Influence of Strategic Characteristics on Business Continuity Management of Private Security Firms in Kenya

Abstract

Business continuity management (BCM) has gained wide acceptance in recent years and it is key for the survival of any contemporary organization during crisis. Therefore, modern organizations have to reconsider the significance of creating awareness and being prepared for the unexpected. This is so because in the event a catastrophe happens, it may interrupt an organization’s daily operations. Companies must fully understand the importance of this concept and the impact it could have on the organization. Adequate and effective actions and procedures should be in place to address the organization’s business continuity threats. The goal of this study was to explore the influence of strategic planning practices on BCM by testing the proposed model and propose strategies for BCM that could be adopted in the company emergency management and business continuity in Kenyan private security firms. Further, the study explored the different business continuity practices at security firms, threats that an organization faces (internal and external), and the concept and principles of an effective business continuity management plan to address and manage such threats. At the moment, BCM arrangement is mainly done on an operational or tactical level. Contemporary management proposes that BCM planning should be an active part of the firm’s overall strategic planning processes. By way of a comprehensive literature study on BCM as well as an empirical survey of established business continuity practices at private security firms, the proposed research fell within the domain of pragmatic worldview employing a mixed approach methodology hence utilizing both quantitative and qualitative paradigms. The target population was staff and other stakeholders of private security organizations. The sample comprised 201 employees selected through stratified random sampling and purposive sampling. Questionnaires were used to collect data and were analyzed using factor analysis, correlation and multiple regression analysis. The strategic planning practice dimensions of private security firms were analyzed from data of 180 respondents to identify the most significant dimensions contributing towards BCM in private security firms through correlation and multiple regression analyses. It became evident that organizational structure and style have a positive and

significant influence on BCM. It is also worth noting that organizational resources have a positive but non-significant influence on BCM while a negative significant influence existed between organizational systems and BCM. Empirical evidence also suggests no moderating effect of government policies on the relationship between strategic planning practices and BCM. The study concluded that all the four dimensions of strategy are key influencers of BCM. It emerged that BCM is essential part to overall organization health that all sectors of business need to identify with since it is dependent on clearly defined strategic plans through planning by management. The study recommends that for any organization striving to become successful in every single day of their activities they must embrace good strategies that support BCM. Thus, there is need to support the existence of an integrated framework for BCM and strategic practices and planning. This is because the extensive and in-depth research and its findings had been extracted from reliable sources that have been approved with the intention of providing guidance for BCM implementations. This research’s sampling limitations revolve around the model fit which is confined in a single service industry – private security firms with operations in Kenya therefore dictate careful generalization of findings. Furthermore, other stakeholders in the industry for example customers and suppliers were not included in the sample. The study was also limited in the data analysis techniques where in such a research more complex techniques could have enhanced study findings. Since BCM studies are rare in the Kenyan context, areas for future research are recommended.