Malcontent Cops: An Intervention Strategy

• NCJ Number: 165198
• Journal: Police Chief Volume: 63 Issue: 8 Dated: (August 1996) Pages: 45-48
• Author(s): K M Gilmartin; J J Harris
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 4 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Training (Aid/Material)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS.

Annotation

This article suggests a three-pronged intervention strategy for dealing with malcontent police officers: supervisory training, organizational stakeholder development, and training for the malcontents.

Abstract

Every police agency has a small cadre of individuals who resist organizational direction and try to undermine management direction. They sabotage morale, resist team-building efforts, and create a toxic work environment for their unfortunate coworkers. Most behavioral and performance problems that relate to malcontent officers must be addressed by management in management terms, rather than as psychological problems. Any effective intervention strategy requires supervisors to be instructed in the dynamics and typical developmental patterns for the malcontent officers. Supervisory understanding alone, however, is insufficient. Supervisors must also develop skills that will help them hold officers accountable for their own behavior. Supervisors must be prepared to identify problems and discuss them directly and assertively with the malcontent officers. The second prong of the intervention strategy requires administrators to examine the degree to which a sense of partnership in fulfilling departmental goals exists throughout the organization. Development of intra-departmental group processes that allow genuine input to organizational issues goes a long way toward giving members a stake in the outcome. This, in turn, reduces officers' feelings of isolation from the administrative authorities. The final prong of the intervention program addresses malcontent officers directly. The goal of training for malcontent officers is to help them diversify their sense of self-worth into areas of their lives in which they themselves have a higher degree of control. When malcontent officers can distinguish between what they do and do not control, they can begin to focus their energies on the things under their control. This alone can result in a significant reduction of feelings of victimization, anger, negativity, and resentment.