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CORPORATE SECURITY MANAGEMENT

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ADVANCEMENT in technology within the corporate or private security sector and other drivers requires companies to change.

 When companies change, the manner in which employees work and behave must also change. Managing this change is crucial, as without effective change management, long lasting negative results in an organisation can occur. 

Drivers of change can include advancement in technologies, used as both an augmentation to current security protocols and, in many situations, as a cost-effective way to counter armed robberies and cyber-attacks, thereby reducing a company’s overall spending. It can include changing societal norms and values as witnessed by the spate of bank robberies around the world; cash in transit heists and ATM bombings in the recent past. 


As new generations enter the workforce and as the need for convergence between corporate security and other previously segregated entities occur, change is required. Unfortunately, individuals are instinctively resistant to change, which results in failing businesses, low morale, decreased efficiency and productivity. 
Security management, in the corporate world, should not only dwell much on physical security upgrades alone, but also invest in counter intelligence expertise. Corporate executives are supposed to understand and address the complex processes of organised crime or the threat of being robbed as a concern during the engagement of private security companies. 


Collective multi-disciplinary perspectives and efforts should be made to identify potential crime triggers, well in advance, before a crime takes place. Recommendations to effective implementation of change management are provided as a practical guideline for corporate security managers. 
There is always great impact on crime prevention when there is a legal framework in terms of an Act of Parliament on the coordination of security management between State security agencies and private security companies to fight crime of any nature.

Legislators and policy makers the world over need to be mindful of the challenges that confront them and problems that await them if they are to remain abreast of current developments.


Security is a multidimensional concept; therefore it is difficult to define security as a singular, although understanding may be achieved by its applied context in presenting a domicile body of knowledge.  There have been studies that have presented a number of corporate security bodies with knowledge, however, there is still restricted consensus. From these past body of knowledge studies and supported by multidimensional scaling knowledge mapping, a body of knowledge framework is put forward, integrating core and allied knowledge categories.


The core knowledge categories include practise areas such as risk management, business continuity, personnel and physical security, counter intelligence in industrial espionage and security technology. Nevertheless, corporate security also has an interrelationship with criminology, facility management, safety and law. As argued by David Brooks, such a legal framework provides clear boundaries for the practising domain of corporate and State security, better reflects the security experts’ view of their practising domain; allows directed tertiary pedagogy and presents what could be considered the scholarly area of security science.


The global acceptance, business adoption and growth of the internet, and of internet working technologies in general, in response to customer requests for online access to business information systems, has ushered in an extraordinary expansion of electronic business transactions. In moving from internal (closed) business systems to open systems, the risk of malicious attacks and fraudulent activity has increased enormously, thereby requiring high levels of security management. Prior to the requirement for online, open access, the information security budget of a typical company was less than their tea and coffee expenses.


Securing cyberspace has become a national priority hence the need for a legal framework that will explicitly define the roles and responsibilities of private security companies and how best they can coordinate in protecting the corporate world and foreign direct investments that contribute immensely to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of a country.   


The multidisciplinary nature of security management has made it possible for industry specialisation. For example, there is a clear and pressing need for academic understanding of security management just as the Institute of Research Management and Development (IRDM) in Mbabane is doing by offering security management as an academic discipline.


To maximise the investment of security management and to take full advantage of the position, the corporate world must consider security as part of its overall strategic objectives. Security management features must be built into operating procedures and communication strategies and linked to human resources development. Security management must be integrated with each and every department within an organisation if it is to be effective.

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