Copyright © 2002 Perpetuity Press Ltd Page 7 Security Journal Assessing the Scope of Corporate Security: Common Practices and Relationships with Other Business Functions Mahesh Nalla and Merry Morash 1 This study evaluates corporate security functions and goals. Data fr om a survey of corporate security dir ectors of Fortune 1000 companies in the US suggest that corporate security carries out functions and processes typically identified in private security literature. These functions include physical security , executive and employee protection, premises security, investigations, and prediction of threats. In addition, other functions typically considered as security tasks are actually administered by or jointly shared with other departments within the organization. Some functions, such as crisis management, disaster pr eparedness, emergency preparedness, fraud prevention, and due diligence are not the monopoly of corporate security . These tasks are either administered exclusively by other departments or jointly shar ed with security. Findings also suggest that not only is corporate security located very high in the organizational hierarchy but it is well integrated into the business functions of the organization. Finally, contrary to the popular belief that corporate executives do not work closely with security , we find that in most or ganizations executives and departments are actively involved in ensuring the success of security. Key Words: Private security; corporate security; security practices; security functions; security/business relations Introduction Employment in the private security industry has experienced significant growth in recent decades. The number of private security companies in the United S tates is estimated to be over 10,000, with estimated annual revenues over $15 billion. 2 Conservative employment estimates for the US suggest that there about 67,000 registered private investigators, 3 over 27,600 in-house store detectives, 371,300 security officers, and 95,800 managers and staf f, representing in total well over 500,000 personnel. 4 The 1999 Contract Security Industry data reveal that there are over 719,000 contract guards. 5 Employment of guards is expected to grow faster than the average growth for other industries. 6 While the public perceives private security to consist primarily of security guards and retail store asset protection officers, 7 there are numerous other security functionaries.They include contract security officers, asset protection personnel, security directors of businesses, security supervisors, vendors of alarm services, private investigators (eg carrying out pre-employment screening and background checks), technology services (eg access control systems and CCTV), and guard services. 8 There are a large number of non-uniformed security personnel with whom the public do not normally interact. Corporate security personnel fall into this category , where they work for organizations as in-house security personnel. For example, in the year 2000 there were an