations for future research in this subject area; thereby encouraging further investigation into main findings of this research. Thus, this research contributes to both academic and practice field of UR, crisis and risk management, especially by emphasising the need to improve organisational capacity, resilience and robustness for dealing with future UR events