By Héctor R. Torres
PhD, MBA, CPP, CFE
In this edition we'll talk about corporate security management. In order to understand where we're going we have to understand our past and present. It is in the present that we forge our future by taking into consideration the experiences of the past; therefore, we have to provide a small background on what management is.
Luther Gulick and Lyndall Urwick in their 1937 treatise on scientific management defined the concept of management as the process of carrying out activities completed efficiently and effectively with people.
These authors were the first to introduce the theory of the different deparmentalization strategies known as purpose and process deparmentalization. Deparmentalization can be defined as the process of grouping activities within departments. This division of labor by purpose or by function creates the need for specialists who need to be coordinated to perform their functions. This coordination is facilitated by grouping these specialists within different departments. Corporate security as a managerial and departmental function provides an example of how a group of specialists work together to protect an organization's assets.
Multidisciplinary approach
Corporate security is a multidisciplinary managerial function that draws on the practices of the business world, public administration, law, medicine, information technology, criminal justice, the insurance business, and psychology. This multidisciplinary scope is broad in nature and provides corporate security as a managerial function with the potential of enhance the internal and external operations of an organization.
With this scope, corporate security as a managerial function can go beyond simply providing protection to the organization's assets. But we ask ourselves, why go beyond simply protecting the organization's assets? There are several important reasons that justify the effort on the part of corporate security.
The first reason is that competing organizations in the global business world must be agile in their way of doing business and adapt quickly to market changes. The globalization of twenty-first century markets has created a business world of great fluidity and constant change. Just as the vision, strategy and approach of an organization change to adapt it to its business environment, so must its managerial functions.
The second reason is that corporate security as a managerial function is carried out through a series of pre-planned strategies and that through these strategies the function can become a strategic asset for the organization. As a multidisciplinary managerial function, corporate security definitely has the potential to become a strategic asset for an organization that can proactively contribute beyond carrying out its functions of identifying risks and vulnerabilities; reducing risks; protecting assets; and preventing losses.
In a 1996 study of the impact of the human resources managerial function on organizational performance, Becker and Gerhart argue that for a managerial function to become a strategic asset for an organization, this managerial function must improve organizational efficiency or contribute to increasing profits. Another study by Amit and Shoemaker in 1993 proposed that a managerial function became a strategic asset for an organization when the function provided a competitive advantage.
To become a strategic asset, corporate security must be based on a management model that can create added value to the organization in three important lines: improving organizational efficiency, increasing its profits and developing a competitive advantage over its rivals.
In our next article, we will discuss the evolution of corporate security as a managerial function. I invite you to continue to share your ideas and concerns of the world and security management.
A hug and see you next time!!
*If you wish you can write to the author at the following email: [email protected]
