*********FOR NYANYA TO DO ONLY***********

CRJ 33990- DB- Classmate Responses: Due Saturday 9/23/17@ 9pm

Instructions:

The writing should be clear and concise while using a minimum of two academic sources as support. Participation must be meaningful discussions in the forums with your peers. Your classmates responses must be a minimum of 250 words with citations. You cannot simply say “I agree” or “good job” in your responses, and they must well thought out replies in complete sentences and approximately 100 words. (I will post the response from my classmates on Friday).

Topic:

What can be done to improve morale at a police agency or a jail? Please remember the role of socialization and power.  Public sector agencies are not privy to pay bonuses that may exist in private sector jobs. Therefore look at the entirety of the positions and demands of the job in order to evaluate this forum assignment.

Textbook for CRJ3990 only:

Stojkovic, S., Kalinich, D., and Klofas, J. (2015). Criminal Justice Organizations: Administration and Management, [6 th ED]. Cengage Publishing

1st Person –Jason:

 I have had an opportunity this week to examine my career and compare it to what the text has written about criminal justice organizations and more specifically about supervision and management. I have worked for an agency, long ago that had am extremely negative outlook on the policing profession. I accepted the locker room talk as fact, and it wasn't until later in my professional career that, I found the culture to be something that was totally made up. In other words, at some point, officer decided that society didn't value them, and rather than exploring any other possibilities they passed that message on to new recruits, essentially tainting their experience.  This can be very dangerous, for example, take the 198601988 Greylord investigation from our text, where judges learned from other judges, it was acceptable to take brides. They justified their decisions to take money based on the assertion that, private sector attorneys make more money than they judges made (Stojkovic, S., Kalinich, D. & Klofas, J., 2015 p.251). that flawed logic could apply to almost any occupation. For example most cleaning personel at hotels, do not make as much as the people who stay in suites, yet that doesn't give the the right to take items from either the guest nor the hotel, police often arrest the wealthy, again the idea that the officer is entitles to some of the arrestees wealth is Ludicrous. 

 The question is how to improve moral in a agency or jail and as I said earlier, taking a look at what I have enjoyed about my job and what I haven't or what has caused moral for me to drop is inline with what we have been learning. For example, we have read that employees need to feel like they have some ability to make decisions and be a part of the management process, I have always felt better about things in my job when I was involved in the decision making aspects.  I can recall working some fairly large cases, and being involved in the planning of those cases, or how investigative acts would unfold. I can also recall large cases where I was completely cut out from the decision making and left to simply "do what I was told". I, personally always felt those cases didn't go as smoothly as they could have, and that is likely due to the fact that I wanted to take a more proactive role, or have some ownership in the cases that I worked. Those cases where I had more decision making ability always made me feel better about my agency. 

 

Stojkovic, S., Kalinich, D., Klofas, J. (2015). Criminal Justice Organizations Administration and Management. Cengage learning, Sixth edition. Stamford CT.

2nd Person-Gwen:

Employee morale is essential in creating a cohesive and functional environment. Positive morale encourages teamwork and motivates employees to work towards the organizations goals and mission. Effective leaders, positive role-models and supportive peer-groups impart a constructive influence over organizations workers. Conversely, the effects of negative or low morale can; reduce productivity, increase turnover and encourage tardiness and absenteeism. Negative morale can quickly spread throughout a department or an entire organization, creating an overall sense of dissatisfaction and increase stress.

     Morale among police officers has both internal and external influences. The formal and informal socialization process of new recruits can influence the attitudes of officers. Formal socialization involves formal training at the Police Academy. Per Stojkovic, Kalinich & Klofas (2015) this formal training “First, it provides prescriptions for attitudes and behaviors. Second, it provides opportunities for recruits to evaluate their own behavior and performance against the behavior and performance of their peers. Third the academy reference group – trainers and fellow trainees – provides a sense of belonging, acceptance, and being rewarded by the group. Forth, the reference group acts as a controlling influence by withholding acceptance in the face of inappropriate aptitudes or behavior” (p. 270). However, many believe that this formal training does not prepare officers for the “real world” nature of police work. As “rookies”, police offices are influenced by older “seasoned” officers who are entrenched in the sub-culture of the department.

     An article written by Lawrence Andrew Hartman III (2003) found that there are six issues that influence morale in police officers; training and education, mission statement, procedures, and roles, supervision, self-empowerment, recognition, feedback and communication and institutional environment. Mr. Hartman writes “Those individuals serving in a supervisory capacity are responsible for employee morale through effective leadership. The supervisor should encourage and motivate the line staff while carrying out their responsibilities. Leaders are to coach, guide, and provide information to their officers in order to encourage professional development.” (International Foundation for Protection of Officers, 2003). Morale is important and can be improved through positive feedback, open communication and recognition of good work.

 

Reference

Hartman, L. III (2003). International Foundation for Protection of Officers. An examination of employee morale in correctional institutions. Retrieved on September 18, 2017 from http://www.ifpo.org/resource-links/articles-and-reports/protection-of-specific-environments/an-examination-of-employee-morale-in-correctional-institutions/.

  

 Stojkovic, S., Kalinich, D., and Klofas, J. (2015). Criminal Justice Organizations: Administration and Management, [6th ED]. Cengage Publishing. 

3rd Person – Tyler:

When considering this forum for this week one could very easily say many different things that could improve the morale of a police agency. Examples of this are salary increase, time off, department functions, but what that is not what is being ask. The point of this question is to think deeper in the agency, to think about what can overall or eternally improve the morale and sustain it. One way for an agency to improve the morale is to have proper traditional model of employee supervision. A traditional model of employee supervision is “a model that emphasizes clear rules and regulations, division of labor, span of control, delegation of authority, and employee specialization within organizations (Stojkovic, Kalinich, & Klofas, 2015, p. 227). Each of these elements have their own specific purpose. The supervision needs not to have more employees than they can manage, and there also needs to be unity of command by placement of one individual who can handle the situation and the employees. An agency’s supervisor needs to have the concepts of span control, unity of command, delegation of authority, rulification, and specialization to be successful (Stojkovic et al. 2015, p. 228).

Organizational culture is another concept that can improve the overall morale of a police agency. Organizational culture refers to a “set of assumptions and beliefs shared by members of an organization” (Stojkovic, Kalinich, & Klofas, 2015, p. 252). There must be communication within an agency to be successful. Everyone needs to be on the same page to reach the common goal. If everyone is striving for different goals, this would cause much conflict within the organization.  If there is a problem with communication societies have developed languages to solve the problem. Norms evolve specifying what people should or should not do, while also folkways set the standard way of doing things, and mores have strong views of right from wrong (Stojkovic et al. 2015, p. 253). What can bring the morale down is social or informal sanctions. This is the disapproval of a group member which is manifested by some form of social punishment, such as being subjected to gossip, verbal reprimand, being ignored, or being excluded from social activities (Stojkovic et al. 2015, p. 253). No one is prefect, and everyone will make mistakes. If someone makes a mistake or does something wrong correct them and guide them into the right direction. Ignoring the individual starting gossip or excluding the individual from social events is not going to fix the issue but only make it worse. Overall having good communication, working as a team, having good supervision and leadership will be a cause of improved morale in an agency.

 

References

Stojkovic, S., Kalinich, D., & Klofas, J. (2015). Criminal Justice Organizations Administration    and Management Sixth Edition. Stamford: Cengage Learning.

4th Person- Dusty:

     Improving the morale in police agencies and jail is no easy task. Over the last several years law enforcement morale has greatly decrease due to the constant increase in scrutiny against officers across the country. The increase scrutiny is mainly due to certain activist groups who attack the heart of law enforcement and have gain wide spread media attention. This media display along with activist’s groups has led to an uproar against some law enforcement agencies where officer’s actions are portrayed as unlawful or excessive.

    The devastation this practice has caused over the years have left law enforcement morale at an all-time low. So how can the morale be improved from this trend? In order to increase morale in any law enforcement agency there must be public trust and appreciation. According to Stojkovic, Kalinich, and Klofas (2015), “The socialization process through formalized training, for example, is directly influenced by how the public supports criminal justice organizations with resources for training and education required to perform the duties of the profession” (p. 276). Here in Georgia the Governor has recently mandated officer training that reflect on de-escalation and police legitimacy. Each officer in the State of Georgia now must complete annual training that discusses de-escalation tactics and police legitimacy, which is how the public feel toward the governing agency.

     This new training is inspired be the hostilely toward law enforcement around the country. By training in these topics, the Governor hopes to build on public relations through officers and the citizens they serve and reduce high risk situation between police and citizens. According to Stojkovic, Kalinich, and Klofas (2015), “Criminal justice practitioners face role conflict, role ambiguity, conflicting expectations, and murky and contradictory goals. Hence, the socialization process presents conflicting stimuli” (p. 281). To successfully increase morale there must be public support, but there must also be trust and respect among officers in the agency. There are too many agencies with officers that are out for their own benefit. This creates an unstable condition for a positive work force. Officers need to know their co-worker are supportive and have their backs rather than looking to gain an upper hand. If both public support and inner agency respect/ trust is gained you will began to see an increase in morale.

 

Reference

Stojkovic, S., Kalinich, D., Klofas, J. (2015). Criminal Justice Organizations: administration

     and management. Stamford, CT. Cengage Learning. Sixth Edition.