NCJ Number
178333
Journal
FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin Volume: 68 Issue: 8 Dated: August 1999 Pages: 20-23
Date Published
1999
Length
3 pages
Annotation
Self-directed work teams in police agencies take advantages of employees' talents, skills, abilities, ideas, and experiences; they represent the most advanced form of worker empowerment and can help police agencies more effectively reach their organizational goals.
Abstract
A self-directed work team consists of a group of highly trained individuals with the ongoing responsibility and authority for completing a well-defined project. They represent a new way of doing business in which top management basically leaves the teams alone as long as they meet or exceed established goals. Executives of team-based organizations retain their authority over strategies, but the teams assume control over tactics. Advantages of self-directed teams include the ability to identify opportunities, find solutions, and implement actions quickly and the potential for improved police performance and increased community satisfaction. The implementation of work teams requires a change in organizational philosophy from hierarchical authoritarianism to self-direction. Senior management must prepare for self-directed teams through careful planning, together with an assessment of the ability to master and apply the hands-off leadership style that self-directed work groups require. Senior management must support and deliver the directive for this organizational culture shift. Police leaders who have a strong commitment and adequate planning can ensure that the movement to self-direction becomes a harbinger of the future. Note and 9 references