Due to globalization, crime rates have been increasing in many countries. In particular, there has been an increase in organized crimes, especially between various countries. Technology, with which crimes are committed nowadays, has highly changed over time from what it used to be several years back. Besides, criminals have been known to have certain characteristics which vary from one place to the other, due to cultural differences. Culture is a unique aspect of human life that differs from one region to the other (Murray, Poole & Jones, 2006). Therefore, security agencies and officers need to understand the cultural background of each suspect, in order to unravel the complexities of modern crimes. In this regard, international cooperation of security agencies in a more organized and different way is inevitable according to Ulrich Koch. However, in his proposal, Koch elucidates divergence from the traditional principals, skills and roles of management.
Traditionally, crime managers just needed to understand the culture of their locality (Adams, 2007). However, according to Koch’s proposal culture has been proved to highly influence the operations of criminals in various European countries. As a result, security agencies need to diverge from their normal way of doing things and embrace new methods. Consequently, police officers have to incorporate into their culture the standard operating procedures of police officers from other nations. It is possible for criminals to cross the borders and perpetrate their deals in other countries (Koch, 1996). When this occurs, the traditional way of crime management where crime managers had a specific culture unique to their country becomes obsolete. In this regard, Koch’s proposal will need a divergence to a holistic approach.
On the same note, nowadays crime has assumed a rather new angle all together. Traditionally, criminals used to be confined to specific regions and especially countries. Consequently, it was easier for security agencies to curb criminal activities, since it was easier to comprehend how they worked. Nowadays, criminal activities have gone global and have incorporated technological aspects. Criminals are well organized and have links in different countries. It is possible to get a crime being organized in one country and executed in another country. In this regard, ancient modes of cooperation that were based mechanically on legal principles cease to be helpful (Griffin, 2011). As a result, the proposals by Koch will require security personnel to understand the ways of operation of people from different countries, which were initially not part of the requirements of security agencies (Koch, 1996).
In addition, police are known to have varying cultures and regiments specific to different countries and this differs from one country to the other. Consequently, the police have been approaching various criminal offences with a closed mind. Managers, therefore, apply their set of assumptions which they have been using from time immemorial. In doing this, security managers assume that they understand the behavior and values of everybody they come across in their line of duty. Unfortunately, this is not the case when it comes to dealing with people from other cultural backgrounds (Murray et al., 2006). Therefore, for intercultural cooperation to succeed, security personnel have to change their approach to crime and be objective. Intercultural human resource management should encompass the cultural perspective in the application of the law, to ensure that people from different cultural settings are treated accordingly. Therefore, police forces will need to approach criminals with the understanding that they may have a different set of assumptions, experiences and habits (Koch, 1996).
On the same note, different countries have different applications of the law. Additionally, organizational structure in different countries is different as well as patterns of behavior. As a result, different nations approach crime in different ways that are unique to them. In this regard, intercultural cooperation will not succeed if structures of organizations from every country are left to be different, from the way traditional mode of cooperation operated (Adams, 2007). Therefore, Koch suggests that the structural management of various organizations within European countries will have to be harmonized for easy coordination. Similarly, police officers need to acquire a harmonized behavior pattern to ensure that cultural differences are well managed. At the same time, harmonized behavior will eliminate or minimize differences in management cultures from different countries (Griffin, 2011).
To achieve common integration and harmonized police culture, contact between officers from different countries should be increased. In this regard, common training of the officials from different countries is necessary. Aside from ensuring that the officers get to understand each other well, common training will help in enhancing sharing of values and assumptions by officers from different countries. On the same note, common training will go a long way in ensuring that stereotyping of organizations from other countries is eliminated, thereby enhancing cooperation. Elimination of stereotyping will also enable managers from various countries to approach crimes objectively, especially when they are committed by people from foreign countries (Murray et al., 2006). Additionally, common training according to Koch will help in fostering the uniform application of the law by the different organizations. Traditionally, common training has never been practiced. Consequently, each country has been left with the role of individual training of their security personnel (Koch, 1996).
Koch also proposes that instead of mechanically insisting on equivalent interior security systems as well as legal procedures, as it has been the tradition, smaller and cross-border task forces would be more effective. In this regard, the smaller groups should be given room to come up with approaches to tackling crimes. According to Koch, this will lead to the emergence of new techniques for dealing with the ever-increasing crime rates. Using smaller task forces that are well experienced on cultural differences, coupled with common training will easily deal with an international organized crime better than the traditionally identical strategy (Koch, 1996).
It is notable that the traditional method of cooperation where police only met when investigating a certain crime, did not foster good relationships between the security officers of different countries. Koch’s proposal diverges from this method of integration, by advocating for the idea of common training. Police will be able to enhance their personal relationships when they attend training together, because they would be having a personal understanding of each other before meeting in the line of duty. Additionally, after attending training in a place where there is diversity in culture, security managers will be able to be culturally conscious and appreciate cultural diversity (Griffin, 2011). On top of that, when security agents from various organizational structures are trained together, they will be able to notice the weaknesses of their approaches to crime and adjust accordingly. It should be noted that the traditional management approach did not allow for adjustment in strategies, because it was difficult for the agents to meet and share their experiences (Adams, 2007).
On the same note, Koch’s proposal advocates for technical approaches to technical crimes which have been on the rise in recent years. In this regard, continuous advancement in the approaches used by security agents is necessary, unlike the traditional methods where the strategies were not advanced. At the same time, the police officers should be trained on cultural orientation, which is the cause of the different behavior exhibited by people. On the contrary, traditional management only insisted on law and crime training, which is subjective and only focuses on a specific culture (Griffin, 2011).
Similarly, Koch proposes training the security managers in different languages to enhance their understanding of people from different cultures (Koch, 1996). At the same time, security experts should be taught the professional terms that are used in different countries, in order to enhance their techniques of dealing with international organized crimes. Moreover, understanding the functioning of different legal structures, as opposed to the application of a unified legal system, is seen as a prerequisite for success in intercultural human resource management (Murray et el., 2006). Besides enhancing common understanding and enhancing relationships among different law enforcement agencies, this will also induce the introduction of new techniques of countering crime.
Criminals have advanced the techniques they use in the execution of their inhuman activities. Gone are the days when a gang could only perpetrate their activities within a given region or country. Nowadays, criminals can conspire with people in different countries and carry out their heinous activities, in regions far away from their place of residence. Therefore, there is a need to have an integrated police service that will bring together personnel from various countries, and use different approaches in curbing crime. Koch’s proposal looks at international crime from a cultural perspective and how it can be approached. On the contrary, traditional managers of security used a mechanical-legal approach to crime (Koch, 1996).
References
Adams, J. D. (2007). Managing People in Organizations: Contemporary Theory and Practice. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Griffin, R. W. (2011). Fundamentals of management. Stanford: Cengage Learning.
Koch, U. (1996). Intercultural Human Resource Management for Police Cooperation in Europe. Web.
Murray, P., Poole, D., & Jones, G. (2006). Contemporary Issues in Management and Organizational Behavior. Stanford: Cengage Learning.