Part IV
Control Processes in
Police Management
Chapter 15
Change
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Learning Objectives
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Understand the goals of organizational change.
List the steps used to assess the need for change.
Understand the process of designing and implementing change.
Discuss the modern method of “organizational development.”
Understand the potential risks of reform, including types of
resistance and steps for overcoming them.
6. Outline the various approaches to change, including types of
resistance and steps for overcoming them.
7. Understand specific types of change occurring in police
organizations at the present time.
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Essential Elements for Successful
Police Change
• The chief must have an abiding and energetic commitment to
the values of the change.
• The chief must be the institutional leader in the change by
motivating and even manipulating the personnel.
• The chief must defend the change once it is achieved.
• Change is not likely to happen unless there is public support
for it.
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Why Change Occurs
• The police department has been deemed deficient.
• Police-community relations have suffered because of
misconduct, scandal, or other wrongdoing.
• Morale in the department is suffering.
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Goals of Police Organizational Change
• Promotion of participatory management models
– Change to attract and retain high-quality personnel
– Expansion maximizes individual officer’s potential
• Resolving and preventing problems
• Adapting and planning
– Agencies are not static; they don’t exist in a vacuum
– Must anticipate future problems and special conditions
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Assessing the Need for Change
• External Consultants
– Paid to identify problems and recommend solutions
– View the organization objectively, but can be self-serving
– Should be utilized only as the last resort
• Internal Resources
– Personnel must have participatory roles in the self-study
– They must have autonomy of action, decision, and choice
– The group culture must be built around a cause to which it can be
committed
– A meaningful future must be offered as the outcome
– The organization must allow a natural leader to emerge
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Designing and Implementing
Organizational Change
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Identifying a performance gap
Recognition of a need for change
Creating a proper climate for change
Diagnosing the problem
Identifying alternative change strategies
Selecting the change strategy
Determining and operationalizing the implementation strategy
Evaluating and modifying the change strategy
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Identifying a Performance Gap
• A performance gap is the difference between the
expected behavior and the actual behavior.
• A performance gap exists:
– whenever the police are not performing at the level the
community or the organization wants or needs them to perform
– whenever the police are not performing the functions that the
community or the organization wants or needs them to perform
– when an agency has a high incidence of excessive use of force
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Recognition of a Need for Change
• The most important consideration is to make a change
only when it will measurably improve the agency.
• The larger the performance gap and the more important
the area of performance is to the agency or the
community, the greater the need for change.
• The smart administrator is open to addressing the
performance gap and is personally involved in fixing it.
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Creating a Proper Climate
for Change
• The proper climate for change exists when the
organization:
– makes change a part of its routine business
– encourages participation by suggesting and implementing change
• Four factors:
–
–
–
–
Perceived need for change
Perceived openness of the organization to change
Potential for change within the organization
Perceived possibility of participation by the police officer in implementing
change
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Diagnosing the Problem
• Proper diagnosis in a department depends on:
– A thorough knowledge of organizational behavior and theory
– A thorough understanding of the history and current status of the
department
– Adequate questioning to find the source of the problem
• The best diagnosis comes when the administrator also
asks police officers what they consider to be the problem
and what they want the organization to be.
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Selecting the Change Strategy
• Factors to consider include:
–
–
–
–
Availability of resources (personnel and equipment)
Reaction of personnel and community to the potential change
Potential outcome of the change strategy
Amount of effort needed to implement the change in comparison
to the possible outcome
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Determining and Operationalizing the
Implementation Strategy
• The one indispensable ingredient to planned change is
assertive commitment on the part of the police chief
– Change must move from the top down
– The chief’s charisma is of special significance
• The implementation strategy and the implementation itself
must be designed and accomplished while minimizing the
risks to the organization.
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Organizational Development
•
•
•
•
•
•
Deals with the whole organization or divisions within organizations
Uses behavioral science research to improve leadership, motivation, and
other factors
Is adaptive and flexible
Focuses on productivity and quality of life within the organization
Technostructural strategy focuses on organizational structure, workflow,
task accomplishment, and performance
Human processual approach focuses on needs of employees and is
directed toward improving communication and other group processes
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
The Organizational Development
Process
1. Diagnosis
–
Gathering data
2. Intervention
–
–
–
–
Process consultation
Team building
Third-party intervention
Technostructural activities
3. Evaluation
–
Ensures that changes are producing desired results
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Risks Associated with Change
• Broad factors:
– The environment
– Organizational characteristics
– Human cognition
• In other words:
– External forces (political pressure)
– Internal problems (lack of communication)
– Human decisions (reluctance to pursue reforms enthusiastically)
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Resistance to Change
• Tokenism
– When people who appear to be contributing to a program
actually only make a small (token) contribution
• Massive resistance
– Organizational participants who pour all their energies into
resisting change
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Minimizing Resistance
•
Unfreezing
–
•
Changing
–
•
The administrator’s efforts to have subordinates learn the newly required behaviors
Refreezing
–
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Identifying the source of resistance
Reinforcing new behaviors
Education and communication
Participation and involvement
Facilitation and support
Negotiation and agreement
Manipulation and cooptation
Explicit and implicit coercion
Force-field analysis
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Approaches to Change
• Individual change
• Organizational structure and systems change
• Organizational climate and interpersonal style change
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Individual Change
• Utilizes education, training, socialization, and attitude
change as intervention techniques
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Organizational Structure and Systems
Change
• Modifying actual organizational practices, procedures,
and policies that affect what people do at work
• Intended outcome is the creation of conditions that elicit
and reward behavior that facilitates organizational goal
achievement
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Organizational Climate and
Interpersonal Style Change
• Aimed at increasing members’ awareness of social
determinants of their behavior
• Helping people learn new ways of relating to and reacting to
each other within the organizational context
• Creation of systemwide climate change characterized by:
– High personal trust
– Openness
– Reduction of the dysfunctional consequences of excessive social
conflict and competitiveness
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Police Organizational Change
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Participative management
Flattening the organization
Community policing
Civilianization
Police-community collaboration
Interdepartmental cooperation
Homeland security
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Participative Management
• The police serve, learn from, and are accountable to the
community
• Together, they are co-producers of crime prevention
• Think-tank approach
• Neighborhood police team
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Flattening the Organization
• Vertical differentiation
– The distance from the bottom to the top of the organization
– Those in favor of organizational flattening favor reductions through:
• Developing more informal managerial channels
• Reducing the levels of command
• Administrative density
– Refers to the size of the administrative component of the organization
– Those in favor of organizational flattening desire reductions in the
administrative component
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Community Policing
•
•
•
•
Philosophical
Strategic
Programmatic
Proactive
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Civilianization
• Utilizing civilians instead of sworn police officers in
positions not specifically requiring the authority of a
sworn officer
• Allows police to concentrate on highly skilled police tasks
• Civilians perform routine and communications tasks
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Police-Community Collaboration
• Citizen advisory committees to police agencies
• Police representation on existing community and
government agencies
• Neighborhood watch groups
• Community action groups
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Future Trends and Challenges
• The future of policing in America will be affected by
several factors:
–
–
–
–
–
–
Continuing shifts in the nation’s demographics
Police will have to tailor their search for qualified applicants
Police will have to offer attractive wage and benefits packages
Diversity in the ranks will have to be encouraged
Technology is rapidly changing the face of crime
High-tech crime poses new challenges
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning