Introduction
Employees everywhere pose a challenge when it comes to motivating them. This is because most of the time those in supervisory levels in the various workplaces do not know how to effectively communicate with their employees, intending to encourage them to work to reach the goals set for a particular organization. Motivation implies a person’s innermost drive in accomplishing a specific task. It is achieved when an individual’s needs are in line with the goals and objectives of the organization such a person works for (Mackay, 2006).
Police officers are considered some of the most essential people in society as they help in keeping communities and countries as a whole safe from both internal and external enemies. Departments in which police officers are not sufficiently motivated usually have unreliable officers who end up disappointing the same people they are supposed to protect. Such officers put communities at risk and are a liability to both their departments as well as the country. Therefore, motivation in police officers is very important.
Fundamentals of motivation
Motivation is based on three major basics. These are:
- Motivation always begins with a desire to reach certain assumed or real impossibilities and goals. This means that passion or interest should be created in those who are to be motivated.
- An attitude of always desiring to learn more in everything one does: to be able to differentiate between what works and what does not in a workplace situation.
- Learning how to take failures and other barriers in one’s life, as a means of encouragement to do even better in times of hardships rather than giving up when things do not always go your way.
Every head of a department should have the above-outlined information so that one can effectively work towards motivating those officers who work under them, to ensure the smooth running of their various departments.
Rules of motivation
There are some basic rules that a Head of a department needs to follow, to achieve motivation in police officers. They should set attainable key goals, but still have other minor goals along the way, which must be accomplished first. The importance of this is that the accomplishment of minor goals works well in motivating people to reach even higher limits.
Learning to teach by example is also a basic rule. Once a supervisor begins a certain task or project, they should always complete it no matter how difficult it is or how many times they have to start again due to barriers encountered along the way. This goes to show their juniors the importance of perseverance and persistence in everything they do (More and Wegener, 1992). One should also know that matching a police officer’s major talents with the desire to do something creates motivation. This in turn creates determination, which always helps in accomplishing tasks.
Expanding one’s level of knowledge is important in creating motivation. The more one knows about something, the more one wants to learn about it. Creating a desire to learn in police officers leads them towards being inspired to learn more, even if they have to work to achieve those desires they aim for. This in turn creates a sense of motivation.
Steps aimed at creating motivation in police officers
Heads of departments should learn to act in certain ways towards their officers, to attain high levels of motivation in them. This goes to ensure that officers remain motivated in their daily tasks. Supervisors should always be open-minded. They should allow their juniors to voice their opinions. Shouting down someone most times leads to that person feeling not appreciated, which in turn reduces the level of motivation they have in performing their duties (Peak et al, 2009). Allowing officers to participate in some of the decision-making activities is an effective way of practicing this.
Giving officers responsibilities and holding them responsible for their accomplishment builds motivation in them as they do whatever is assigned to them to their level best. Commanding officers in everyone’s presence for accomplishments done and giving them praise and rewards where it is due, makes them feel confident and encourages them to do even better to receive more praise. Exposing officers to new ideas and ways of doing things, create an interest of wanting to learn more, mostly when the ideas presented are tough to conquer. This way, motivation is acquired. Mentoring and showing officers that you are behind them in everything they do, also go a long way in encouraging them to work more efficiently in reaching the department’s aims and objectives (Baker, 2010).
Honesty should always be maintained in all our daily dealings with other people. Giving officers your honest opinion about some task they have performed or about their performance in the workplace inspires them to work harder even when they are told that their performance is not satisfactory. This also shows the officers that the supervisor cares and makes them feel appreciated as their efforts are constantly being noticed. Discrimination tends to make people lose motivation in the workplace. A Head of the department should therefore ensure that everyone is treated equally. He should also beware of being biased towards some officers because this is also a form of discrimination, which can contribute highly to a decrease in motivation in officers who are treated unfairly (Diamond, 2010).
How to motivate different levels of police officers
Police officers are all different in various aspects. They differ in terms of education, skill, attitudes, morals and personalities. Heads of departments need to recognize what is of utmost importance to their officers to encourage them to achieve their goals.
Beginners
At this level, a police officer can be easily manipulated into accomplishing the set goals, because they have not been in the department for long. It must be noted, however, that some beginners might have had some prior experience, hence making them more motivated than others. These officers should be respected for what they already know, so as not to create resentment between them and their superiors. Such officers are mostly concerned with trying to please their superiors and are thus more demanding when it comes to having excellent leaders who are well organized (Baker, 2010).
Experienced officers
These are those officers who have been in service for at least five to ten years. Such officers tend to become less motivated as their terms of in-service increase. This then means that department heads should constantly review their sources of motivation. In this way, they will be able to come up with new ways of motivating them, for example giving them monetary incentives, to improve their motivation levels (Peak et al, 2009).
Senior officers
These represent the officers who have served for more than twenty years. They work more efficiently when not under pressure. They can act hostile mostly when they are getting orders from superiors who are much younger than them, and it is for this reason that utmost respect is a must when dealing with this level of officers. Their motivation levels are usually high because they are some of the most loyal officers in the department, but they tend to deteriorate when under supervision from an incompetent leader. Thus heads of departments should ensure that their leadership is efficient and their departments are well organized so as to ensure that these officers feel motivated to accomplish their tasks.
Self-Motivation
Police officers should not always wait for their superiors to always assist them in creating a sense of motivation in their daily duties. This means that they should also come up with individual means of motivating themselves in working towards the completion of their tasks and duties. A person should identify a role model. This can be the person who encouraged you to become a police officer or someone who is your superior, who you think has characteristics that you admire. Mentors are also an example of role models. They help in giving someone advice and a sense of direction. Having someone to model makes a person even more determined to turn out even better than one’s role model (Baker, 2010).
Setting personal goals, which are in line with the departments’ goals, is also a good self-motivation tactic. Having something that you are working towards achieving, keeps someone focused on that specific goal and in this way, a person is not easily distracted from achieving what they have set out to do.
Advantages of motivation
Motivation works towards building a more willing and efficient workforce. This then helps in accomplishing set goals in the department as everyone works in unison to better their department. It also makes people value themselves more. This in turn builds on the officers’ individual skills and expertise, as they become more interested in learning new things and in this way, they broaden their capabilities and knowledge (Diamond, 2010).
When motivation is achieved, the officers’ determination to change is enhanced thereby creating better and more efficient officers. Officers become more encouraged to work in teams once motivation is reached. This means that the whole department works in unison towards their set goals. A team spirit ensures that more work is done with accompanying benefits for the whole department.
Motivation can also make officers more dependable. They gain a sense of responsibility when they are motivated, which in turn brings about a sense of innovativeness in them. When one knows that they are solely responsible for the completion of a particular task, they are easier to work with because they have that sense of responsibility in them.
Conclusion
Motivation is a key ingredient in every person’s day-to-day activity. Having a sense of direction that leads to a specified goal is always the first step in making someone feel motivated. Thus, individual officers, as well as their supervisors, should ensure that their objectives are properly outlined before they embark on their various tasks.
References
Baker, T. E. (2010). Effective Police Leadership: Moving Beyond Managent. Penyslavania: Looseleaf Law Publications.
Diamond, H. & Diamond, L. E. (2010). Perfect Phrases for Motivating and Rewarding Employees: Hundreds of Ready-to-Use Phases for Encouraging and Recognizing Employee Excellence (Second Edition). Atlantic: McGraw-Hill Professional.
Mackay, A. (2006). Motivation, Ability and Confidence Building in People. Great Britain: Gulf Professional Publishing.
More, H. W., & W. Wegener, F. (1992). Behavioral Police Management. Pennsylvania: Macmillan.
Peak, J. K., Gaines, L. K., & Glensor, R. W. (2009). Police Supervision and Management: In an Era of Community Policing. New York: Prentice Hall.