Communication skills are an important attribute, especially when it comes to practitioners in the Criminal Justice system. Unfortunately there can be barriers to efficient communica

C H A P T E R S I X

JOB DESIGN

Criminal Justice Organizations: Administration and Management

Learning Objectives

 Understand a definition of job design

 Explain the early importance of engineering and efficiency to job design

 Define and explain “Taylorism”

 Comprehend the application of “Taylorism” to criminal justice

 Know the relationship between job satisfaction, job stress, job burnout and job design

Learning Objectives

 Define and explain job design theory

 Comprehend job redesign programs and their application to criminal justice organizations

 Explain the relationship between job design and the community

 Define the “new criminal justice” and its relationship to job design

What is Job Design?

The “deliberate, purposeful planning of the job including all of its structural and social aspects and their effect on the employee” (Hellriegel, Slocum, and Woodman, 1995).

Efficiency was initially the most important concern.

What is Job Design?

Other job design objectives, including “psychological job requirements” are more widely used now.

o Adequate elbow room

o Chances to learn on the job and to keep on learning

o An optimal level of variety

o A sense that one’s own work is meaningful

o A desirable future

Engineering and Efficiency

 For most of the 20th Century the objectives of job design were: o Technological improvements, and

o Efficiency of labor.

 Early researchers focused on workers in industrial processes and attempted to find optimal methods for getting manual labor done.

 The underlying assumption was that employees are motivated solely by wages or leisure.

Taylorism in Human Services

 Fredrick Winslow Taylor was an early pioneer in job design studies.

 Taylor moved beyond the quantitative concepts in Scientific Management and focused on increasing efficiency through work fragmentation.

 Taylor attempted to divide complicated work processes that were dependent on people into smaller parts in order to increase the overall efficiency of the process.

Taylorism in Criminal Justice

 Taylor’s influence in criminal justice is considerable. o Police officers’ jobs are often fragmented and assigned to non-

commissioned employees.

o Increased accountability and bureaucratization may reduce the professional status of police officers.

o The use of standard classification and electronic monitoring systems has removed discretion from probation and parole officers.

o Correctional officer jobs have become highly circumscribed.

Responses to Job Characteristics

 Recent attention on job design grew out of surveys indicating sharp declines in job satisfaction.

 There appears to be a disconnect between employee expectations and the reality of criminal justice employment.

 Job satisfaction decreases and cynicism increases after the initial years of employment but often returns later in life.

Responses to Job Characteristics

 Despite attention on client content issues, job satisfaction appears to be more affected by o Boredom,

o Excessive demands,

o Role conflict,

o Role ambiguity, and

o A lack of participation in decision making.

 “Administrative issues” appear to cause more job stress and burnout than other work related issues.

Job Design Theory

 Applications of Taylor’s job design approach quickly revealed that the desire for money and leisure do not fully explain worker productivity.

 The Human Relations School replaced Taylor and focused on social attachments.

o Originated in Maslow’s (1943) Hierarchy of Needs

o Applied by McGregor (1978)

Job Design Theory

 Modern job design theory can be traced to

Hertzberg’s (1966) Motivation-Hygiene Theory.

o Workers are motivated only after hygiene needs are met and sources of intrinsic satisfaction are built into jobs.

o Job design is about motivating employees to meet their higher order needs.

 Later job design theory was influenced by Hackman and Oldham (1987)

o Increasing certain core job dimensions affects personal and

work outcomes.

Job Design Theory

Job Redesign Programs

 Three approaches to job redesign o Mass production industries have attempted to reduce or

eliminate assembly lines.

o Continuous process industries have attempted to enrich jobs through autonomous work groups.

o Service industries have attempted to enrich jobs by combining work from different parts of the job hierarchy.

 Other innovations o Flextime

o Job sharing

o Telecommuting

Job Redesign Criminal Justice and other Human Services

 Although little research has been done, the evidence suggest job redesign may be effective in the human service industry.

 Human service workers often are able to enrich their own jobs by self selecting additional tasks.

 Vertical loading – increasing the responsibilities of front-line staff

 Assigning limited ‘supervisory’ duties and problem solving responsibilities to front line staff appears to increase job satisfaction.

Job Redesign Criminal Justice and other Human Services

 Team policing programs mirror the autonomous work groups found in the private sector.

 Community- and Problem-Oriented Policing programs seem to increase worker satisfaction because they provide officers with increased autonomy and a sense of meaningful contribution.

 Allowing innovation appears to increase productivity among community corrections workers.

Job Redesign and the Community

 The community’s input into criminal justice job design should not be ignored.

 The Americans with Disabilities Act has a profound affect on the criminal justice system.

o Physical access to the court system

o Fair treatment of disabled criminal justice employees

o Health care benefits

 Job redesign should also be cognizant of demographic changes.

o A more multicultural workforce

o The Millennial Generation

The “New Criminal Justice”

 “New Criminal Justice” – responding to crime is no longer possible in an organizational vacuum (Klofas, Hipple and McGarrell, 2010)

 Crime control is more collaborative and involves community efforts to be effective.

 Criminal justice agencies will have to open themselves more to o Different elements of the community, and

o The scholarly and research communities

The “New Criminal Justice”

 This will require the employment of a more flexible and highly educated workforce.

 Job training will expand to include analytical strategies for evaluating programs.

 Criminal justice agencies will become more structurally flexible. o Use of ad hoc teams to address specific crime problems

o Elimination of highly structured and bureaucratic organizations

Chapter Summary

 Job design is the deliberate and purposeful planning of the job including all of its structural and social aspects and their effect on the employee.

 Early attempts at job design involved the application of scientific principles and focused on worker efficiency.

 “Taylorism” is attributed to Frederick Taylor who believed in the division of labor, time motion studies and pay as the primary motivator of employees.

 Utilizing Taylor’s principles, criminal justice work is designed to maximize the control of employees and enhance efficiency.

Chapter Summary

 Job design is critical to reducing burnout, relieving work stress, and elevating job satisfaction among employees.

 Job design theory has moved past Taylorism to include an examination of job enlargement and job enrichment.

 How jobs are structured affects organizational performance.

 Job redesign is an attempt to alter jobs such that employees have more of a say in how hobs are accomplished.

 Job design efforts are no longer limited to organizational settings and must include community concerns.

Chapter Summary

 The “new criminal justice” focuses on the systematic collection of information and collaboration with other agencies and community groups.

 The “new criminal justice will force administrators to consider changes in a number of ways they do business, in particular;

o Recruitment

o Training, and

o On-going development activities for employees.

Thinking Point and Question

 The City of Bigton has experienced a significant increase in its population. Most of the new residents are Muslim and choose to live in Bigton because of its proximity to a new Mosque and Islamic Community Center.

 Discuss how this qualitative change in the city’s population might or might not affect the manner in which the police perform their duties.

C H A P T E R F O U R

PROBLEMS OF COMMUNICATION

Criminal Justice Organizations: Administration and Management

Learning Objectives

 Know the five steps of the communication process

 Be familiar with the nine barriers to communications

 Understand how communication and information flow through an agency’s chain of command

 Understand informal communication networks in the workplace

 Understand nonverbal communication

 Understand the difference between communication and information

 Understand exchange theory exchange networks

 Be able to define linking pin theory

 Understand the ethical issues relating to communications

Basic Theory of Communication

 Interpersonal communication begins with a dyad – one individual sending information to another person who receives it.

 Communication is a sequential process. o Person A (sender) encodes a message and transmits it through

some medium.

o Person B (receiver) receives the message and decodes it.

o Any interruption of this process diminishes the communication.

Basic Theory of Communication

 Process o Begins when the sender feels the need to communicate.

o Encoding – the sender translates the message into words or symbols

o Transmission – the sender conveys the message through a chosen medium (e.g. e-mail)

o Decoding – the receiver interprets and determines the meaning of the message

 In organizations we must consider dyad functions between individuals, multiple dyads with groups and groups external to the organization.

Basic Theory of Communication

 Barriers o Preconceived ideas

o Denial of contrary information

o Use of personal meanings

o Lack of motivation or interest

o Non-credibility of the source

o Lack of communication skills

o Poor organizational climate

o Use of complex channels

o Communication gap

Basic Theory of Communication

Communication in Organizations

 The communication process between individuals is simple, but has a high potential for failure.

 Communications within organizations is far more complex and affected by the: o Organizational climate,

o Complexity of communication channels,

o Chain of command and hierarchy, and

o Informal social system.

Communication in Organizations

 Chain of command o Filters messages and may be a barrier

o Downward communication – allows executives a clear path to send information to subordinates

o Horizontal communication – enables members at the same level to share information, solve problems, and coordinate activities

 Informal communication o A reaction to cumbersome formal communication channels –

the grapevine.

Communication in Organizations

 Organizational rules for communication o Exclusionary rules – limit and differentiate information

that can and cannot be used within certain contexts

o Organizational rules are often ‘understood’ and highly influenced by the hierarchical nature of the organization.

o Content rules – govern standard word usage

o Procedural rules – govern how and when communication happens

Communication in Organizations

 Informal communication networks o Social structures that evolve through repeated communication

between individuals and groups.

o Kinship networks – formed more for personal than professional reasons

 Nonverbal communication o The oldest and often most powerful form of communication.

o Rely on symbols, posture, inflection and other non-spoken elements of the message

Communication in Organizations

 Information and Communication o Information is the substance of communication

o Communication is the process of sharing information

 Load – the rate and complexity of communication

 Overload – occurs when the flow of messages exceeds and individual’s or system’s capacity to process them. Affected by o Dependence on the information

o Capacity of the receiver

o Receiver’s desire for the information

Communication in Organizations

 Determinants of communication load

o Absolute information – knowledge expressed in recognized symbolic terms

o Distributed information – knowledge dispersed

o Forms of information

• Environmental

• Motivational

• Instructional

Communication Roles Criminal Justice Practitioners

 Networks are dynamic because their members may enter or leave at any time.

 Criminal justice workers may be a members of multiple networks simultaneously.

 Networks tend to interlock with each other through common members.

 The number of potential networks is virtually endless.

Communication Roles Criminal Justice Practitioners

Communication Roles Criminal Justice Practitioners

Communication Roles Criminal Justice Practitioners

Communication Roles Criminal Justice Practitioners

Developing Informal Communication Networks

 Informal networks are created in order to achieve greater efficiencies or avoid historical communication barriers.

 Exchange theory – workers trade information and assistance with other workers in order to gain efficiencies.

 Linking pins – individuals who serve as conduits between the groups they are a members of.

Implications

 Environmental communication

o In criminal justice the public’s right or need to know is balanced with the necessity of keeping some information confidential.

 Intra-organizational communication o Hampered by the differential rules and expectations of other

organizations.

 Inter-organizational communication o The need for communication between all levels of the criminal

justice system is more important following recent increases in terrorism.

Communication Technology

 The Internet has created new technologies that both facilitate and hamper communication.

 Technological innovations sometimes conflict with information security procedures.

 Tele- and videoconferencing enhance communication but do not replace face to face interaction.

Ethical Problems

 Ethical communication requires: o An understanding of the importance of the

communication process,

o A commitment to create, promote and protect ethical boundaries for conversation and information sharing,

o The avoidance of misusing information as a method of control, and

o The setting of boundaries and rules for communication.

Thinking Point and Question

 Using the information contained in this chapter, develop a comprehensive plan for improving inter- agency communication. Your plan, at a minimum, should include;  Strategies for overcoming communication barriers,

 Opportunities for developing formal and informal communications resources, and

 The use of technology to improve communications.

 Describe how your plan would work between the police, fire and building permit functions.

Chapter Summary

 The five steps of the communication process include: encoding, transmitting, selecting a medium or channel, receiving, and decoding

 The nine barriers to communication include: preconceived ideas, denial of contrary information, use of personalized meanings, lack of motivation or interest, non-credibility of source, lack of communication skills, poor organizational climate, use of complex channels, and communication gap.

 In a hierarchical organization, communication flows downward from superior to subordinate and upward from subordinate to superior.

Chapter Summary

 Executives do not communicate directly with field workers and vice versa.

 Horizontal communication facilitates coordination.

 Informal communication networks form on their own and for some purpose.

 Individuals who are part of an informal communication network share information with each other but not with others who are not included.

 Nonverbal communication is part of the message when individuals communicate face to face.

Chapter Summary

 Communication is a process that sends a message while information is the actual message.

 In an exchange network members communicate regularly and exchange information for information. Information in these networks is a commodity.

 Productivity in industry is higher in agencies that are coordinated by interlocking work groups rather than by a monolithic chain of command.

 The groups are bound together by individuals (linking pins) who are members of more than one group.

Thinking Point and Question

 The newly elected Mayor is concerned about “the apparent lack of communication between agencies within the city’s government”.

 She calls a meeting of department heads and observes a palpable level of inter-agency distrust.

 You, as an Assistant City Manager, are asked to develop stronger lines of communication between these agencies.