One of the areas that should be the focus of change management in a police organization is communication. An effective means of communicating the vision, need, and nature of the changes foreseen is an essential feature of the change process. Another important area of change management is management support. Active support by senior and intermediate managers for the specified changes is essential to satisfactory change. A third component of change management is leadership. In the face of employees' difficulties in practicing new procedures and working within unfamiliar circumstances, effective leadership will reduce confusion, improve individual's levels of confidence and self-esteem, and thus improve work performance. A fourth component of change management involves the change targets. To be successful, a change in organizational culture must affect each of the associated change targets simultaneously. Reliance on a single approach to change implementation is likely to be unsuccessful in a strong anti-culture. A fifth element of change management concerns coercive and participatory change. A combination of initial coercive change, succeeded by more participatory approaches to further changes is likely to be appropriate under the circumstances of a strong organizational culture apt to resist change. A final component of change management focuses on change teams. Change teams are necessary in order to activate the many skills required to manage the change processes. Multiple changes within various functions and locations might require a network of teams. 7 figures
Management of Change in Police Organizations (From Policing in Central and Eastern Europe: Comparing Firsthand Knowledge With Experience From the West, P 199-217, 1996, Milan Pagon, ed. -- See NCJ-170291)
NCJ Number
170311
Date Published
1996
Length
19 pages
Annotation
Based on the author's direct involvement in and observations of wide-ranging changes to police organizations, this paper discusses the processes and dynamics of change in the functioning and structure of police organizations and the effects of change on people working within them.
Abstract