Security risk management: A psychometric map of expert knowledge structure

Abstract

The security industry operates within a diverse and multi-disciplined knowledge base, with risk management as a fundamental knowledge domain within security to mitigate its risks. Nevertheless, there has been limited research in understanding and mapping security expert knowledge structures within security risk management to consider if parts of security risk management are unique from more general risk management. This interpretive study applied a technique of multidimensional scaling (MDS) to develop and present a psychometric map within the knowledge domain of security risk management, validated with expert interviews. The psychometric MDS security risk management concept map presented the expert knowledge structure of security risk management, demonstrating the inclusive and spatial locality of significant security risk concepts, conceptual complexity, uniqueness of the domain and the importance of the concept threat. Understanding security experts’ consensual knowledge of security risk may allow improved understanding of threat-based risk, the issue with applying probabilistic risk analysis against antagonist events, and improved teaching and learning within this knowledge domain.