Six Major Findings and Analysis
Company Demographics
1. Global 500—These companies rated the risk for terrorism and violent crime significantly higher than non-Global 500 companies, and the lack of legal and administrative compliance was rated significantly lower. Global 500 firms are more likely to be targets of terrorism and violent crime because the perpetrators will get more publicity due to the recognized brand name of the company, and these companies are likely to represent a Western ideology with financial resources that can more easily be exploited. Additionally, the Global 500 perceive the lack of legal and administrative compliance as a lesser risk, possibly because they are more used to operating under the rule of law, and have more internal and external resources to ensure compliance.
2. Company size—The perception of risk for various threats to employees is higher in larger companies than medium- and small-sized companies. Because large companies have more employees, a greater worldwide presence and a more globally mobile workforce, the probability of an incident having occurred with one of their employees is higher so they are more likely to have gained greater awareness of the risk.
For 10 of the 37 threats, the differences are statistically significant, with small companies (less than 1,000 employees) perceiving the risks for certain threats to be higher (for infectious diseases, rural isolation and remoteness, language and cultural estrangement, and lack of administrative compliance) than larger companies (over 1,000 employees).
Meanwhile, small companies perceive the risk to their employees to be significantly lower for other types of threats (such as violent crime, organized crime, earthquakes and hurricanes/typhoons/ tsunamis) than very large companies (10,000+ employees). Small companies have fewer employees, are generally less targeted and are more likely to be local. This is, however, not the case for illness, administrative compliance and remoteness, since small companies are likely to have fewer resources than large companies to provide on-site medical assistance and an infrastructure (such as a separate expatriate compound) for their international assignees and accompanying dependents.
3. Sector/Industry—The perception of risk varies within different sectors/industries. Educational institutions perceive the risk for terrorism, kidnapping, hijacking, piracy, lawlessness and chronic diseases to be significantly lower than corporations. International NGOs, on the other hand, perceive many risks to be significantly higher than other sectors (especially corporations and educational institutions) like political risks (coup d’état, political upheaval, insurgency, war and civil unrest), diseases (infectious, travel-related and chronic), and rural isolation and remoteness. Yet, compared to governmental organization, NGOs rate only rural isolation as a significantly higher risk. It is possible that educational institutions are basically “unaware” (i.e., are
uneducated in regard to Duty of Care responsibilities) and therefore underestimate the risk of threats.
NGOs and government agencies have much greater awareness of these types of threats because they, as part of their mission, often go to volatile countries related to political danger. Government organizations do not rate remoteness as a high risk because they export their “military base” structure and ideology, thereby reducing isolation during deployment, while NGOs are more likely to adopt some of the traits of the locals in their style of living.
The perception of risk is also very different by industry with 21 out of 37 threats revealing statistically significant differences (see Figure 8). Three industries demonstrate considerable threats: energy and natural resources; NGO and non-profit industry (with generally higher levels of risk perception); and educational institutions (with lower levels of risk perception). Educational institutions may establish branches in more urban areas and may be less aware of risk to their employees (even though they may be aware of the risks to their traveling students). The energy and natural resources industry perceive higher levels of risk for kidnapping, hijacking, piracy, lawlessness, violent crime, chronic disease and work accidents than any other industry. NGOs and non-profit organizations perceive much higher levels of risk for war, insurgency, political upheaval, coup d’état and illness than other industries. The energy and natural resources industry and NGOs/non-profits perceive significantly higher levels of risk for rural isolation since they are often operational in countries that are politically volatile and operate in remote areas. The energy and natural resources industry is familiar with "safety" issues because of their line of work and, being more attuned to the dangers than other industries, they perceive the risk of threats to be much higher.
4. HQ location—Twenty of the 37 threats reveal statistically significant perception differences by headquarter location. In general, companies headquartered in Sub-Saharan Africa perceive the risk of various threats for their employees to be highest, while companies headquartered in the Middle East and North Africa have the lowest risk perception. The lower perceptions of risk by Middle Eastern and North African companies may be due to the fact that Duty of Care (and duty to employees) is usually less ingrained in these societies, independent of the actual danger of the locations in which they operate.
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