WACKENHUT (GLOBAL SECURITY)

JOSEPH B MEADOWS

HISTORY OF WACKENHUT

• America’s largest private security firm

• Founded in 1954 (Miami) by four FBI agents

• Provides security to prisons, nuclear facilities, and military

installations

• Staff US embassies around the world

HISTORY OF WACKENHUT

• 650,000 employees worldwide

• Wackenhut is the American arm of G4S Security Services LLC

• Extremely large PCA operating quasi military/police at all levels of

government

• Provide operation security guards and security forces to

government facilities

• Operate high percentage of non-government correction

facilities within the United States

MULTIFACETED APPROACH TO MARKETS

• Wackenhut provides:

• Cybersecurity

• Physical security

• Personal security

• Location/site security

• Correction Officers

VALUES CORRECTION (2015)

• As a result of several negative incidents with Wackenhut personnel,

the company completed an internal policy review. The company was

determined to institute changes in operating procedures to ensure a

change in conduct throughout the workforce.

• Focus was shifted from mission first to teamwork, integrity, respect

and excellence.

• This policy change has reduced the instances of reported incidents

with Wackenhut employees.

DIVERSITY AT WACKENHUT

• Wackenhut hires it’s “line personnel” from the country in which

the contract is conducted. As such, they have a diverse

workforce (albeit 83% male).

• Their board of directors and executive board is dominated by

whites with 23% being females.

• Corrections officers at Wackenhut in the United States are

better educated than their peers at other facilities, being

required to have a bachelors degree to obtain employment.

ORGANIZED STRUCTURE

• Scalar chain – There is a very rigid chain of command enforced

at Wackenhut with information passed down from the board of

directors to Project Managers to Supervisors to Employees (line

workers)

• Every aspect of Fayol’s principles can be observed at work in

Wackenhut. As the company deals with security this is to be

expected to a certain degree, however this company has taken

it to a higher level than others.

SARA LOWE CASE

• Wackenhut opened a facility and hired substandard employees (depending on the company name to ensure contract success)

• Inmates were raped

• Inmates were tortured/beaten

• Inmates were sold/given drugs

• The facility was taken over by the Louisiana Department of Corrections as a result of a DOJ report and multiple complaints of inmates.

• This case is an example of the breakdown of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. With the guards not properly supervised by their superiors, they in turn did not properly perform their duties. Over time their treatment of inmates worsened to the point of sadistic abuse.

BUILDING A BETTER WORKFORCE

• Two priorities arose from incidents like the Lowe case and they can be seen in the company’s new employee material.

• Foremost is the desire to increase teamwork, integrity, and commitment within the ranks. These words are seen throughout all of Wackenhut and GS4 online presence. The Montreal school would show that this is to instill these values in the reader through repetition.

• Secondly is the incident reporting system incorporated by the company. Wackenhut encourages employees to report any violations to superiors (or authorities) for internal investigation and third party investigation if warranted.

DEAL AND KENNEDY GOES BAD

• Values and Beliefs

• Guards are doing the right thing

• Security is paramount

• Criminals deserve Punishment

• Heroes

• Team Leaders with seniority know what’s right

• Rites and Rituals

• Cultural Network

• New employees were taught by older employees how to “bend” the rules

• Atmosphere of “our house” grew around the guards

• When the concepts forwarded by Deal and Kennedy are allowed to be corrupted they lead to what transpired in the civilian penal system in Louisiana. Guards gradually became more and more barbaric to the inmates as new employees were trained and they were in turn training newer staff.

• In essence it was a dark parody of the concept if such a term can be used.

CONFLICT MANAGEMENT

RIGHT

• Fire offender

• Report offender to authorities

• Keep file on offender to

ensure he/she is not rehired

WRONG

• Transfer offender to another

Wackenhut facility

• Allow subordinates of offender

to conduct investigation of

complaints

• Allow offender to resign w/o

investigation or report to

authorities

OMAR MATEEN

• Tragically, The Orlando nightclub shooter that killed 49

Americans, was also an employee of G4S Security. His

coworkers have come forward and made statements that they

had complained on numerous occasions about his use of racial

and homophobic slurs.

• This is another example of the G4S/Wackenhut family of

companies failing to follow through with company policy. This

is not to say that this tragedy could have been prevented, only

that his actions should have been a “red flag” to his superiors.

POLICY ENFORCEMENT

• Policy as it applies to employees and environment must be

applied and enforced

• This is especially important in cases like Wackenhut in which a

company is trying to rebuild/rebrand a company

• Simply changing company policy is not enough. Enforced

compliance is the only sure way to guarantee employees meet

standards. Those that do not should be removed from the

workforce.

HOW TO FIX WACKENHUT

• As of 2015, Wackenhut is organized and operated on a classical

system. The problem with this approach is that the product the

company deals with is human beings.

• Small group leaders (supervisors) must be screened and selected

based on qualifications. Once hired they must be granted authority to

make decisions at ground level (human relations approach).

• With this authority will come a sense of responsibility (as well as a

higher caliber of entry level supervisors at initial point).

THIRD PARTY AUDITS

• Currently Wackenhut facilities are inspected by state and

federal correctional administrations.

• Wackenhut should contract for third party independent audits

of random facilities. This will:

• Give accurate account of facility security

• Give accurate account of inmate well being

• Give accurate account of employee knowledge

CULTURAL KNOWLEDGE

• When guards at facilities train new employees to do the wrong

thing this becomes the new norm.

• When those employees train a further set of new employees,

this behavior becomes cultural knowledge

• Cultural knowledge will be seen as superior to synoptic

knowledge in many cases, as employees will not see the

“manual standard” being performed in daily operations

MAKING THE STANDARDS THE STANDARD

• Communication is the key to building company performance

• Having them read/learn one standard, then having them perform

another standard is counterproductive

• Employees will follow the standards set for them by their

supervisors

• Do the same things you expect from you subordinates

• Multiple sets of standards is counterproductive

• Removal of those that cannot make the standard is paramount,

especially in the “build phase”.

POLICY MUST BE ENFORCED

• Simply having a system for reporting poor behavior is

not enough. There must be proper follow-through to

ensure the reports are investigated and behavior is

admonished (or reported to police).

•As seen in Louisiana, if reports are taken and filed a

system breaks down and employees realize that any

behavior becomes acceptable.

QUESTIONS FOR WACKENHUT

• As an employee, would communications between myself and

superiors be conducted so as to ensure a record was kept?

• As a manager and/or site supervisor would I have the potential

to make corrections to substandard performance on initial

assessment?

• Does Wackenhut secure with foreign nations agreements

similar to the United States SOFA (Status of Forces Agreements)

QUESTIONS FOR WACKENHUT

• Seeing as how Wackenhut secures contracts with varying types

of installations and facilities, do employees require special

training prior to applying for positions or does Wackenhut

provide training/clearances once hired?

• Seeing as the job requirements of Wackenhut tend to be high

stress, high paced, long-houred, and many have an element of

potential bodily harm to the employee; does the company

prefer to hire individuals that are single so as to limit potential

distractions at the workplace?

WORK CITED• Anonymous. 2000. Locked Inside a Nightmare; Wackenhut’s Private Prisons Scrutinized.

CBS News. Viewed 07 November, 2016. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/locked-

inside-a-nightmare/

• Levine, Drew. 2009. G4S Wackenhut. GSN. Viewed 10 November, 2016.

http://gsnmagazine.com/videos/20082/g4s_wackenhut

• Onyanga-Omara, Jane. 2016. Orlando Shooters Employer G4S Found Nothing of

Concern. USA Today. Viewed 09 November, 2016.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/06/13/orlando-shooter-

worked-security-firm- g4s/85817466/

• Soylent Staff. 2016. Wackenhut. NNDB. Viewed 08 November, 2016.

http://www.nndb.com/company/584/000053425/

• Staff. 2016. G4S Global Integrated Security Company. G4S. Viewed 05 November, 2016.

http://www.g4s.com/en/