Pre-Care, Care and After Care in the Context of Project Management - Paper Example

In the management of security projects, there is a care system which is central to every activity involved. Under the care system, there are three independent but interdependent subsystems which operate in succession to effectively mitigate a security situation. These subsystems are pre-care, care, and post-care. In general, pre-care activities entail all those measures that the company puts in place to ensure the security of people and property before an incidence occurs. The care activities are those steps that the security organ takes to safeguard employees and property during the incidence. Lastly, a post-care subsystem entails the evaluation and monitoring of the preparedness of the security organ to prevent the recurrence of the security incidence in the organization.

In the pre-care subsystem, deterrent measures are implemented in detail to prevent crime from happening. For example, the erection of a high perimeter fence around the premises, installation of security cameras, and the placement of security personnel at the entrance to screen all the people entering the location act as deterrent measures of criminals and ill-intentioned individuals. Furthermore, early warning systems are critical in the pre-care subsystem. These mechanisms prepare the occupants of particular premises to flee in a specific direction in case of a security emergency. Fire drills can serve as a warning system. Furthermore, security managers can install breach-sensitive equipment like laser beams to warn the occupants in case of intrusion. Computers can also be customized to raise alarms and warn the user in case of infiltration by malware. Early warning is only possible if reliable alarm systems are installed and maintained. There are some warning systems that can be compromised by intruders or fail completely when there is power interruption. In ensuring tight security, the fire or intrusion alarms should be robust and work under adverse conditions. The security personnel should also develop a duty schedule to ensure regular and consistent area patrols. Additionally, security lighting to illuminate areas prone to intrusion is a very necessary pre-care activity.

A care subsystem comes into use when there is a looming security threat. The difference between pre-care and care subsystems is that the latter is a managerial function. Therefore, the security and general management must coordinate the implementation of the care subsystem. Access control to premises, buildings, and computers is a collaborative effort between the Information Technology specialist in a company, the finance department, and the security officer-in-charge. Staff clearance, contingency training, and induction are incidence preparedness activities that require the input of the firms management in execution. Furthermore, the organization and administration of the security organ is a care activity that ensures the security department is equipped with the appropriate personnel and managed effectively.

Post care services come into use after the threat has been neutralized as a means to audit the security organs or the apprehension of offenders. The security task force is retrained on contingency measures and defence. The internal security organs also liaise with the police and other security providers to track down criminals. Under this subsystem, the information management system is strengthened to provide stronger deterrence in the future. Additionally, the security organ undertakes research on the best practices to prevent the recurrence of the security threat, identify and mitigate weak points, and make the necessary internal organizational rearrangements.

Explain briefly the classification terms, Alpha, Beta and Gamma

Security threats must be classified in order to prepare the officers involved to take appropriate measures to mitigate and neutralize them. Three classification systems exist in the security department: alpha, beta, and gamma. Alpha classification entails the effect of the threat to the survival of human beings. Under this classification, security threats are put into two categories: manmade and natural. The disasters that fall under manmade column in alpha classification are conventional warfare, terrorism, civil unrest, fraud, arson, corruption, crimes, boycotts, strikes, biological warfare, and nuclear threats. On the other hand, natural disasters include floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, lightning, heat waves, plagues, diseases, epidemics, snowstorms, tornadoes, hailstones, meteorites, and droughts. Under alpha classification, anthropogenic calamities are preventable while the man has no control over natural disasters. When natural catastrophes occur, they have a direct and devastating impact on the survival of human beings. However, man-made disasters are controllable and have isolated effects on people. Corruption, for instance, has no direct effect on survival. However, when essential drugs do not get to rural hospitals due to fraudulent behaviour of the relevant stakeholders, vulnerable patients can die of diseases like measles and AIDS.

Beta classification is the second category in which security agents classify threats. Under this classification, there are indices that denote the frequency of threats and their impact. The loss of property is the most significant outcome of the security threat. Therefore, the impact of a specific threat increases with the increase in the loss of property in terms of money. Conversely, the frequency index reduces in proportion to the frequency of the loss. A ten-fold increase in the amount of money lost is assigned frequency indices in a successive fashion. In other words, a security threat that results in the loss of 10 Great Britain Pounds is assigned a frequency index of 1 while the loss that results in the loss of 100000000 Great Britain Pounds has a frequency index of 8. The frequency of loss under beta classification ranges from every six minutes to once in 300 years. The highest frequency of occurrence is assigned an index of 8 while the incidence with the lowest chances of occurrence (once in every 300 years) has an index of 1.

Gamma classification is the most common method of categorizing security threats. The industrial and business sectors employ this method to device strategic measures to prevent and mitigate crime. There are five classes of threats under the gamma classification: waste, error, unethical practice, accidents, and crime. Each of these classes has an element of loss of property. Waste, for instance, causes the pollution of environment that is costly to remedy. Gamma classification considers the wastage of money, labour, time, and energy. Accidents under gamma classification are fires, natural disasters, and toxic substances. Errors that can lead to the loss of property are invoicing miscalculations, intentional manipulation of records, misplaced simulation, and labour unrest. There are numerous crimes under gamma classification which include violence, community crime, property theft, sabotage, espionage, cybercrime, shoplifting, workplace theft, and economic crime. Unethical causes of loss include bribery, invoice and product fraud, advertising fraud, loose talk, industrial espionage, and favouritism. Under gamma classification, threats to security are manmade. Crime, for instance, is the intentional destruction of property for malicious purposes. Crime is the single most important security threat that the police and private security organs fight with on a daily basis. Besides crime, wastage is a subtle means through which property loss takes place.

Discuss security budgets with reference to three main components

Security is an important component of business management function and needs to be organized as such. Planning for security measures involves developing a budget for the security organ. Budgeting entails the planning of the security measures, allocation of money and resources, and making a budget. Planning is the comparison between the cost of securing a resource and the financial benefits emanating from this activity. In other terms, planning is essentially a cost-benefit analysis of investing in security. In a situation where the security endeavour is more expensive than losing a particular resource, it is not necessary to devise and undertake a security plan. However, if the cost of running a security plan is less compared to the value of a building or investment, there is every reason to execute a security measure. For example, an enterprise consists of buildings, vehicles, electronics, stock, furniture, and sometimes money. The value of these items is very high as compared to the money invested in employing security guards and installing security devices. Therefore, many companies prepare a budget that outlines all expenditure units and allocates money for each one of them.

Allocation, therefore, forms the second component of security budget preparation. In this process, the management creates certain parameters and allocates costs for each one of them. The care subsystems explained before are the core parameters that comprise the allocation of costs. The security plan must define the pre-care, care, and post-care activities and determine their costs. Since a budget is a tool of financial checking, the organization must make it in a prudent manner to avoid overexploitation of resources. The budget for the previous planning period must be consulted in making a new financial allocation schedule. If the previous budget does not suffice this process, the management can weigh the current budget against external standards. In the past, the function of making a security budget was a reserve of the top management. However, in the modern company, there is a thorough process of consultation between the top management and low-level managers. The process of consultation aims at allocating money based on a well thought out plan involving the spenders of the budgetary allocation. This method of budget preparation has got its shortcomings especially since a conflict of interest arises when different levels of management are involved. The low-level managers can to refrain from giving their ideas on security budget for the fear of being looked down upon. Secondly, middle managers may not make contributions that appeal to the interests of the top management and may fear facing criticism as a result of their ideas. Nonetheless, the bottom-top budget making procedure is taking ground in many companies despite these shortcomings.

In the actual budget-making process, the managers engaged in the activity adopt a zero-based procedure where the allocation from a previous period is carried over with an additional 10% to cater for inflation. Then, a budget statement is prepared that compares cost vis-a-vis the profit at the company level. An ideal budget statement should contain two columns for each entry, and the total profits should outweigh the costs. There are two centres that the budget must address: cost and profits. Cost centres comprise of care systems, while the profit centres may be at the factory floor, computer, cash flow or survival levels. Each of these profit centres must give reliable projections that the costs of security would be less than the cost which may be incurred by crime such as theft, fraud, robbery, burglary, vandalism, unrest or terrorism.

Discuss the five processes of personnel development

Security organs must have the appropriate staff to drive the objectives of the company forward. The personnel are the most resourceful component of the company. Regardless of the positions they occupy in the organization, the personnel implement the goals set by the company directors. Security officers are of particular importance in the org...