Problems at the Western Australian Police Communication - Case Study Example

Management of Change Author’s name Institutional affiliation Tutor Date Outline: I. Abstract II. Introduction III. Discussion IV. Conclusion ABSTRACT As the world gets to levels of development which were unimaginable just a few decades ago, there have arisen problems which have life a little bit unbearable for many people. This problem is usually by one small word 'stress'. With the latest developments, the number of stressors has increased by the power of the exponent. This phenomenon known as stress refers to a concept which could negatively affect a well being; mentally and physically. It has been widely acknowledged that different professions involve different levels of stress. Members of the disciplined forces and specifically the police find themselves exposed to stress almost each and every day they are at work. There is a heavy amount of stress which is expressed at the Communication Centres. Stress could be described as a concept which is somehow abstract and there is no agreement as to what exactly constitutes stress. However, there is concurrence that there are many negative results of stress and which ought to be dealt with decisively. Stress manifests itself in a number of ways such as back pains and strange illnesses. There is need for a change in the management so as to stem the negative consequences of stress. Key words: Management, Stress, Change Introduction Police Operations Call Centres could be termed as the nerve centres of any police force the world over. The men and women in uniform form an indispensable part of the society. The police call centres are daily inundated with phone calls whose subject matter ranges from the most mundane things to matters of life and death (Carnal, 2007, p.26). It is critical therefore that the calls do work twenty four hours a day, seven days a week otherwise there are many things that would go wrong. Members of the public make calls to the police to make enquiries. Police have to take up the role of psychologists when dealing with cases of people who are tempted to commit suicide and hence such officers have to dissuade potential suicide victims to abandon their plans. Police operations are heavily, if not entirely, dependent on proper communication (Bolman & Deal, 2008, p.19). It is difficult to find a ratio of police to the population which is favourable and inevitably working at the call centres takes its toll on the concerned officers. This paper is aimed to identity the people who are on the mission of ensuring that Western Australian Police Communications get a change for the better. The paper also seeks to identify problems at the Western Australian Police Communication and the final goal is develop interventions which would adequately address the problems identified with the Call Centres. Discussion The task is to diagnose the organisation using Bolman and Deal's reframing and develop a set of recommendations as to what needs to change and how this change should be developed and implemented. Forces for change at the WA Police Communications It is an accepted phenomenon that change is the only constant. It is important that any organisation must change if it has to survive the changing and at times turbulent times which dictate that such change should take place. Failure to conform to the modern trends leaves and organization vulnerable and hence it either becomes unproductive or even obsolete. Driving forces refers to the situations or events whose occurrences have a positive or a negative impact on the operations of an organisation. Driving forces can be classified into two which are internal and external driving forces (Sharma, 2007, p.24). Internal driving forces refer to situations which occur within the organisation and they are controlled by the organisation. External driving forces on the other hand external driving forces refers to events or situations external to an organisation which the organisation has no control over but inadvertently affect the direction that such an organisation takes. Change is bound to occur either by the presence of one set or both driving forces. With reference to the Western Australian Police Operation Centre, there are many driving forces for change and which should not be ignored if the force is to remain relevant in its quest to offer the best services to the populace. There are many forces of change at the Western Australia Police Communications. One of the most important forces of change at the Western Australian Police Communication is the morale of the officers whose serve at the communications centre. The morale and level of motivation of those who work in any given organisation is perhaps the greatest determinant as to how far an organisation goes and how high such organisation rises (Porter & Prenzler, 2012, p.72). The officers serving at the communications centre have their morale at the rock bottom which has negatively affected their performance. It is serious reason for concern when the employees find neither joy nor satisfaction in their job and hence do not look forward to having their shifts at the work place. In the video produced by Ellis (2008) the systems of management at the Western Police leave a lot to be desired. Each and every person in an organisation feels that they have an important role to play towards the achievement of the organisation goals. It is therefore disheartening when the officers serving at the communications centre feels just like pawns so to speak. The top ranking officers make many operational decisions without the courtesy of making consultations with their juniors (Mitchell & Casey, 2007, p.63). This state of affairs leaves the officers holding the junior ranks feeling quite unimportant owing to their being left out of processes whose consequences they have to deal with. This could be related to developing a system for clients and there is absolutely no input from the intended end users whose input would be invaluable in such a situation (Beerel, 2009, p.61). Therefore, it is trite that no matter how well intentioned changes in any organisation might be, without the all the right stakeholder participating, there is bound to be a lot of disquiet which could be easily avoided if things are done properly (Carnal, 2007, p.28). The Western Australia Operations Centres does not have the best of organizational cultures. The environment at the work place does not promote good relationships between the officers as between themselves and neither are the relationships between the officers at the operations and the public they serve. Relationships between human beings play a critical role in determining whether such an organisation meets its set objectives or it always has shortfalls (Mitchell & Casey, 2007, p.64). It becomes sad when officers have to work like robots that are devoid of any need for human interactions. This kind of scenario results in people who do not have feelings so to speak and many feelings are bottled inside people. Without the right fora and opportunities to vent their feelings then such people could end up being exhibited through other antisocial behaviours and habits. It is evident that poor organisational culture contributes to many problems bedevilling the operations centre (Beerel, 2009, p.62). Problems at WA Police Communications using the structural, political and cultural perspectives As the world gets to levels of development which were unimaginable just a few decades ago, there have arisen problems which have life a little bit unbearable for many people. This problem is usually by one small word 'stress'. With the latest developments, the number of stressors has increased by the power of the exponent. This phenomenon known as stress refers to a concept which could negatively affect a well being; mentally and physically. It has been widely acknowledged that different professions involve different levels of stress. Members of the disciplined forces and specifically the police find themselves exposed to stress almost each and every day they are at work. Stress could be described as a concept which is somehow abstract and there is no agreement as to what exactly constitutes stress. However, there is concurrence that there are many negative results of stress and which ought to be dealt with decisively. Stress manifests itself in a number of ways such as back pains and strange illnesses. There is need for a change in the management so as to stem the negative consequences of stress. With regard to problems that have got to with the structure of the force at the operational level, there is a lot that is left to be desired. A key deficiency is a lack of convergence between the goals of the police force as a whole on the one side and the goals of the individual officers who serve at the operations control (Mitchell & Casey, 2007, p.65). Lack of alignment between the goals of the force as a whole and those of individual officers means that disagreements and animosity are bound to occur which not augur wells with the overall strategy of the force. Division of labour has been touted as one of the best ways through which efficiency can be achieved. This is one area in which the force falls short. It is important officers are conversant with each and every area which is relevant to the operations of the force but some level of specialization is a necessity. Lack of specialization means that there is no certainty as to what each individual would be required to do at the next instance. Lack of specialization and division of labour has the inevitable consequence of resulting in stress to the personnel who are allocated specific duties. The rules and policies that the officers are meant to follow might have no justifiable basis and no input at all from those who are supposed to face the consequences of breaching such regulations (Adrian, Carr & Hancock, 2006, p.546). The procedures and hierarchies that have to be followed mean that it takes inordinately long before a decision can be made. Due to hierarchies and chains of command, it often becomes difficult to make a decision immediately since reference has to be made to some senior officers and only after such authorization has been received that action is then able to be taken. This undermines the perceived sense of judgment that an individual officer is expected to have and introduces an element of unnecessary bureaucracy in the operations and these acts as a fetter in the cog of the wheels of the operations of the communications centre (Porter & Prenzler, 2012, p.74). The operations centre faces lots of problems to do with the human resources. The demand for services from the police force has reached an all time high. With the advance in technology, it is evident that more people have access to phones and information. This means that people are more conscious of what services they ought to receive from the police and they actually request for such services (Creasey & Hiatt, 2003, p.51). There is therefore, the issue of the available being overstretched. Members of the force available at the operations centre at any given time are inadequate to meet all the needs of a population whose growth has not been reflected in the number of officers who are available to serve them. The result of a heavy workload and inadequate work force is that the few officers available have to cope with a workload which is heavier than it would ordinarily be. Human beings though capable of being stretched have their limits (Diefenbach, 2007, p.129). According to Edwards (2005, p.26) the results of this overworking are reflected in the general well being and health of the officers which is negatively affected. The force might not have all the prerequisite skills necessary to properly carry out their responsibilities. The force is required to play different roles while discharging responsibilities at the operation centres. A police officer on duty might be faced by an issue which involve a person who is suicidal. It would be important if such an officer had the necessary skills that are possessed by a psychologist as this would make it much easier to deal with such problem. In the operation centre in Western Australian police, one would probably encounter an officer who is demotivated, demoralised and needing as much counselling as the client he is supposed to be of assistance. There exist human prejudices which are bound to affect the performance of officers while on duty. Proper training is required to ensure that all the officers at the operations centre are trained to deal with people from different background and other religious or racial affiliation. As part of growing up people tend to be socialized to hate certain people and this is also reflected even at the places of work. Such prejudices definitely affect the productivity of the officers and those who require the services receive a raw deal (Porter & Prenzler, 2012, p.76). Owing to the limited amount of resources, there are bound to be issues while determining what issues are to be prioritized and which ones should take a back burner. Faced with changes to be made, there are bound to be differences in arriving at decision as to what areas should be given priorities. This is where the issue of politics comes into play. There are many conflicts between different officers. To arrive at decision coercion, negotiation and bargaining are some of the issues that come into play and some people are forced to compromise their positions (Creasey & Hiatt, 2003, p.53). Where power is concentrated in certain hands, then it becomes obvious that decisions will only be made which favour those who wield the power. Some of the problems are manifested through issues which can be termed as symbolic. The decisions which are made by the members of the force at the operation centre can and are usually made on the basis of one's culture or other classification of the person who requires the service (Diefenbach, 2007, p.133). Change interventions that will address the problems The problems at the Western Australia Operations Control can be addressed through a myriad of interventions which would result in improved working environment and improve work by the officers. This shall have the result of ensuring that the workforce is happier and more productive and the population is able to receive quality service. According to Graetz et al (2006, p.31) there is need for quality management during the implementation of the desired change. There is a need to have a quality implementation programme at the Operation Centre. Quality programmes would result in great changes for the better in the operations of the police force. The police force would resolve to offer high quality services. This could be achieved by having different units which have the task with dealing with certain aspects of the change anticipated. Resistance to change is a major stumbling block to implementation of change (Cummings & Worley, 2005, p.62). Therefore, it is very important that the top management at the organization should be won over and their input would ensure successful implementation of the force's programmes. The facilitators of the change process by and large determine whether the process is going to have a successful outcome or not. According to Saka (2003, p.482), a change agent is simply a manager whose aim is reorganize how the responsibilities are shared out in the organisation. A change agent is also charged with ensuring that the systems in the organisation, the processes and all other resources are properly utilized. Managers are likely to ignore the fact that reality is complex (Beerel, 2009, p.51). A manager is required to put into consideration all the factors such as politics, preferences and normative patterns which could have an effect in the way that the process of change takes place. A change agent therefore ought to only act as a facilitator. The change agent should be competent in making specific the goals that the organisation needs to achieve. To achieve this end, such an agent should be good in communicating, negotiating and engage those expected to implement the changes in team building activities which enables the players involved to be able to work together as a team and be able to solve the problems which may arise (Saka, 2003, p.483). An agent of change at the Police Operations Centre would be required to a senior officer who commands a lot of respect from his peers. The first step would perhaps be concerned with trying to conduct his preliminary observations as to what ails the operations centre (Graetz et al, 2006, p.82). The change manager would also have the sole responsibility of putting it in a language which is acceptable to his colleagues of the need to implement the change and he should be able to portray the anticipated change as being beneficial to the officers affected as well as the organisation as a whole. The change manager would organize a forum in a proper setting whereby officers would be entitled to make their contributions as to what their concerns are and how best they think such concerns could be raised (Saka, 2003, p.486). The agent of change would have to cross check the list of concerns that he receives against what his individual observations had been. The persons charged with the task of introducing change would then simplify the concerns raised and put it to the workers at the operations centre what he considers to the way forward. The change agent should be convincing and honest in his assessment and he should not let his or her personal biases to affect judgment. At the Western Australian Police Operations Centre, stress is definitely the symptom of a number of underlying problems. Just like a doctor should treat the disease and not the symptoms, it is critical that the real issues are addressed by the management. One of the issues of concern among the officers would be the workload that they have to bear. The number of police officers working at the operations centres is not large enough to address the very large populations that require services of the officers. A key recommendation would as a matter of necessity address the number of officers who are on duty at any given moment. The management would explore ways of optimizing the minimal resources that are allocated to ensure that an optimal numbers of officers are achieved. This would provide each officer with a workload which is easy to bear. Having enough personnel would result in the possibility of there being flexible hours of work. The officers would have some leeway to have some contribution in determining which hours they are comfortable being at the work place (Almaraz, 1994, p.9). According to Adrian, Carr & Hancock (2006, p.550) space and time play a fundamental role in the process of effecting change in any organisation. Therefore, individuals can be influenced in the way that they perceive their lives and work. In the age of consumerism, there was an encouragement of people to think about the future and hence they fail to be very concerned about the present (Cummings & Worley, 2005, p.52). Capitalism has played a major role in this and hence misrepresentation is bound to be brought by those who yield power so that they are able to maintain a firm grip on others. Having the habit of conspicuous consumption has been abused. Officers at the higher echelons of the force would be more concerned about their future prospects and not those of the junior officers. It is important that that the work environment is more humane by ensuring that every officer at least feels valued and has some security in his job. Where there is more concern about the welfare of others, personal relationships are valued and people are not just concerned about what is in it for them and leaving out everyone else. The management at the Western Australia should be concerned about the kind of responsibility that the officers have to handle. It is very critical that officers are given responsibilities which they enjoy performing and derive satisfaction as a result. It behoves the top management to ensure that the junior officers are by and large allocated duties which match their interests and qualifications (Almaraz, 1994, p.11). Aspects of specialization should be explored so that by and large each officer concentrates on a given task and is able to handle it in a manner which is efficient as they are accustomed to it and thus able to perform it with a lot of ease. Opportunities for training and development should be made available. Theses opportunities are important as they enable one not to feel that they have stagnated in one position for too long which makes the task they have been performing over and over to be monotonous. Additional training exposes one to more challenges and they are able to handle more complex tasks which match their new skills (Graetz et al, 2006, p.83). Conclusion Change never changes. Despite change being said to be the only constant, human being ought not to be resistant to change even when it is evident that things ought to be seen through a different perspective and done differently. However, nowhere is change more urgent than at the Western Australia Police Operation Centre. There have been numerous cases of work related stress whereby the police officers find it difficult to cope with the difficult working condition. There are different manifestations of the stress. Stress can be manifested through increased number of sick leaves, low morale and consequently low productivity. These are just some of the symptoms of the stressful working environment. There are many reasons which are behind the stress experienced by members of the disciplined forces. In addition to having to deal with difficult situations, they do so in a very difficult situation. Ways are required to address the shortcomings at the operation centre and as the old adage goes, a stitch in time saves nine. The process of initiating the change should be handled with due care owing to the sensitive nature of the operations involved. Some of the improvement that could be brought in includes improving the social environment at the work place and opportunities for training. There are a host of other benefits that could accrue to the men and women in uniform and ensure that their productivity is at the peak. References Adrian, N., Carr, A. & Hancock, P. (2006). 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