No abstract

Corporate security is a unique practice area within the broad security domain, providing security across government and private organisations. Nevertheless, an understanding of the hierarchy and influence of corporate security practitioners within an organisation is lacking. In contrast, security literature claims that senior security practitioners occupy the executive levels of organisational management. Therefore, the study investigated the link between the measure of risk uncertainty and the level of work in a role, using Jaques’ general theory of managerial hierarchies. The study findings demonstrated that within corporate security, risk does provide a measure of work stratification that indicates a relationship between risk scanning and work level. Furthermore, that this identified the hierarchy of security within the broader corporate stratification of work. Results indicate that the higher the person is within the work strata, the broader and more external their scanning of risk. However, the security manager may hold a senior executive title but lacks alignment in risk outlook and level of work when compared to other executive managers

The study investigated the Corporate Security stratum of work within large Australian organisations, seeking to extract professional seating, roles, associated task complexity, career opportunity and progression ceilings as articulated through the socio-organisational literature. Two phases were applied: Phase One used online surveys distributed to participants (N=53) across four Australian organisations, Phase Two employed semi-structured interviews and focus groups (N=14). Findings reinforced the established literature articulation of corporate security's roles; however, they contested the current articulation of corporate security's executive level seating within large organisations. Instead, the study identified a Corporate Security seating with a restricted sphere of risk-based influence, along with a maximum career level at general manager. The study demonstrates an occupational corporate security ceiling, debunking the security executive belief. Corporate Security was located within the technostructure group as a specialist, limiting opportunity for executive level roles or strategic influence.