{"id":5215,"date":"2024-01-29T09:00:37","date_gmt":"2024-01-29T07:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stefduplessis.com\/?p=5215"},"modified":"2025-01-31T08:55:17","modified_gmt":"2025-01-31T06:55:17","slug":"security-goes-awol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stefduplessis.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/29\/security-goes-awol\/","title":{"rendered":"Security goes AWOL"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>One of the more visible changes since 11th September 2001 that many of us experience is the heightened security at airports and at public events.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>There have been sustained and serious efforts to ensure public safety. Yet a BBC production brings into question the extent to which corporate culture is undermining security measures&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve just watched a fascinating &#8211; and disturbing &#8211; documentary on television \u2013 a BBC production which involved a journalist going undercover as a security agent at Manchester airport in the UK, to investigate security breaches claimed by a whistleblower.<\/p>\n<p>Using hidden cameras, the documentary showed:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Records of bag check records being deliberately falsified by staff to satisfy management requirements, in some cases being done with management being fully aware of the practice<\/li>\n<li>Understaffed security access points where no-one was monitoring bags at the conveyer belt<\/li>\n<li>Staff being forewarned of \u2018covert\u2019 visits by Department for Transport staff whose role was to check the efficiency of security<\/li>\n<li>Planes on the runway being left unattended and unlocked overnight with stairs leading up to the door<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As I watched this, I was concerned at a number of levels. It was not long ago that I was at Manchester airport &#8211; which was an immediate concern! At another level, it reminded me of the power of UGRs as the driver of people\u2019s behaviour &#8211; <strong>even in the face of people doing vitally important work.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Security staff at Manchester Airport had lost sight of the inherent value of their work and were being driven by UGRs that, by my reckoning, included:<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Around here,<\/strong> management are more serious about saving money than they are about security<\/em><br \/>\n<em><strong>Around here,<\/strong> get the job done with minimum fuss and you\u2019ll get by<\/em><br \/>\n<em><strong>Around here,<\/strong> paper work is merely there to keep other people happy, so we keep them happy!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Now I\u2019d hazard a guess that when they began their job, very few of the security staff foresaw themselves as being driven by UGRs of the kind noted above. But as a consequence of management behaviour, and to a lesser extent other staff, people fall into the \u2018UGRs-line\u2019 of working.<\/p>\n<p>When the journalist in the BBC programme while still under cover as a staff member, confronted a mid level manager with her concerns, the manager went through the motions of listening and demonstrating<br \/>\nconcern. But a few days later no action had been taken by this manager.<\/p>\n<p>UGRs are that powerful!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the more visible changes since 11th September 2001 that many of us experience is the heightened security at airports and at public events. There have been sustained and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5219,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[83,92,87,88,82,89,90,80],"class_list":["post-5215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-workplace-culture","tag-corporate-culture","tag-employee-engagement","tag-leadership","tag-leading","tag-organisational-culture","tag-ugrs","tag-unwritten-ground-rules","tag-workplace-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stefduplessis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stefduplessis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stefduplessis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefduplessis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefduplessis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5215"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefduplessis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5218,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefduplessis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5215\/revisions\/5218"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefduplessis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stefduplessis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefduplessis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefduplessis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}