Police Department - Ob

ORG STRUCTURE:

HIERARCHY

With sergeants for the officers to report to, a Division Commander for the sergeants to report to, and so on, there is a strict and rigidly observed hierarchy at the police department.

DIVISION OF LABOUR AND SPECIALIZATION

There is a high degree of division of labour within this organization. In fact, there is specific mention about "specialized units" at the police department.

RULES AND REGULATIONS

There are strict rules and regulations to be adhered to. With this type of organization, dealing with emergency life and death situations, strict rules and regulations are absolutely necessary.

MERIT

New officers to the department and new officers to specialized units are hired based on skills, experience, and training. However, equity initiative has lead to promotions which may not be based strictly on merit.

IMPERSONALITY

Treatment of employees relies greatly on their position, therefore there is a high level of impersonality.

There is a high degree of bureaucratization in this mechanistic organization.

COMMUNICATION:

SENDER – The city council

MENTAL IMAGE – Rumours and reports

MEDIUM – for the most part it was through formal, written communication.

CONTENT OF MESSAGE – budgetary cuts, reduced specialized training, hiring and promotions freeze, and tight controls on working through lunch hours in exchange for the banking of time-off

RECEIVER – the police department

TRANSMISSION/PHYSICAL RECEPTION – the reports were received by the members of the police department because they directly affect their roles and task structure/descriptions

FILTER

ATTENTIVENESS – the police members were attentive to this communication because it was coming from their superiors (they HAD to obey these new changes)

ATTITUDE – the police members have a very strong negative attitude towards these changes

EFFECT

"The result is declining morale, decreased performance by experienced officers, and increased requests for transfer from the division." (page 210)

PERSONALITY AND LEARNING (BIG 5): n/a

MOTIVATION (EXPECTANCY):

FIRST LEVEL OUTCOMES OF ORG