NCJ Number
197966
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 30 Issue: 6 Dated: November/December 2002 Pages: 511-517
Editor(s)
Kent B. Joscelyn
Date Published
November 2002
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This study examined the issue of impediments to organizational change within police agencies, specifically the impediments to implementing an aspect of community-oriented policing (COP), designated patrol assignments.
Abstract
The ability to plan for and identify impediments to change is an important issue for law enforcement administrators. This study identified potential impediments to implementing community-oriented policing (COP), specifically designated patrol assignments in an attempt to use a more integrative model to examine and explain the phenomenon of organizational change. Three municipal police departments in a large metropolitan area of Arizona were selected for the study: the Phoenix Police Department (PPD), the Mesa Police Department (MPD), and the Tempe Police Department (TPD). The departments selected were all self-defined as engaged in designated officer assignments to implement some form or variation of COP. The study included both dependent and independent variables. The dependent variable was the resistance to organizational change. Independent variables included: complexity or number of structural components, centralization or the locus of decision-making, formalization or the use of rules in an organization, pressure, individual attitude, departmental attitude, and communication or exchange of information. Study findings showed that centralization, complexity, and formalization (the structural variables) could be impediments to change. Of the process variables, pressure variable surfaced consistently as a major factor in facilitating the implementation of COP. However, of all the variables studied, individual attitudes were among the most important factors in COP implementation. Communication surfaced as a necessary factor when implementing change and was intertwined with all of the study variables. This study expands the current literature about the resistance to change and impediments to program implementation. References