Security networks and occupational culture: understanding culture within and between organisations


Autoria(s): Whelan, Chad
Data(s)

01/01/2017

Resumo

Security networks are organisational forms involving public, private and hybrid actors or nodes that work together to pursue security-related objectives. While we know that security networks are central to the governance of security, and that security networks exist at multiple levels across the security field, we still do not know enough about how these networks form and function. Based on a detailed qualitative study of networks in the field of ‘high’ policing in Australia, this article aims to advance our knowledge of the relational properties of security networks. Following the organisational culture literature, the article uses the concept of a ‘group’ as the basis with which to analyse and understand culture. A group can apply to networks (‘network culture’), organisations (‘organisational culture’) and sections within and between organisations (‘occupational subcultures’). Using interviews with senior members of security, police and intelligence agencies, the article proceeds to analyse how cultures form and function within such groups. In developing a network perspective on occupational culture, the article challenges much of the police culture(s) literature for concentrating too heavily on police organisations as independent units of analysis. The article moves beyond debates between integrated or differentiated organisational cultures and questions concerning the extent to which culture shapes particular outcomes, to analyse the ways in which security nodes relate to one another in security networks. If there is one thing that should be clear it is that security nodes experience cultural change as they work together in and through networks.

Identificador

http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30078925

Idioma(s)

eng

Publicador

Taylor and Francis

Relação

http://dro.deakin.edu.au/eserv/DU:30078925/whelan-securitynetworks-2017.pdf

http://dro.deakin.edu.au/eserv/DU:30078925/whelan-securitynetworks-inpress-2015.pdf

http://www.dx.doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2015.1020804

Direitos

2015, Taylor and Francis

Tipo

Journal Article

Palavras-Chave #security network #police culture #occupational culture #organisational culture #subcultures