The Team Leader and Diverse Work Teams: The South African Security Industry

The use of teams had become one of the standard features of the South African organisational landscape. Internationally this phenomenon has attracted the interest of researchers and scholars alike. The current study reviews local research on team according to the model of theory building proposed by Carlile and Christensen (2005). It provides a heuristic framework to present the literature review within the categorisation stage of this model and indicates the research according to the various categories of the framework. It found that local research addresses a wide array of these categories and that the majority of research is done from a descriptive perspective.

Download Full-text

Doing gender well: Women’s perceptions on gender equality and career progression in the South African security industry

SA Journal of Industrial Psychology ◽

10.4102/sajip.v47i0.1815 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 47 ◽

Author(s):

Shandré K. Jansen van Rensburg

Keyword(s):

Gender Equality ◽

South African ◽

Political Influence ◽

Career Progression ◽

Female Leadership ◽

Doing Gender ◽

The South ◽

Security Industry ◽

Women’S Perceptions ◽

Work Allocation

Orientation: Although significant progress has been made globally in gender equality, women still occupy less political influence, fewer leadership positions and yield less control over their careers than most men. Gender inequality is evident in male-dominated work environments such as the security industry.Research purpose: This study reflects on women’s perceptions on gender equality and career progression in the South African security industry.Motivation for the study: In post-democracy South Africa, women are categorised as previously disadvantaged, therefore a priority group in terms of advancement. However, it is still unclear, from the narratives of the women themselves, how their career progression is encumbered in the milieu of the security industry.Research approach/design and method: Through qualitative one-on-one semi-structured interviews, 15 women, working in the security industry, shared their experiences concerning gender equality and career progression. Data were analysed thematically, guided by the context of the gendered security profession.Main findings: The findings reveal that women experience slower career progression than men in terms of rejection and work allocation. Moreover, negative perceptions of female leadership among colleagues was a factor hindering career progression.Practical/managerial implications: This study argues by doing gender well, equality in the security workplace can be obtained. Furthermore, the study encourages South African security managers to recognise how aspects such as rejection, work allocation and a negative perception of female leadership may encumber the career progression of female security professionals.Contribution/value-add: The study contributes to scientific knowledge and discourse regarding women’s perceptions on gender equality and career progression.

Download Full-text

Using the competing values framework (CVF) to investigate organisational culture in a major private security company

South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences ◽

10.4102/sajems.v12i3.225 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 12 (3) ◽

pp. 343-352 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

D Kokt ◽

C Van der Merwe

Keyword(s):

South African ◽

Private Security ◽

Competing Values Framework ◽

Competing Values ◽

The South ◽

Security Industry ◽

Private Security Companies ◽

African Context ◽

Private Security Industry ◽

Fierce Competition

The proliferation of crime, especially in the South African context, has placed considerable emphasis on the private security industry. This has also increased fierce competition in the private security domain with both national and international private security companies infiltrating the South African market. Like public policing private security has an important role to play in combating crime and other transgressions, with the exception that private security owes its existence to paying customers. By using the Competing Values Framework (CVF) as conceptual guide, the researchers are able to provide the managers of the company under investigation with insight on how their cultural orientation affects their functioning and ultimately their competitive advantage.

Download Full-text

Sharpening the Axe: Identifying and Closing Gaps Within the Training Space of the South African Private Security Industry

International Journal of Criminology and Sociology ◽

10.6000/1929-4409.2021.10.161 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 ◽

pp. 1406-1414

Author(s):

Linda Mbana ◽

◽

Jacob T. Mofokeng ◽

Witness Maluleke ◽

Dorcas Khosa

Keyword(s):

South African ◽

Service Providers ◽

Private Security ◽

Policy Framework ◽

The South ◽

Security Industry ◽

Security Officers ◽

Security Training ◽

Training Standards ◽

Private Security Industry

The ever-present threat of crime in South Africa continues to drive the rise and demand for Private Security Industry (PSI) services amongst various governmental institutions, businesses and citizens to ensure their safety. This rise for the Private Security Services (PSS) persistently presents new challenges to the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (PSiRA) such as poor security training standards and deployment of untrained security officers attached to the Private Security Companies (PSCs), which negatively impacts the professionalism of the security industry. This study was guided by this objective: Identifying and closing the gaps within South African training space of PSI. This qualitative study was guided by the exploratory research design. The judgemental sampling technique was adopted to sample 40 participants confined to Gauteng (GP), Kwa-Zulu Natal (KZN) and Western Cape (WC) Provinces. The selected relevant stakeholders were attached to the South African Police Service (SAPS), Department of Labour (DoLl), Department of Home Affairs (DoH), National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the legal fraternity) and the PSI Directors and security officers to form part of the Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and hybrid semi-structured interviews. The findings highlighted that the majority of the participants agreed that the private security industry training space is affected by security service providers letting PSiRA down by not training at, but rather engaging in, criminal activity through selling and people buying PSiRA security certificates. Some of the challenges mentioned include; poor training standards, non-compliance to legislated training standards, unqualified security training facilitators and outdated security Grades, misuse of security equipment leading to serious injuries and death, corruption in the industry, some of it being perpetrated by PSiRA inspectors, the very people who are supposed to keep the industry in check. This study recommends that, in order to overcome the challenges in the security training space, PSiRA needs to do away with the outdated security Grades by developing a new policy framework which will enable the creation of a new security-training curriculum and revise the training methods to suit the ever-changing security industry.

Download Full-text