Business Travel Safety, Security & Risk Management: Dynamic, Variable States of Safe, Secure & Threat

Threats, hazards and risks to business travellers are neither static nor consistence. That is, as an individual moves through the journey/trip process, they are exposed to dynamic, disparate and variable harm, threats, perils and dangers.

Moreover, the individual's status changes too.

In other words, you are not the same person with the same foreseeable or routine threats and hazards at home or where you routinely work as you are when you travel, with each stage of travel introducing variables at all phases, as you continually transition from a 'local' to a foreigner, 'other', traveller or tourist. In short, you change, the context changes, the location changes therefore, the risk is constantly changing too.

As a result, unlike facility and task security risk assessments, analysis and intelligence are required at every specific stage, location, individual and context.

Each of these phases must be evidenced, documented and compared in order to complete a holistic perspective relevant to the journey risk but overall risk to the individual.

What are the main private security risk management factors in transnational mobility (business travel)??

In physical sciences, phase transitions are visible with matter such as water. That is, water moves from varied states, qualities and forms such as steam, water and ice.

Business travellers experience similar variable states, impacting their resilience, vulnerability, security, safety and overall risk.

Using the above framework as a guid, the bottom right corner (green) identifies a worker's/employee's state when in or around routine workplaces or home.

Once they travel, the move trough various pathways and take on differing characteristics as an individual and group. For example, a business traveller may be clustered with tourists. That is, people not travelling for work.

Further concealed in this cluster may also be those travelling partly for work and partly for leisure. "Bleisure", according to the popularised portmanteau used by travel agents and travel management companies.

Furthermore, the individual's body, knowledge, work, technology and value moves through varying physical, virtual and open air spaces.

In other words, you may be physical sitting in an airport while you are video chatting with someone on the other side of the world and accessing company data in yet another location.

Threats, hazards, harm and perils are virtual, digital, intangible, distributed, networked, complex and physical... all at once!! And this is just the point of departure.

Each physical travel leg changes crime, safety, security and risk.

Risk analysis can neither be templated, aggregated nor grouped according to city, mode of travel nor country.

It remains hyper contextual to the individual, journey and activity... no matter how popular or superficial journey safety risk management has become for many multinational business trips and business traveller(s).

What are the main private security risk management factors in transnational mobility (business travel)??

At present, the literature, research and studies to inform business travel mobility and resulting security and risk management practices are dispersed across disparate disciplines and themes. While there are specific empirical theories, terms of reference and units of analysis, they are as yet consolidated or applied to transnational business mobility. As a result, the findings of this systematic literature analysis assert that private security risk management supporting transnational mobility is as yet, not adequately empirically or academically informed.?- (Ridley, 2020)

In sum, as the environment, activity and location changes with each business trip, so too does the inherent and specific threat, harm, hazards and subsequent risk.

"Business travel risk" can't be aggregated or summarised in group narratives as individuals remain highly variable due to physical, psychological, 'value', work and work activity within exceptionally broad classifiers or categories such as 'business traveller' or 'tourist'.

In short, not everyone is identical or predictable when travelling, and are influenced in differing ways within the physical and digital environment, resulting in variable, dynamic risk.

Each leg, phase and transition must be identified, analysed and assessed for safety, security or risk narratives and estimates to be valid, repeatable or reliable.

Tony Ridley, MSc CSyP MSyI M.ISRM

Security, Safety, Risk & Management Sciences

Reference:

Ridley, T. (2020) What are the main private security risk management factors in transnational mobility? Master of Science (MSc) dissertation. University of Leicester?