Management of Police Department

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Table of Contents

The situation: Employment Equity Initiative
Employment equity- theory, model and concept
Causes
The environment
Culture
Organizing
Planning
Conclusion
References

It is challenging to manage dynamics of people in an organization. However, by use of ideal management measures, it is possible to maintain a standard form of success. One such challenging issue is management of gender in an organization. That is, strict adherence to gender parity rules in organization may discourage optimum input from employees.

In some instances, managers are required to implement a requirement of not more than two-third of one gender when employing and implementing promotional opportunities.

This essentially locks out experienced and hardworking members who are compromised to make the rule work. This paper explores a case of police department in mid- western Canada that is suffering from numerous problems emanating from certain initiatives. One such problem is frustration of police officers.

The situation: Employment Equity Initiative

On the overall, police department has been prompted to implement management measures that have been caused by budgetary constraints. The department has been forced to cut down major costs, significantly reduce employment levels of officers, intense monitoring of overtimes and tight controls on working hours.

These problems have not only affected the level of performance in the officers, but also brought in some disquiets in the officers. The anxiety brought in some resistances and degrees of uncertainty.

The employment equity initiative was brought in by the Division Commander as a result of complaints emanating from female officers. The disquiet nature in these officers was that there were some favoritisms and one-sided preferences, especially on male officers.

This concerned the selection process for the specialized positions, an issue that was prompted by the overall emergency management measures due to budgetary constrains. While it was expected that the measure would bring leverage in the selection process, it became a frustrating issue for others.

Employment equity- theory, model and concept

Employment equity is a theory, a model and a concept, and therefore in the analysis of the problem, it would be put into the three categories. Employment equity is a theory on its own; however, it falls under the overall equity theory (Williams, Vibert & Kondra, 2007).

It is an attempt to put fairness in employment opportunities and rules on the premise that people consider fairness in the organization as a most important aspect of motivation. The situation in the police department is more of affirmative action rather than equity in employment. It was a drastic measure to ease tension in the female officers rather than applying equity for all.

Employment equity is also a model, where, it comes as a series of planned action. According to Chowdhury (2002), it is a model for social economic progress and changes especially in relation to the sidelined persons. It is not supposed to be taken drastically; rather, it should be organized and planned well.

In the case study, this was introduced as an emergent measure to make female officers feel recognized rather than a measure to enhance equity in the organization. It was not planned and organized well to ensure it satisfies everyone hence causing frustration in the experienced men and women.

Employment equity is also a concept with an original goal of taking out barriers to some people like women, disabled, aboriginal and the minorities. In Canada, it is a legal concept that is meant to give the mentioned people a chance to participate in employment.

In the police department in the case study, this concept was not being utilized, and had become almost like a culture that experience was a major factor in employment. However, with the disquiet in women, it was implemented drastically leaving the experienced officers frustrated.

It can be recognized that haphazard implementation of this can result to frustrations of persons who may feel that the process is not fair or favors some people only.

Causes

The policy, Employment equity initiative, is identified in the case study as a problem. However, the real problems lay in the far reaching effects of its implementation, and one of these problems being frustration of the experienced male and female officers in the department.

The discussion below looks at the causes of the subsequent problem of the implementation of the program under environmental, cultural, organizational and planning factors.

The environment

All forms of management should have value additions and incorporation of new kind of management manifestos brought by the new millennium (Chowdhury, 2002). Critical to this value addition is the management of organizational environment and the general ecology.

While ecology has been argued to be a major requirement of management, the general organizational working environment is very critical. For example, the internal organizational environment affecting the employees could be the type of managers and their styles of leadership.

The external form of organizational management could institutions that directly or indirectly influence leadership of the police department.

The environment causing frustration in the male and female experienced officers is the already existing disquiet. The tense environment confirmed this perceived bias in the selection process, and could only result to frustrations.

A usual expectation in the selection process is that experience would be a major criterion. However, with the gender parity rule, it is possible to leave out experienced males so as to fit in some females who may not be experienced.

Chowdhury (2002) observes that the applicable theory in this initiative is the employment equity theory. However, the idea has been termed as hypocritical in the sense that it has been seen to favor women regardless of their qualification.

It is possible for affected parties to rise against such kind of an incentive since it is one sided. With the introduction of the incentive, the general environment is that qualification and experience is no longer a prerequisite in determining the nature of selection process.

The concept is largely in what has come to be known as feminist economics (Chowdhury, 2002). This is where females are assisted to move up economically and in the end trample on existing factors such as hard work of men.

Culture

Culture comes with different definitions; for example, there are the beliefs that are held by people forming culture, gender attributions and an organization culture that defines how people in the organization conduct themselves.

As pertaining the case study of the police department in mid-western Canada, both the organizational culture and gender attributions are applicable. For the case study, the kind of culture that influences these frustrations is the social cultural elements, where, a notion of inferiority of the females can ruin understandings.

The social cultural element encompasses the beliefs, the attitudes, the norms, values, associated demographic patterns and behaviors (Williams, Vibert & Kondra, 2007). The beliefs that a man should be considered at all cost and values that experience should always rule may have brought in the disquiets in these officers.

As pertains to Canadian law, the employment equity concept is applied to increase chances of representation in four designated persons namely disabled, women, aboriginal and visible minorities (Williams, Vibert & Kondra, 2007). It is an essential component of management of employees.

This has become like a culture in the country; however, this kind of culture has been entrenched in the minds of people especially the mentioned persons to an extent of disregarding those who are not mentioned. For example, men who have worked hard to perform in their organizations are affected when it comes to this rule.

They may not be promoted on the basis that women, the disabled, aboriginal people and the minorities are given a chance. In this police department, implementing this style of leadership in the selection process would affect majorly the experienced. It is a bad culture if it is implemented without proper guidelines.

The concept of employment equity has been equated to the necessity of culture change which is key to development (Williams, Vibert & Kondra, 2007).

For a police department such as that in mid-western Canada, it is possible that this culture started to take effect long time ago with women trying to go up the ladder. However, the way it is implemented in this initiative is what is bringing the disquiet. In this police force, it is a culture that is likely to destroy than bring the necessary change.

Organizing

Organizing is critical to effective management of any organization. For a police department such as that in mid-western Canada, it is crucial to put everything in order. All management issues such as cost cutting measures should be planned and made known well to the officers.

In this particular case, the implementation of employment equity initiative was implemented haphazardly. That is why some female officers of questionable calibers are promoted at the expense of experienced officers in the department.

It can therefore be noted that it is poor organizing of issues that has led to the disquiet in the police force resulting to some resistance of sort. This could have been the major cause, where, there were no consultations with relevant parties when implementing a management issue.

The employment equity concept cannot be compared with other human rights ideas. This concept ought to involve a lot of organizing rather than just implementing for the sake of it. It is this little or poor organizing that is making the experienced men and women feel that it is done in a most unfair manner.

Perhaps, there should have been planning and probable training for all to select those who can make it instead of choosing female officers who are not trained and experienced. There are recommended steps to organizing a decision. These are; establish the necessary prerequisite in implementing the idea, ensure there are synergistic interactions, allocate resources or ideas well and improve on incentives (Chowdhury, 2002).

Planning

Just like organizing, planning is very critical to organizational or departmental management. For a police force, planning may involve putting necessary measures well in advance. The gender parity rule should not be implemented all at once. In addition, when putting measures or before implementation, there should be consultation with relevant persons especially the ones that are involved.

Since the female officers were complaining of favoritism, an evaluation should have been done to ascertain the claims before taking such a drastic step. The program should not have been implemented without involving everyone in the department; more so, the members who had stayed in the force and the department for long.

Therefore, it can be recognized that lack of planning was a major cause of frustration in the experienced male and female officers after haphazard implementation of the employment equity incentive.

The concept of employment equity is not necessary an affirmative action. According to Chowdhury (2002), affirmative action is more female oriented or looks at empowering women. On the other hand, employment equity is for all who are sidelined and for the Canadian law, the sidelined fall under four major categories.

These are the aboriginal people, visible minorities, women and the disabled. Here then, lack of planning resulted to just concentrating on women without clear knowledge that the action is not for women alone. Planning remains essential in any kind of ‘affirmative action’ and where possible, considerate amount of time should be allocated to consult all affected people.

Conclusion

Planning is critical and should not be overruled however emergent an issue is. Hence, the case in mid-western Canada police department is that an employment equity initiative is implemented to cool down women who were disquiet about their representation.

However, it was done without involving all affected persons therefore resulting into some problems during the selection process. Some experienced officers had been sidelined to make the program take effect, and the aftermath of it is frustration.

The root cause is not the initiative, but the method in which this program was implemented. This paper has divided this root cause into four, namely the environment, culture, organizing and planning.

References

Chowdhury, S. (2002). Management 21C. London: Financial Times Prentice Hall publisher.

Williams, C., Vibert, C. & Kondra, A. (2007) Management 2^nd Canadian Edition. Scarborough: Nelson Education Limited.

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