Member of the
Organizational Development in a Law Enforcement Environment
By BARBARA FRENCH, Ph.D., and JERRY STEWART, Ed.D.
Today's law enforcement organizations engage new organizational
practices that the focus on empowerment, teamwork, and participative management.
1 Experts agree that implementation of these designs in law enforcement
environments proves challenging. 2 Like many American organizations, law
enforcement predominantly still uses old models of bureaucratic design,
with power centered at the top, resulting in modest change efforts. The
savvy implementation for organizational change remains a primary issue
for law enforcement.
Law enforcement organizations that have accepted the challenge of organizational
change are prime learning examples for other practitioners. Because learning
often is a process of trial and error, the shared experiences of kindred
organizations remain extraordinarily powerful learning vehicles. However,
police managers must test organizational change models in the context
of real organizational experience and practice. This intersection of a
theoretical approach and applied practice proves valuable to law enforcement
managers by enabling them to take both effective direction and action
in their organizational improvement.
THE CHALLENGE
The journey of the Florida Department of Insurance, Treasury and Fire
Marshal's Division of Fraud (DIF) into organizational development implementation
serves as a learning ground and model for law enforcement agencies. With
its headquarters in Tallahassee and field offices throughout Florida,the
DIF has 121 sworn and 60 non-sworn employees and leads the nation in insurance
fraud prosecutions and convictions. Despite its overall success, the DIF
director became convinced that the division could improve even further
by creating an organizational environment in which empowerment, teamwork,
and participative management represent the norm. This illustrates the
essence of an organizational attitude that past success should not prevent
managers from looking inward for further improvement.
Additionally, the department's overall total quality initiative-a management
approach based on participative supervision and the continuous improvement
of organizational processes and practices- serves as part of the initial
stimuli for the DIF.3 Managers formed a team within the DIF to determine
appropriate strategies and develop an internal plan for organizational
development. As part of the overall approach, with the support from division
executives, the team decided to do a leadership practices assessment focused
on five leadership practices managers should follow.4
1) Challenge the process: search out challenging opportunities to change,
grow, innovate, and improve; experiment, take risks, and learn from the
mistakes.
2) Inspire a shared vision: envision an uplifting and ennobling future;
enlist others in a common vision by appealing to their values, interests,
hopes, and dreams.
3) Enable others to act: foster collaboration by promoting cooperative
goals and building trust; strengthen people by giving power away and providing
choice, develop competence, assign critical tasks, and offer visible support.
4) Model the way: set an example by behaving in ways consistent with shared
values; achieve small "wins" that promote consistent progress and build
commitment.
5) Encourage the heart: recognize the contributions to the success of
every project; celebrate team accomplishments regularly.
Managers shared the assessment results throughout the division and revealed
the need for organizational improvement and cultural change. The DIF director
and the core leadership team continued to move forward by delving deeper
into related issues.
AN ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT APPROACH
A variety of models exist concerning methods to achieve improvement within
the organization. Organizational development (OD) is a model designed
for planned, systematic, and ongoing problem and action-oriented processes
that focus on both technical and human improvement within the organization.
This long-term approach needs management support and is based on sound
management theory and practice. One seminal feature of OD is its use of
action research, or actual field research, with a continuous cycle of
diagnostics: data gathering, analysis, planning, implementation, and feedback.5
In the data-gathering phase, managers collect information, either quantitative
or qualitative, concerning organizational functioning. Some of the methods
used in this phase can include surveys, focus groups, interviews, and
archival research. Managers must analyze the results of the data collection
for a clearer understanding of organizational issues. The planning phase
includes intervention strategies and designs for improving the identified
strengths and weaknesses in the organization. The implementation phase
puts the strategies into effect. The feedback phase remains a critical
part of the OD cycle as the managers gather information about the results
of the implementation intervention. As managers examine this feedback,
the OD cycle is repeated, including each phase. These cycles of organizational
development contribute to a constant monitoring and development of the
organization and should never remain static, but always dynamic and synergistic.
Organizational cultures and settings represent significant issues in attempting
an organizational development initiative because readiness for change
and the traditional hierarchical chains of command can seriously hamper
these efforts. Those traditionally designed and operated organizations
often prove particularly inflexible to transformation.
DATA GATHERING AND ANALYSIS
To acquire deeper knowledge about the DIF's culture and issues, members
of the Office of Quality and Development and the DIF's assistant director
conducted confidential, qualitative interviews with every member of the
organization that wished to participate, including employees in field
offices. After ensuring participant confidentiality, the interviewers
asked three open ended questions. What is positive in the organization?
What needs to be improved? What are your recommendations for improvement?
Then, they analyzed the results for content, based on frequencies and
trends.
The findings revealed positive attitudes toward organizational leadership
in terms of professionalism and goal achievement, high satisfaction with
training access, and deep-seated commitment to work and to each other.
They also identified the major areas for improvement as organizational
culture (e.g., trust and empowerment, sworn versus non-sworn divisiveness),
infrastructure issues (e.g., consistency and standardization in policies,
practices, and processes), and management/ leadership practices (e.g.,
the need for more flexibility, accountability, and communication within
the organization). When the team completed the first cycle of data gathering
and analysis, they shared the results throughout the division via e-mail
and then began the implementation phase.
PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION
Prior to launching an OD intervention, managers must provide careful attention
to planning. This step proves critical because anything less than completely
thorough planning can lead to exacerbated organizational issues.
To expedite this process, DIF managers formed an OD team comprised of
respected members from each region of the state to reflect the entire
system. This systems approach proves instrumental in the creation of a
meaningful strategy that includes and represents the overall organization.6
Besides rotating members yearly to continuously have diverse input and
creativity, the OD team designates four specific roles within the team.
The team leader directs the overall activities of the team and keeps the
division informed of the team's decisions and actions. The scribe takes
and transcribes notes of the team meetings and maintains these records.
The team facilitator keeps the team focused and moving forward and ensures
that all members contribute. Project leaders oversee individual projects
generated by the team. All team members welcome input, suggestions, and
concerns from each division member.
The OD team began its process by focusing on issues that they could address
most straightforwardly. The team initially focused on infrastructure issues
related to consistency of policies, practices, and processes because this
also would impact organizational culture and management practices as well.
Because of the physical location of each member, the OD team quickly learned
the importance of flexibility in its approach. To include various sites
and to avoid budget or time constraints, the team often used teleconferences.
The OD implementation phase usually stands as the most difficult part
for the team. Data collection and analysis prove challenging, but the
real test comes when organizations take actions to further improve their
internal practices and processes. DIF's team began the implementation
with a focus on particular infrastructure issues because of their wide
impact throughout the division.
INFRASTRUCTURE ISSUES
Because consistency and standardization in divisional policies, practices,
and processes remain of primary importance, DIF decided to first focus
on these issues to facilitate change. In order to accomplish this, the
OD team took some major actions.
Reorganization
Because other regions were added, DIF changed the structure of the organization.
They merged bureaus for better use of resources and a more focused strategic
result. Additionally, they made several leadership promotions based on
employee feedback concerning leadership potential.
Discontinuance of Special Squads Designation
Special squads throughout the state had created divisiveness because many
employees felt that such groups create elitism. Because investigators
work various types of cases, the OD team believed that the elimination
of special squads would strengthen the organizational culture. The psychological
implications of elitism often are subtle, yet powerful, issues in organizational
cultures.
Redesign of Personnel Issues
Data analysis revealed that position descriptions and the performance
appraisal system often proved inaccurate, inconsistent, and fragmented.
The OD team decided to update both systems by incorporating participative
feedback from employees in each classification so that they could design
accurate and consistent systems. After consulting with department personnel
experts, the team realized that this project will constitute a long-term
effort in conjunction with employees; futuristically, team members will
serve as subject-matter experts to personnel employees as they update
position descriptions and appraisal systems.
Salaries remain an important issue to division employees. In the public
safety sector, this issue is often problematic and not always easily resolved
due to budget restrictions. To expedite the process, the OD team recommended
that all positions receive increases through pay-raise packages presented
to the state legislature.
Managers identified hiring as a key area of concern that seriously impacted
organizational functioning. DIF formed a sub-team, comprised of volunteer
managers and investigators from each of the three regions, to concentrate
on the division's hiring process, which some employees characterized as
lengthy, inconsistent, and cumbersome. The team reviewed the hiring process
and discovered that the average cycle time for hiring was 7 months. Through
careful analysis and redesign, the team reduced the hiring cycle time
to 1 month.
Hiring and promotions represent sensitive organizational issues and arose
as an area of concern in the data analysis. DIF has implemented changes
in the processes to include behavior-based assessments, involving both
written and oral testing, designed to better evaluate a law enforcement
candidate's ability to perform. Volunteer supervisors and investigators
from each of the regions are working toward a consensus and standardization
of the testing process.
Creation of a Lead Investigator
Employees often cite upward mobility and career advancement as organizational
problems. Therefore, the team created a lead investigator designation
within each investigative unit in the division. This new designation also
provided a 5 percent pay increase for lead investigators.
Review of Professional Development
Although employees generally reported satisfaction with training quality
and availability, some individuals felt a need for more professionally
oriented training. In response to this, DIF managers expanded the educational
arena by making new topics, such as insurance fraud and related matters,
available to employees during training sessions. Assessment of Policies
and Procedures Several projects aid the development of standardized polices
and procedures for the division. For example, one project focuses on the
division-wide use of a case management system. In another project, the
OD team is reviewing new policies and procedures involved in the division's
law enforcement accreditation endeavor. To include input from all personnel
in the accreditation process, the team uses volunteers from the field
offices in the review of new policies and procedures.
RESULTS AND LESSONS LEARNED
After the first year of implementation, the division will perform the
feedback phase of the organizational development cycle through the use
of surveys and interviews to gather and analyze new information concerning
the current OD implementation. Because managers can learn lessons throughout
various stages of the process, they may need to make some alterations
along the way. The DIF team has learned various lessons during the OD
cycle and expects to discover more as the process continues.
Consider All Benefits
Because the Quality and Organizational Development Office offers 360-degree
management evaluations based on peer, employee, and managers feedback,
the team noted that more managers in the division requested this type
of evaluation, indicating a heightened awareness and involvement in personal,
professional, and organizational development. Clearly, related benefits
exist when organizational development takes place.
Involve Employees
The involvement of employees in OD projects (i.e., teams and feedback)
proves priceless because it actually increases both employee empowerment
and commitment. Employees also are extremely knowledgeable about organizational
processes and issues, which increases an effective outcome. Often, individuals
emerge who are willing to lead and make change happen.
The data gathering phase serves a dual purpose of gathering information
and as a productive means for everyone to express ideas and frustrations,
which result in a more cohesive organizational culture. Many employees
reported a great deal of satisfaction with this phase.
Nurture Teamwork
Some research suggests that teams go through four distinct stages (i.e.,
forming, storming, norming, and performing) during which small groups
learn to function as a team.7 However, although the OD team and other
groups may not have gone through these stages yet, they still performed
at a high level of effectiveness rather quickly-perhaps because of shared
mission, enthusiasm, and professionalism.
Overcome Obstacles
Obstacles for any organizational initiative always will exist. For example,
because the OD team found state personnel systems and accompanying rules
and regulations frustrating, they asked for assistance from personnel
specialists during the overhaul of position descriptions and performance
appraisals and restructured the original goals to work through this difficulty.
Flexibility remains the key to working around obstacles.
Start with the Basics
Early in an OD intervention, the team may be tempted to tackle complex
issues. However, it is better to start with more basic issues that often
will intersect with other more complex issues. In doing so, it empowers
and encourages the team to push forward with different initiatives because
of early successes.
Share Information and Adapt to Learning
The sharing of information during an OD effort also remains critical.
Employees will not respond to an initiative unless they are well informed
and convinced of its validity. Because learning occurs at different stages,
it often includes trial and error. A team's commitment and motivation
to move forward through the trial and error phase results in true learning
and change.
CONCLUSION
© PhotoDisc
Organizational development implementation takes time and patience, but
the continuous cycle of action research and tangible achievement can make
tremendous strides in organizations. Careful attention at all stages (data
gathering, analysis, planning, implementation, and feedback) of organizational
development remains absolutely critical to successful outcomes. Additionally,
the practical realization that meaningful learning requires some trial
and error also is a requisite in OD implementation. The Division of Fraud
has shown that using models of progressive leadership that challenge the
process, inspire a shared vision, and enable others to act prove useful
in a law enforcement environment.
Law enforcement organizations must have supportive leadership, motivation,
and commitment to move through the learning and implementation stages
so that development can occur. Openness and team spirit also remain important
to the achievement of organizational development. The Florida Department
of Insurance, Treasury and Fire Marshal's Division of Fraud is continuing
its journey into organizational development and helping create a bold
new world in law enforcement where organizational culture is flexible,
open, and geared to meet its goals by constantly receiving input and ideas
from those best equipped to make it happen- its employees.
Endnotes
1 S. M. Ramirez, "Self-directed Work Teams," FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin,
August 1999, 20.
2 M. S. Reiter, "Empowerment Policing," FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin,
February 1999, 7.
3 B. Brocka and M. S. Brocka, Quality Management: Implementing the Best
Ideas of the Masters (New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1992), 4.
4 The assessment was based on J. M. Kouzes and B. Z. Posner, The Leadership
Challenge: How to Keep Getting Extraordinary Things Done in Organizations
(San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1995), 9.
5 W. L. French and C. H. Bell, Jr., Organization Development: Behavioral
Science Interventions for Organization Improvement (Englewood Cliffs,
NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1984), 17.
6 P. Senge, The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning
Organization (New York, NY: Currency Doubleday, 1990), 68.
7 B. W. Tuckman, "Development Sequence in Small Groups," Psychological
Bulletin 63, June 1965, 6.