Organizational Development in a Law Enforcement Environment

Today's law enforcement organizations engage new organizational practices that 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 nonsworn 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 nonsworn 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, DIE 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. DIE formed a subteam, 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 divisionwide 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, forming, 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

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.

Dr. French is an independent consultant in Tallahassee, Florida.

Mr. Stewart is the assistant director of the Division of Fraud, Florida Department of Insurance, Treasury, and Fire Marshal.

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.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Federal Bureau of Investigation
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group