Capabilities and competencies for innovation management in security organisations

Security organisations are often faced with the challenge of keeping pace with innovation processes required to deal with an environment that is highly dynamic, highly complex and faces a huge level of uncertainty. Therefore, it is important that security organisations possess the necessary capability and competencies needed to manage their innovation process effectively and efficiently in order to meet both organisational and societal needs. This paper considers the issue of capabilities and competencies for the management of innovation in security organisations, who have generally not been systematic in their implementation of innovation management practices. Using qualitative data from case studies of security and non-security organisations, we identify the specific characteristics of security organisations that influence their requirements for innovation, as well as identify the areas of commonality with other non-security organisations to see if models of innovation management successfully implemented elsewhere have relevance and application for security organisations. Our initial analysis emphasise the importance of internal capabilities, but also possession of capabilities to access competencies that are external to the organisation, are critical to turn ambitious innovation strategies into concrete outcomes. Innovation can help security organisations deal with current as well as emerging threats in new and better ways, and also improve their resilience to deal with future threats. However, the culture of innovation in security organisation appears to be lacking, and there is a tendency of the “not invented here” syndrome. Nonetheless, we also find that security organisations are not so unique that successful practices from other sectors cannot be transferred. We therefore suggest some innovation management practices that are relevant for security organisations and in particular the ways in which security organisations can improve their capabilities and competencies for effective innovation management.