Decrease in Motivation and Productivity in Law Enforcement
My department, division, and career field areexperiencing a significant decrease in both job satisfaction and productivity on a large scale. There are several factors that can be contributed to these declines on a national and regional scale, as well as how these problems are being addressed within my department.
In terms of productivity, I will speak to proactive enforcement activities taken by police officers with a focus on traffic stops. Recently, a department I previously worked for proclaimed that it "will no longer initiate traffic stops for minor infractions such as broken headlights or tail lights(Queram, 2015)" as a way of addressing racial disparities in
…show more content…
My department, as well as many other agencies are referred to as modern or new, have also adapted new policies in regards to discipline and violations officers can be disciplined for. The most common form of discipline in my agency comes in the form of suspension without pay. While it is a common belief that civil servants (police, teachers, etc.) are underpaid, imagine these workers now worried about the constant threat of having their paychecks further reduced due to minor violations of policy (such as wearing the wrong color undershirt, or turning off a police siren long enough to speak into a radio microphone.) While monetary reimbursement is not specifically listed in Maslow's hierarchy, I believe it is understood that the ability to provide for one's family or ones own livelihood depends on their ability to earn a …show more content…
Many officers complain of the length of time subsequently spent at the jailwhen arresting someone, even for minor offenses. I myself have spent 4 or more hours of my shift in the booking area waiting to speak to a magistrate for misdemeanor charges. Throw in the likelihood that officers will have to attend court on their scheduled days off (more than likely several times) to have a district attorney reduce or dismiss the charges completely, and many officers simply deem certain activities as simply not being worth their time, effort, or the frustration they believe to likely accompany the lack of a satisfying result. When officers are experiencing frustration on this many levels,it can be hard to remember the words "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your understanding (Proverbs
What is complacency? Well as defined by Merriam-Webster it is “self-satisfaction especially when accompanied by unawareness of actual dangers or deficiencies”. In typical occupations complacency doesn’t really have any big consciences, some people at their job can be complacent till they retire and never have any issues at all. But when you become complacent in Law Enforcement there could be very serious and irreversible consciences like losing your own life or worse an innocent person’s life that you swore to protect. Complacency comes along after you do something over and over again and become good at it that you get to confortable in that situation but in law enforcement nothing is routine. You can do one hindered great car stops with no issue and get very comfortable doing the stops that you forget
In asking the consulting firm for assistance, President Paul Willard stated that the main issue within the organization was a “power struggle between people and departments.” This is precisely where the issues in both the sales and production departments are stemming from. After analyzing the situation, several issues can be pointed out in the sales department, the first being the leadership style of sales executive vice-president Ernie Lane, the second being the dramatic shift in the work force, and the third being the lack of motivation and compensation to maintain morale, satisfaction, and productivity. Most importantly, all the problems are
Some of the things that companies could do to improve job satisfaction for example, would be to identify when an employee is bored on the job, address it, obtain feedback from the employee for ideas to make their job more interesting and challenging. This would allow a leader to assist this individual in designing different ways to perform duties or depending on individual’s future career goals and performance level, may need more responsibility or promotion in order for the employee to maintain job satisfaction and retention with t...
The first incident I came across was the traffic stop. A man was pulled over for speeding 10 miles per hour above the posted speed limit in a residential area. I estimated he was going about 36 miles per hour when the posted speed limit was actually 25 miles per hour. After running his license plate, he had no previous violations, no records for a stolen car, and he had valid registration and emissions for the vehicle. The logo on his uniform states, “We’re always on time”, hinted to me as the reason for the driver to be speeding. After questioning him, the story checks out to be true and he stated that his supervisor had strict rules about being at work on time. If in fact he violates that rule he could lose his job. He sounded very sincere and apologetic for knowing he went over the speed limit. He has no prior violations on file. Given the circumstances, my gut reaction is to let him off with a warning. I believe it will be a wake-up call for the driver to use more caution in the future. The driver was not a dangerous threat nor was he driving recklessly on the roadway.
Law enforcement plays a huge role worldwide. They keep crime off the streets as much as they can, and make sure we are safe. They are a call away and they will come help you with whatever emergency or danger you’re in. This is why it is so important to respect law enforcement. No one like to be arrested, the first thing you want to do is be disrespectful because you are furious they are arresting you. You still have the respect law enforcement though because you could get more charges, they are just trying to help keep people safe, and respect is a main key to life.
Once fatigue has taken a toll on police officers burnout and disengagement take over. This is particularly dangerous because once a police officer becomes disengaged with their work; they lose the passion for their job, which results in a half-hearted effort to protect and serve the public. Burnout causes officers to become complacent and can cost them their life (Amendola et al., 2011). When officers experience high levels of stress accompanied by little sleep, fatigue can creep into their daily lives. However, once this trend continues for weeks, officers experience burnout and disengagement.
possible solutions to this problem would be firing the officer, giving them jail time, or even
Motivation is an important concept which is critical for understanding of and improvement in organizational behaviour and performance. It is therefore important for the managers to understand motivation. It is an important tool which they can use to get more out of their employees and increase organizational performance. Motivation can be defined as the factors, both internal as well as external which arouse in individuals the desire and commitment for a job (Mele, 2005, p. 15). Organizational performance on the other hand refers to the degree to which the organizational objectives have been achieved.
Overall police are seen as harsh or intimidating even though they are society’s protector, also many stories about cops using excessive force are prominent in the media news. Even though I have witness an all of two officers acting in inappropriate manners I can say they were the minority of the group of officers there. Many of the officers displayed much control over their emotional states and told me that I should do the same and treat the inmates some in for serious crimes as regular people showing some hints of respect. This was a theme to many officers who regulated the pods within the jail most of them rarely spoke down to the inmates or in any harsh manner of the same nature. Uniquely both of these two themes were very prevalent within my internship and spiked my interest into further research about job satisfaction as well as the emotional labor in the police field.
Job satisfaction is a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job experiences. It has been treated both as a general attitude and satisfaction with five specific dimensions of the job: pay, the work itself, promotion opportunities, supervision, and coworkers. Challenging work, valued rewards, opportunities for advancement, competent supervision, and supportive coworkers are dimensions of the job that can lead to satisfaction (Nelson & Quick, 2013, pg. 58-59).
I thought that there would be more traffic stops and giving people tickets for speeding, but we didn’t do that once. I did see Officer Jordan clocking how fast a few cars were going, but none were going fast enough for him to pull them over. Instead, what we did the most was help people. We helped the lady whose car got stuck, we helped the homeowners whose alarm went off, and we helped the people on vacation by checking on their house. In a way, I guess that’s all that police officers do, is help people. Even the people who are getting tickets or getting arrested are being helped. They are being helped to become a better person by giving them a punishment for doing something they weren’t supposed to be doing. Giving tickets or arresting someone also helps bystanders. If someone is speeding and you give them a ticket, they likely won’t speed again for a while. This helps bystanders by putting them at less of a risk of being involved in an accident with the speeder. The same goes for arresting
Based off of the gratification an individual contains towards their work is job satisfaction. The productivity could either be positive or negative while the relationship between the productivity and satisfaction may not be consistent. There are multiple internal and external factors of job satisfaction that can impact the behavior of an employee and engagement over time. The way the worker’s attitude concerning their field effects the performance they perform on a daily basis. One who is satisfied with the job they maintain, succeed at what they do. “It is therefore imperative for a company to understand the attitude of its workers and measure the job satisfaction of its employees, as job satisfaction is essential for productivity” (L. Bradshaw
In many organisations, managers and bosses have found it a struggle implementing successful strategies to improve job satisfaction and productivity among its employees. While dealing with unproductive, unmotivated and unsatisfied employees, there is an increased risk for turnover, which can be prevented. The risk of high turnover is a problem to workplaces as turnover has been proven to ‘take its toll’ on productivity as it disrupts current projects and increases workloads for other employees. It also has a negative impact on team cohesion (Patrick and Sonia, 2012). Job satisfaction is one’s general attitude to the job, and higher the job satisfaction, the more likely he/she will hold a positive attitude towards their job (De Menzes, 2011). De Menzes (2011) believes that employees who are satisfied with their jobs are likely to be more committed to their organisation and be more productive. People are significantly more productive when they are content and achieving individual and organisational goals are able to be fulfilled in a work environment where employees feel happy and motivated. Interventions which can be used to improve job satisfaction and productivity to decrease rates of turnover and unmotivated employees include an increase in workplace training, as well as performance pay.
The study of motivation has long been a topic for psychologists. Motivation is described as an initiating and guiding force of goal oriented behavior. Motivation goes beyond the desires and examines the “why” of human actions. The proposed research seeks to investigate motivation of individuals seeking employment in law enforcement. Police work offers unique physical and psychological challenges.
Employee performance defines the individual performance and behavior. It is essential to understand that performance is not merely a tasks and work need to be done to receive bonus or pay increase. Main objective is to enhance the skills set of an individual while helping the business performance (Baker, 1999).