PHILOSOPHIES OF POLICE MANAGEMENT

Dr. Carmelita B. ChavezDean, College of Criminal Justice Education

University of Mindanao

MANAGEMENT

• “Is getting things done through people”.

• Other definitions:• The process of influencing the activities of

an individual or a group toward goal achievement in a given situation.

• Working with and through individuals and groups to accomplish organizational goals.

• The activity of influencing people to strive willingly for group objectives.

• The exercise of influence.

Manager is viewed as “team captain”, “parent”, “steward”, battle commander”, “minister”, “facilitator”, “mediator”, etc..

• This characteristics of leadership in the purest sense influences others by example. This is recognized by Lao-Tzu when he wrote:

“The superior leader gets things doneWith very little motionHe imparts instruction not through

many wordsBut through a few deedsHe keeps informed about everythingBut interferes hardly at allHe is a catalyst.”

Historical Approaches to Management

• According to Gerald Lynch, the history of management can be divided into 3 approaches and time periods.

Scientific Management (1900 – 1940) Human Relations Management (1930 – 1970) Systems Management (1965 – present)

SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT

• Frederick Winslow Taylor, who first emphasized time and motion studies, is known today as the “father of scientific management”. Spending his early years in Pennsylvania, became chief

engineer and later discovered new method of making steel and retired at the age of 45.

He became interested in methods of getting greater productivity from workers, and was hired in 1898 by Bethlehem Steel, where he measured the time it took workers to shovel and carry pig iron. He recommended giving workers hourly breaks and going to a piece work system. Productivity soared.

• Taylor, who was highly criticized by unions for his management-oriented views, proved that administrators must know their employees.

• Taylor published a book on the subject in 1911, entitled “The Principles of Scientific Management”. This view caught on and soon emphasis was placed entirely on the formal administrative structure, such terms as “authority:, “chain of command”, span of control”, and “division of labor” were generated.

• In 1935, Luther Gulick formulated the often quoted POSDCORB, an acronym for planning, organizing, staffing, directing, controlling, reporting and budgeting..

• This philosophy was emphasized in police management for many years. Gulick emphasized the technical and engineering side of management virtually ignoring the human side.

• Scientific management was heavily criticized as it applied to criminal justice agencies. First, it viewed employees as passive instruments whose feelings were completely disregarded. Further, employees were felt to be motivated by money alone.

POSDCORB

• PLANNING: working out in broad outline what needs to be done and the methods for doing it to accomplish the purpose set for the enterprise;

• ORGANIZING: the establishment of a formal structure of authority through work which work subdivisions are arranged, defined, and coordinated for the defined objectives;

• STAFFING: the whole personnel function of bringing in and training the staff and maintaining favorable conditions of work;

• DIRECTING: the continuous task of making decisions, embodying them in specific and general orders and instructions, and serving as the leader of the enterprise;

• COORDINATING: the all important duty of interrelating the various parts of the organization;

• REPORTING: informing the executive and his assistants as to what is going on, through records, research, and inspection;

• BUDGETTING: all that is related to budgeting in the form of fiscal planning, accounting, and control.

HUMAN RELATIONS MANAGEMENT

• In 1930, people began to realize the negative effects of scientific management on the worker.

• In policing, there arose a view that management should instill pride and dignity in officers.

• The movement towards human relations began with the famous studies conducted during the late 1920s through the mid-1930s by the Harvard Business School.

• These studies focused on finding ways to bring about production by changing working conditions, such as the number of hours, the nr of work breaks per day, and the physical environment.

• In 1940s and 1950s, police departments also began to recognize the strong effect of the informal structures on the organization;

• Agencies began using such techniques as job enlargement and job enrichment to generate interest in policing as a career.

• Studies indicated that the supervisor who was “employee centered” was more effective than the one who was “production centered”.

• Democratic or participatory management began to appear in police agencies, and private industry began to move away from the pyramid-shaped organizational structure to a more flat type structure.

• Human relations approach had its limitations, however, with the emphasis being placed on the employee, the role of the organizational structure became secondary; the primary goal seemed to many to be social rewards and little attention seemed to be given to task accomplishment.

SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT APPROACH

• In the mid-1960s, the features of human relations and scientific management approaches were combined in the systems management approach.

• Designed to bring the individual and the organization together, it attempted to help managers use employees to reach desired production goals.

• The systems approach recognized that it was still necessary to have hierarchical arrangement to bring about coordination that authority and responsibility were essential, and that overall coordination was required.

• This approach combined the works of: Maslow, who developed his “hierarchy of

needs”, in which he classified the needs of people at the different levels;

McGregor, who stressed the general theory of human motivation;

Blake and Mouton, who developed the “managerial grid” which emphasized the concerns that managers must have: concern for task and for people.

• In effect, the systems management approach holds that to be effective, the manager must have an interdependence with other individuals and groups and an ability to recognize and deal with conflict and change.

• More than mere technical skills are required: managers required knowledge of several major resources, people, money, time, and equipment.

• Team cooperation is required to achieve organizational goals.

PRIMARY LEADERSHIP THEORIES

TRAIT THEORY Trait theory was very popular until around 1950s. This theory was based on the contention that good

leaders possessed certain character traits that poor leaders did not.

Those who developed this theory, STOGDILL and GOODE, believed that a leader could be identified through a two-step process.

First, leaders could be studied and compared to non-leaders to determine which traits were possessed solely by leaders.

Second, people would be sought who possessed these traits, and would be promoted into managerial positions.

• STYLE THEORY The major focus of the style theory is the adoption of a single

managerial style by a manager, based on his or her position in regard to initiating structure and consideration.

Three pure leadership styles were thought to be the basis for all managers: autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire.

AUTOCRATIC leaders are leader centered and have a high initiating structure.

They are primarily authoritarian in nature and prefer to give orders rather than invite group participation.

They have the tendency to be personal in their criticism. This style works best in emergency situations in which

there is a need for strict control and rapid decision making. The problem with autocratic leadership is the inability of

the organization to function when the leader is absent. It also stifles individual development and initiative because subordinate rarely allowed to make independent decision.

• DEMOCRATIC or participative leadership style tends to focus on working within the group and striving to attain cooperation from group members be eliciting their ideas and support.• This style is very useful in organizations where the course

of action is uncertain and problems are relatively structures.

• The decision making ability of subordinates are often tapped, however, in emergency situations requiring highly structured response, democratic leadership may prove too time consuming and awkward to be effective.

• Although the worker may appreciate the strength of this style, its weaknesses must be recognized as well.

• LAISSEZ-FAIRE, is a hands-off approach where the leader is actually a non-leader.• The organization in effect runs itself, with no input or

control from the manager.• This style has no positive aspects, as the entire

organization is soon placed in jeopardy.• This may not be a leadership style at all, instead, it may

be an abdication of administrative duties.

• SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP Early work in situational leadership was conducted by

FRED FIEDLER. He held that personality characteristics relevant to

leadership are stable over time and across situations. Some personality attributes are believed to contribute to

effective leadership in other situations. He argued that there is no single best approach to

leadership. That the influence of the situation determined the appropriate leadership style.

• MANAGERIAL GRID In 1964, ROBERT R. BLAKE and JANE S. MOUTON

developed their managerial grid focused on two variables; task (initiating structure) and relationships (consideration), to develop a management quadrant describing leadership behavior.

The managerial grid includes five (5) leadership styles1. Authority-compliance management2. Country club management3. Middle-of-the-road management4. Impoverished management5. Team management

• AUTHORITY-COMPLIANCE MANAGEMENT Efficiency in operations results from arranging

conditions of work in such a way that human elements interfere to a minimum degree.

• COUNTRY CLUB MANAGEMENT Thoughtful attention to needs of people for satisfying

relationships leads to a comfortable friendly organization atmosphere and work tempo

• MIDDLE-OF-THE-ROAD MANAGEMENT Adequate organization performance is possible through

balancing the necessity to get out work while maintaining morale of people at a satisfactory level

• IMPOVERISHED MANAGEMENT Exertion of minimum effort to get required work done is

appropriate to sustain organization membership.

• TEAM MANAGEMENT Work accomplishment is from committed

people; interdependence through a “common stake” in organization purpose leads to relationships of trust and respect.

TYPES OF LEADERSHIP SKILLS

In 1974, ROBERT KATZ identified three essential skills that leaders should possess: TECHNICAL, HUMAN, and CONCEPTUAL

TECHNICAL SKILLS Are those a manager needs to ensure that specific

tasks are performed correctly. They are based on proven knowledge, procedures, or

techniques. HUMAN SKILLS Involve working with people, including being

thoroughly familiar with what motivates employees and how to utilize group processes.

• CONCEPTUAL SKILLS• Involve “coordinating and integrating all activities

and interests of the organization toward a common objective.

• Katz emphasized that these skills can be taught to actual and prospective administrators; thus good administrators are not simply born but can be trained in the classroom.

• All these skills are present in varying degrees for each management level . As one moves up the hierarchy, conceptual skills become more important and technical skills less important.

• The common denominator for all levels of management is human skills.