Transcript Bureaucracy (Max Weber)

Development of Police Management
Classical police management: Bureaucracy
(Max Weber)
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Characteristics that organizations need in order to
operate on a rational basis
Bureaucratic Organization is designed to:
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maximize effectiveness by which an
organization’s goals are accomplished
maximize efficiency by getting the most done at
the least cost
control uncertainty by regulating workers,
supplies, markets, etc.
Police Administration
Modern Police Organization exhibits all of
these bureaucratic traits:
•Specialization (organized into bureaus - patrol,
investigation, support, administration, resources)
•Centralization/hierarchy (Police Chief)
•Rules (Dept. Policies/Regulations designed to guide
police behavior, Rule of Law)
•Meritocracy (college education, police academy
competitive application, time-in-rank system of
promotion, police productivity)
•Impersonality (impartial interpreters of situations on
the street, application of law)
The Managerial Process
Management
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Directing individuals to achieve organizational goals in an efficient and
effective manner
Supervision
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Focuses primarily on leading and controlling
Organizing
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The process of arranging personnel and physical resources to carry out
plans and accomplish goals and objectives
Leading
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Motivating others to perform various tasks that will contribute to the
accomplishment of goals and objectives
Planning
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The process of preparing for the future by setting goals and objectives
and developing courses of action for accomplishing them
Controlling
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The process by which managers determine how the quality and the
quantity of departmental systems and services can be improved, if goals
and objectives are being accomplished
Chain of command
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The higher the position, the greater the power, authority, and influence
Police Administration
Traditional Police Administration Model:
Paramilitary in Design and Organization
•classic bureaucracy
•consistent with reformers and legalistic models
•Wilson’s (1950) Police Administration is the classic
example
•limits discretion
•goal is to control crime
Problems with Bureaucracies:
•Rigid, inflexible
•Communication chains are faulty
•Internally focused
•Contributes to authoritarian policing style
•Stifles creativity by limiting the talents of its
employees; alienating - may contribute to
cynicism & low worker satisfaction
Behavioral Management
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Classical approach attacked by police management
theorists in the early 1970s
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Need for a more flexible and democratic organizational
model
Research indicated that police work was not directly
related to law enforcement, but rather to maintaining order
and providing social services
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How much of police work focused on crime? 10-20%
The knowledge gained from the behavioral science
research began to influence the police:
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Importance of increased employee involvement in decision-making,
of recognizing a broader police role, and of working in partnerships
with the community
Complexity of police job is eclipsed by bureaucratic models
Contemporary Police Management
Systems theory: Importance of interdependence
All parts of a system are interrelated & dependent on one
another.
Closed system: Does not interact and adapt to its
environment
Open system: Interacts with and adapts to its
environment
Contingency theory:
Based on open systems theory
Recognizes many internal & external factors that
influence organizational behavior
Contingency management: It all depends on the
particular situation
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What are the main environmental factors for PDs?
Constituencies/influences include: Community, Organization, Legal,
Political and Individual
Institutional Theory & Police Org.
• Contemporary theory that argues organizations are
not entirely rational entities (Crank & Langworthy
1992)
• Agencies respond to influences who are key players
in the LEGITIMACY of the organization
• Key Players known as “SOVEREIGNS”
• Who are relevant sovereigns for police agencies?
• Sovereigns are active in Myth/Conventional Wisdom
spinning.
• Thus PDs wind up changing to ensure legitimacy in
response to new myths (rather than a rational basis
for action)
The Sociology of Police Change
Institutional Theory predicts organizational
change to occur in 2 situations:
– When the changes have symbolic value for the
legitimacy of the PD
– When the “changes” do not upset the day-to-day of
the PD
The result: Change is often symbolic.
with little tangible impact
(other than in the image management/PR
aspect of the PD)
Contemporary Police Management
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Private sector influences on Management
Approaches:
Corporate strategies
Developed through a process that examines how
the organization’s capabilities fit the current and
future environmental demands
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Total quality management (TQM)
Quality-control techniques and the process of
continuous improvement
Reinventing government
Improving organizational performance through
reorganization, downsizing, and TQM
Organizational Design
Concerned with the formal patterns of arrangements
developed by police management to link people
together in order to accomplish organizational goals
Modern Police Organization: Tall vs. Flat Designs
Tall: Hierarchical & Narrower control
Flat: Few hierarchical levels & Wider control
-Decentralized: Authority and decision-making
are delegated to lower organizational levels
- Emphasizes discretion, Requires better
trained officers, Generalists (democratic?)
Modern Police Organization:
Organizational Design & Community Policing
Criticism of the Classical Paramilitary Design:
As departments moved toward community policing,
the paramilitary design is being questioned
1. Strict rules cannot be applied to policing because of
the nature of the work
2. Orders are rarely required
3. A great amount of initiative and discretion are
required
4. Managerial philosophy is characterized by an
attitude of distrust, control, and punishment
Modern Police Organization
Continued influence of Paramilitary Design
The simultaneous rise of:
a) Flat Structures
b) PPUs (Kraska and Cubellis 1997)
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Generic term for tradition SWAT
Becoming a normal part of routine patrol work
Not just reserved for crisis/emergency response)
Not attributable to fluctuations in serious crime
rate
Compstat & Zero tolerance policing
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Acronym for COMPare STATistics
Technology as a mechanism for assessing
performance & achieving accoutability
Utilizes current crime data to analyze crime
patterns and to respond quickly with
appropriate resources and crime strategies
Allows top-level managers to share
information about crime and holds them
accountable for the crime rate in their
jurisdictions
Measuring police performance
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Evaluating the Effectiveness of Police Organizations:
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Do they accomplish their goals?
Variety of Goals
Crime and disorder measures
» Uniform Crime Report
» National Incident-Based Reporting System
» National Crime Victimization Survey
» Arrest rates
» Crime clearance rates
Community measures
Individual and team measures
Change in Police Organizations
Police Departments as Learning Organizations
–An organization that is able to process what it has learned
and adapt accordingly.
Elements of a Learning Organization:
–Research and Development unit. Actually does R&D, not
simple statistical profiles of department activities.
–Expand police-researcher partnerships. Some departments
actually hire criminologists to work with their R&D sections.
–Organize police work around POP and take seriously the
SARA model of problem solving.
–Use senior police executives to reduce turf battles between
department sections.
–Match police performance levels to present-day industry
standards. (Every community should require a stockholders
report on its local department.)
Managing Group Behavior
Police Subculture: What is Subculture?
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Informal organizational influences including values, beliefs
and norms for behavior
Perhaps more influential than formal organizational factors
How is it created and supported?
• Socialization: Recruits learn the values and behavioral
patterns of experienced officers
• In response to insularity
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Public world of policing: Presented to the public as the essence
of police work
Private world of policing: Characterized as politically
conservative, closed, or secretive, with a high degree of
cynicism and an emphasis on loyalty, solidarity, and respect for
authority
Employee Organizations & Unions