Captain Strong has quite a difficult task to fulfill as the situation in the department is rather complicated. Patrol officers’ morale is low and they find their jobs dissatisfying. This leads to low quality of service provided and exceeding level of turnover. Lots of managers view organizations as a structure and employ the holistic approach (Hester & Adams, 2014). In this case, however, Captain Strong should utilize a combination of the holistic and reductionist approaches. She can choose the reductionist approach that will help her to address particular parts of the system. It is important to understand the needs of each employee and make sure that basic needs will be addressed. When these issue have been addressed, she will be able to develop a holistic strategy to maintain the necessary atmosphere in the working place. She will be able to develop an effective system where all employees are satisfied with the job and are willing to work hard.
Obviously, patrol officers need to be motivated. They are overloaded by work and are unwilling to work hard. Zehndorfer (2013) stresses that motivational strategies should be equally applicable to all employees. Otherwise, they will be ineffective. Financial motivation has proved to be a universal strategy which is valued by the vast majority of employees (Zehndorfer, 2013). Nonetheless, scarce resources require development of other strategies. Hence, Captain Strong may introduce certain monetary reward. This can be a reward for outstanding performance during a particular period (a month, a year) or in a particular case. At the same time, Captain Strong has to introduce other benefits which could be valued by the employees. It can be effective to ask the employees to complete a brief questionnaire on their aspirations, needs and expectations. She also can launch certain training for the employees. The training will aim at development of efficient strategies to complete reports. Employees feel they are overwhelmed with paperwork. Hence, they need to be taught to complete this task more efficiently (using less time and effort). It can also be effective to consider the amount of paper work. Sometimes employees have to complete reports which are unnecessary. Captain Strong has to make sure there are no such reports in the department.
It is noteworthy that the E.R.G. theory is applicable when developing effective motivational strategies. The theory includes three classes: existence needs, relatedness needs and growth needs (Jost, 2014). Thus, monetary rewarding will address existence needs. It is also clear that there are serious issues when it comes to relationships in the department. The policy existing in the department make it impossible for patrol officers to satisfy their relatedness needs. However, it should be done to motivate employees and help them work more effectively. Since it is prohibited to have lunch or coffee breaks in the same restaurants for more than two officers, patrol officers should have another opportunity to interact. There should be a canteen within the department where police officers can have lunch and communicate. Apart from this, there can be weekly meetings to share ideas, experiences, problems and solutions. Patrol officers have to feel support of each other on daily basis. As has been mentioned above, training can help make patrol officers’ work more effective. Some of these training sessions may be aimed at development of team work within the department. It is clear that workload and lack of interpersonal relationship leads to dissatisfaction and excessive turnover. Finally, it is important to take into account growth needs of patrol officers. It is possible to launch a system of ratings. For instance, top three patrol officers can be chosen each month. The best employee can get monetary reward and some other benefits.
Another motivational strategy which is applicable in this case is job enrichment. In the first place, it is necessary to note that job enlargement will not be useful. Job enlargement “extends the scope of actions in a horizontal dimension” and employees have to complete more tasks which are often routine (Jost, 2014, p. 371). This approach will lead to a higher level of dissatisfaction. On the contrary, job enrichment will make the tasks completed more diverse. Employees will not get tired of fulfilling routine tasks. It is noteworthy that this approach also implies feedback and communication which will have a positive impact on development of proper relationship in the department and employees’ satisfaction. At this point it is necessary to note that patrol officers claim they have little time for their preliminary investigations as well as their patrolling. Therefore, it is important to analyze the workload and, perhaps, reduce the amount of work each patrol officer has to conduct.
In conclusion, it is possible to state that Captain Strong can improve the situation and she needs to pay specific attention to the workload and employees’ motivation. It is crucial to make sure that the tasks completed are necessary. It is possible to optimize some tasks. Captain Strong can also consider launching some training and rewarding.
Reference List
Hester, P.T., & Adams, K.M. (2014). Systemic thinking: Fundamentals for understanding problems and messes. Norfolk, VA: Springer.
Jost, P.J. (2014). The economics of motivation and organization: An introduction. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Zehndorfer, E. (2013). Leadership: A critical introduction. New York, NY: Routledge.