Chapter 15 Review & Chpter 1 review #2 Flashcards
- State five reasons when change should not be made.
- The knowledge, skill, or other resources needed to carry out the change effectively do not exist inside the department.
- An appropriately experienced external change agent is not presently available.
- The effort of making the change is greater than any benefits to be derived. Former Georgia Governor Zell Miller expressed this as “the juice isn’t worth the squeezing.” This principle can also be stated as “all motion isn’t progress; some of it is just thrashing around.”
- Collateral damage, such as abandonment by key supporters or significant union opposition, may lead chiefs to use their limited stack of “political chips” on another issue of greater concern to them and the community.
- Too much change is already underway in the department and the nature of the change is not sufficiently important to make now, versus its potential for personnel to feel confused about priorities or conclude that the organization is becoming unstable.
- What are the three steps in Kurt Lewin’s model on organizational change?
- Unfreezing—Officers, like all other people, get into their “comfort zones.” Before change can occur, they have to be “unfrozen” from the perceptions and behaviors that are presently part of who they are and how they approach their jobs. Often, this is accomplished by creating a sense of urgency that the present way of doing things is deficient in some way and that a shift to some new procedures will produce better results more efficiently. This tactic is known as “disconfirmation” because, to some degree, it invalidates what is presently being done. The heart of unfreezing is making people be receptive to change. 2. Moving—This is a transitional phase in which officers actually experience the changes that were planned; there will be less resistance if officers are, to the maximum extent possible, included in the planning process and feel that they have some impact in shaping events. While chiefs do make top-down decisions that constitute major change, such as to begin using Compstat, there is ample room to involve sworn and civilian personnel from across the agency on the details of implementation, such as the design of forms to capture data and what types of data are most useful for planning various types of operations. The use of officers on task forces or committees cannot be symbolic or gratuitous; such motives will be “sniffed out” immediately and provoke an unpleasant set of dynamics for the chief to preside over.
- Refreezing—The purpose of this phase is for officers to make permanent the changes they experienced in the previous phase, part of the normal way in which they see things, think about them, and behave. Some of the refreezing can be accomplished by appealing to the professionalism of officers—“When we get this thing fully up and running, everybody in the state will be looking at us, wondering how we got so far ahead of them.” However, drawing upon the lessons learned from the shift from traditional policing to community policing, resistance tapered off and refreezing occurred faster when departmental awards were realigned with community policing goals, such as recognition for enrolling 25 businesses in a crime prevention program. Thus, as part of any large-scale change process, the use of awards to reinforce the desired behaviors should be carefully considered.
- What are the five steps in the traditional action research model?
- Recognizing the need for change—Without this awareness, it is simply “business as usual” for police agencies. The change awareness may come from the need to implement the provisions of a Supreme Court decision or a consent decree entered into in partial settlement of a civil liability suit. The department’s planning and research unit may have identified lapses in performance that need to be addressed or unusual opportunities on which to capitalize, such as the availability of federal grants to implement community policing programs or to upgrade crime scene investigation capabilities. Individual officers, supervisors, command staff members, or the union may make written recommendations in the form of memos or completed staff work that leads to change. Additionally, any of the situations discussed in the earlier section “Why Change Occurs” can take place, such as a new chief being hired with a mandate to make specific changes in the department’s operating philosophy, organizational structure, programs and policies, and procedures. 2. Assessing/diagnosing the situation—Two fundamental tasks in assessing the situation must be executed flawlessly: (a) determining the opportunity or the problem—care must be taken to make sure that attention is given to the real problem and not a symptom of it, and (b) determining the gap or difference between what is now happening and what the department would like to have happen. In order to accomplish these twin objectives, data must be gathered. Sources of such data include 911, training, and other records, surveys of personnel and clients, and reviews of disciplinary records and litigation trends. 3. Action planning—The gap or difference between what is happening and what is desirable is the zone of impact, where meaningful change can occur if something significant is selected to work on. The chief must decide who will be in charge of the change process. Internal candidates for this responsibility know the organization, its capabilities, and its personnel but may lack the necessary skills to lead an effective intervention or may not have the time to devote to the change As mentioned earlier, it is crucial to involve people from throughout the department and to have a continuous stream of information flowing to all personnel through posting on the department’s intranet, announcements at rollcall, information posted on bulletin boards, and the dissemination of memos and newsletters. When officers don’t know what is going on, the rumor mill works overtime, seldom to the benefit of the process or the changes being implemented. In many instances, officers serve on one or more task forces or committees involved in the change. For example, officers may be appointed to a steering task force, which has overall responsibility for the change, or the information coordination committee, which is charged with providing the continuing and timely flow of information to everyone in the department. Many lower-ranking officers are field-oriented and may chafe at being in meetings, particularly if they become restless at the slow progress being made initially, cannot immediately see any benefit from the work of the committee, or have doubts about whether it can really make a difference. 4 Ultimately, a written plan identifying the process to be used and the results desired will be produced during the action planning phase, with responsibilities assigned for all activities. 4. Change Intervention/Implementation. This is when the action plans are implemented. It is not the end of the process but rather the end of the beginning. As the various activities are set in motion, their progress must be carefully monitored against the time lines and standards established during the previous phase. 5. Evaluation. This is best accomplished by a series of informative, scheduled reports and periodic personnel checking through observation and conversations with personnel involved at various levels of the department. The two most common needs during this time are (a) the need to further articulate or increase the level of detail in plans and (b) the need to initiate corrective action because the time lines initially set were too ambitious and cannot be met or the activities have somehow otherwise gotten off track (e.g., an equipment supplier cannot make delivery as previously agreed upon). As the decision makers receive evaluative information, the process loops back to step 1, recognizing the need for change, and the process repeats itself.
- What are the most common overlapping arguments commonly made for involving employees in workplace decision making?
Three overlapping arguments are commonly made for involving rank-and-file officers in the decision-making process: •
It heightens morale and commitment. •It develops democratic skills and habits. •It makes for better decisions. Scholars addressing this issue
- Why do organizational change efforts sometimes fail?
External threats to change initiatives can present themselves as budgetary setbacks, a lack of support or misunderstandings from citizens, or opposition by a newly elected politically powerful official. Internal threats to change initiative also come in many forms. These include, but are not limited to, a lack of leadership commitment, a conflicting organizational culture, or as earlier suggested in this chapter, a lack of support or understanding from the employees involved in the change. 10
- What are the three models regarding officer receptivity to planned organizational change?
- A life experiences/life chances model 2. An officer/organizational subculture model 3. An organizational/structural model
- What are ways to make organizational change succeed?
Use Coaching as a Tool to Facilitate Organizational Change Set Flexible Priorities Assemble Resources Seize Opportunities Create Opportunities Follow Through
three most important paradigm shifts in the last 30 years of policing have been:
three most important paradigm shifts in the last 30 years of policing have been: (l) individual identification by DNA, which has created demands for new skills, training, and procedures in investigation, especially in the areas of evidence identification, collection, preservation and processing, as well as quantum leaps in clearing decades old cold cases and exonerating those who were erroneously convicted; (2) the shift from the traditional policing model, responding to incidents, to the widespread adoption of the community policing model; and (3) the development of fusion centers in the wake of the multiple terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, such as the San Diego Regional Threat Assessment Center, which is creating significant new roles for local law enforcement agencies.
- Identify eight recurring reasons why change occurs in law enforcement agencies.
A single catastrophic event,
A new mayor is elected and the current chief is A key political figure suffers a major embarrassment and feels the law enforcement agency is to blame,
A chief of police retires,
new sheriff is elected
sheriff decided to remove his legal advertising from the town’s daily newspaper and run it in the town’s small, weekly newspaper
The chief’s conduct or style becomes an issue that leads to his or her dismissal.
Morale in the police department is low, too many things seem to be going wrong,
The reformation period had two immediate needs
arousing public from it’s apathy
creating a model for improvement by separating politics and administration
the scientific management bureaucratic model and administrative theory was because of whose publications?
The politics/administration dichotomy was not abandoned and that?
white’s and willoughby
They both endorsed the 1924 city managers code of political neutrality
What progress was produced during the reformation period?
produced the movement toward reducing corruption, wast, fraud, and abuse in the government
Military model:
more staff positions to do specialized work, line inspections, staff inspections, written policies and procedures, enhanced training increased accountability and widespread adoption of bureaucratic form of organization
what was the Volstead act?
When did the Volstead act take place?
The Volstead act is in correlation to the ____ amendment?
Prohibition (1919)
18 Amendment
did more damage to image of L.E.
When did congress abolish prohibition?
1931