44.312
Security Management
home page > Unit 4: Planning & decision making
- Types of Planning
- Philosophies of Planning
- Decision Making
- Factors Affecting Decision-Making
- Common Decision-Making Errors
- Attributes of Effective Decision Makers
- Management's Role in Fostering Effective Decision Making
(based on Ch 4. of Principles of Security Management)
Why,
if private security industry is currently dysfunctional, is good
planning and decision-making crucial to its transformation?
Overview
As we've seen with a
variety of other functions, several definitions:
- "planning includes identifying and solving problems, exploring and determining the best ways and means of attaining established objectives; arranging in sequence and scheduling all significant activities that have to be carried out by the institutions; providing adequate resources, personnel and facilities; maintaining effective coordination, and establishing necessary controls." (Korey, 1995)
- so basic to management that "management" and "planning" should be considered simultaneously. (Hudzik and Cordner, 1983).
It's needed because you anticipate a problem or a need for change in strategy, and use it as a way to guide the process. Can be broad, general, or specific, and short or long term. 4 common elements (Stoner and Freeman, 1989):
- establish goal or set of goals
- define current situation
- determine or identify aids and barriers
- develop set of actions
- Strategic
planning
Strategy is company's plan to identify and reach long-term goals. Deals with how to manage innovation and organizational change.- Example from security industry was a company that decided to expand its operations from private investigations into contractual security, downgrading investigations into a secondary service.
- 5 components:
- basic research and analysis:
broad assessment of needs, collection of data, analysis of internal and external environment, stakeholders, determination of length of planning horizon - diagnose trends and needs:
these are both micro- and macro- trends, needed facilities, staff, other requirements - state goals and objectives:
where does organization want to get, based on the outcomes we've identified? - formulation and analysis
of alternatives:
identify potential areas of conflicts and agreement to reach goals, methods to achieve them - policy alternatives and resource
recommendations:
translates identified goals and objectives into general policies company will follow to achieve the goals. It details objectives, priorities, where they are to be achieved, means to achieve them, and how to evaluate success or failure.
- basic research and analysis:
- basic shortcoming of this approach, as I see it: good planning should be iterative: i.e., it should be a continuous process, where you continually revise the plans based on changes in the environment, new technologies, etc., to keep the plan dynamic and relevant. Alternative is pursuing a plan that's no longer relevant.