answer original forum with a minimum of 500 words and respond to both students separately with a minimum of 250 words each

please follow directions or I will dispute 

page one original with references 

page 2 stacy response with references 

page 3 John Response with references 

original forum 

Is it feasible for a loss prevention manager to assume all of the duties of a risk manager, besides those of loss prevention? Why or why not?

student Response 

stacy

Although it is possible for a loss prevention manager to assume all of the duties of a risk manager, it is not feasible due to a variety of reasons. Loss prevention managers are tasked with protecting assets and preventing losses while risk managers are tasked with identifying and measuring losses; however, they share the goal of minimizing losses but through different avenues.

Loss prevention managers are responsible for protecting assets such as property, people, and money through the use of physical security measures and loss prevention staff. Risk management is concerned with financial loss while loss prevention is concerned with physical loss. Risk measures the chance of an occurrence by measuring threat and vulnerability while loss prevention attempts to prevent the occurrence through detection and deterrence. (Russell & Arlow, 2015) Loss prevention managers are concerned with what’s in front of them while risk managers are concerned with the long-term future. Risk managers provide guidelines and make recommendations used by loss prevention managers such as set security goals, identify assets, assess risks, establish priorities, implement protective programs, and measure effectiveness. (Lee, 2008)

An argument has been made that “those who believe that security is in principle risk-averse find it difficult to explain, and certainly hard to understand, how the concept of security can be reconciled with voluntary risk-taking and confined to an accepted standard of losses. The contrary argument is that some minor risks and losses are anyway to be accepted because scarce resources should be directed towards more important ones.” (Manunta, 1999, p. 63) In other words, loss prevention/security managers find it difficult to consider accepting any losses of any scale while risk managers anticipate those losses and attempt to measure them as though they are inevitable versus devoting resources to preventing loss from occurring in the first place. Because of this difference in outlooks, it doesn’t seem that one manager would be effective in overseeing these conflicting ideologies.

In my role as a loss prevention/security manager, I’ve relied on knowledge from multiple disciplines to effectively carry out my job duties such as human resources for employee-related investigations and infractions, engineering for fire life safety including fire alarms, fire pumps, and sprinkler valves; and safety for reduction of workers’ compensation claims resulting from workplace injuries. People often ask me how I know so many different subjects and my answer is that being a security manager requires a little knowledge about a lot of topics to be an effective and successful decision-maker and problem solver. Risk management also coincides with engineering and safety, but an engineering or safety manager wouldn’t assume the role of risk manager just as a loss prevention manager wouldn’t or shouldn’t.

It’s beneficial for both loss prevention and risk managers to have knowledge of the other’s field but if one was to take on both roles, one of the fields would suffer as they both deserve and require a great deal of attention that is nearly impossible for one person to provide, thus leading to the failure of one or both. It is feasible, however, for there to be a single individual who oversees both the loss prevention and risk management departments such as a corporate executive that both loss prevention managers and risk managers report to directly.

References

Lee, E. (2008). Homeland Security and Private Sector Business. Boca Raton: CRC Press, https://doiorg.ezproxy1.apus.edu/10.1201/9781420070798

Manunta, G. (1999). What is security? Security Journal, 12(3), 57–66. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/230355077/

Russell, D. L., & Arlow, P. C. (2015). Industrial security: Managing security in the 21st century. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

john 

Hello Professor and Classmates,

 Is it feasible for a loss prevention manager to assume all of the duties of a risk manager, besides those of loss prevention? Why or why not?

I do not think it is feasible for a loss prevention manager to assume all of the duties of a risk manager. They are two entirely jobs and placing such a load of work on a manager may then bring oversight to the position and the business as a whole.

Both risk management and loss prevention share many of the same duties or concerns, but they should not be compiled together for one manager to handle. One of the main differences that can be seen is that of disaster recovery. Disasters can happen in many different forms and requires a great deal of pre-emptive planning.

It also requires collaboration from an expert with the local community. Thus, much of the work being done needs to be performed with external elements of the business. Risk managers are looking at a variety of risks that threaten the business. In contrast loss prevention managers are more concerned with protecting the assets of the company.

The processes of both (loss prevention and risk management) are also different as well. Take risk analysis for instance. This looks at the risk of an organization in terms of qualitative and quantitative analysis. Thus, there is a vast amount of information that needs to be analyzed in order to figure out the level of risk that may come from different scenarios.

Having a manager that needs to oversee the loss protection team for instance is enough work. Dealing with scheduling, reports, inventory and controlling the assets is a task in its own. Now add in external threats, risk assessments, risk analysis, risk management objectives and there is an array of work to be had.

I think depending on the size of the organization would matter as well. If there is already a team in place for loss prevention, then it is going to be difficult for that manager to take time away from them and focus on risk management.

If an organization were to place all this under one department, there may be issues with manpower and expertise. Loss prevention personnel and risk management personnel share some characteristics, but they do come from different backgrounds.

I fully believe that it is more beneficial two have two managers that work together in collaboration with the risk and losses facing an organization. One of the biggest reasons I feel that this cannot be a role in the same is that loss prevention handles the physical assets of an organization. That being securing the property and people in it. Whereas risk management is focused on the financial gain or loss from any risks that may come about.

Having two expert managers in each position is far more beneficial to the organization. By working together the manager of the loss prevention team can help explain what assets they feel are expensive or worth more for instance. They may have more expertise in the security equipment being placed in it, yet the risk manager may understand better how to insure it properly against possible theft or destruction.

John