Criminal Justice Organizations Administration and Management Chapter Six

Criminal Justice Organizations: Administration and Management Chapter Six – Job Design

Learning Objectives § Understand a definition of job design § Explain the early importance of engineering and efficiency to job design § Define and explain “Taylorism” § Comprehend the application of “Taylorism” to criminal justice § Know the relationship between job satisfaction, job stress, job burnout and job design

Learning Objectives § Define and explain job design theory § Comprehend job redesign programs and their application to criminal justice organizations § Explain the relationship between job design and the community § Define the “new criminal justice” and its relationship to job design

What is Job Design? § The “deliberate, purposeful planning of the job including all of its structural and social aspects and their effect on the employee” (Hellriegel, Slocum, and Woodman, 1995). § Efficiency was initially the most important concern.

What is Job Design? § Other job design objectives, including “psychological job requirements” are more widely used now. o Adequate elbow room o Chances to learn on the job and to keep on learning o An optimal level of variety o A sense that one’s own work is meaningful o A desirable future

Engineering and Efficiency § For most of the 20 th Century the objectives of job design were: o Technological improvements, and o Efficiency of labor. § Early researchers focused on workers in industrial processes and attempted to find optimal methods for getting manual labor done. § The underlying assumption was that employees are motivated solely by wages or leisure.

Taylorism in Human Services § Fredrick Winslow Taylor was an early pioneer in job design studies. § Taylor moved beyond the quantitative concepts in Scientific Management and focused on increasing efficiency through work fragmentation. § Taylor attempted to divide complicated work processes that were dependent on people into smaller parts in order to increase the overall efficiency of the process.

Taylorism in Criminal Justice § Taylor’s influence in criminal justice is considerable. o Police officers’ jobs are often fragmented and assigned to non-commissioned employees. o Increased accountability and bureaucratization may reduce the professional status of police officers. o The use of standard classification and electronic monitoring systems has removed discretion from probation and parole officers. o Correctional officer jobs have become highly circumscribed.

Responses to Job Characteristics § Recent attention on job design grew out of surveys indicating sharp declines in job satisfaction. § There appears to be a disconnect between employee expectations and the reality of criminal justice employment. § Job satisfaction decreases and cynicism increases after the initial years of employment but often returns later in life.

Responses to Job Characteristics § Despite attention on client content issues, job satisfaction appears to be more affected by o o o Boredom, Excessive demands, Role conflict, Role ambiguity, and A lack of participation in decision making. § “Administrative issues” appear to cause more job stress and burnout than other work related issues.

Job Design Theory § Applications of Tayor’s job design approach quickly revealed that the desire for money and leisure do not fully explain worker productivity. § The Human Relations School replaced Taylor and focused on social attachments. o Originated in Maslow’s (1943) Hierarchy of Needs o Applied by Mc. Gregor (1978)

Job Design Theory § Modern job design theory can be traced to Hertzberg’s (1966) Motivation-Hygiene Theory. o Workers are motivated only after hygiene needs are met and sources of intrinsic satisfaction are built into jobs. o Job design is about motivating employees to meet their higher order needs. § Later job design theory was influenced by Hackman and Oldham (1987) o Increasing certain core job dimensions affects personal and work outcomes.

Job Design Theory

Job Redesign Programs § Three approaches to job redesign o Mass production industries have attempted to reduce or eliminate assembly lines. o Continuous process industries have attempted to enrich jobs through autonomous work groups. o Service industries have attempted to enrich jobs by combining work from different parts of the job hierarchy. § Other innovations o Flextime o Job sharing o Telecommuting

Job Redesign Criminal Justice and other Human Services § Although little research has been done, the evidence suggest job redesign may be effective in the human service industry. § Human service workers often are able to enrich their own jobs by self selecting additional tasks. § Vertical loading - increasing the responsibilities of front-line staff § Assigning limited ‘supervisory’ duties and problem solving responsibilities to front line staff appears to increase job satisfaction.

Job Redesign Criminal Justice and other Human Services § Team policing programs mirror the autonomous work groups found in the private sector. § Community- and Problem-Oriented Policing programs seem to increase worker satisfaction because they provide officers with increased autonomy and a sense of meaningful contribution. § Allowing innovation appears to increase productivity among community corrections workers.

Job Redesign and the Community § The community’s input into criminal justice job design should not be ignored. § The Americans with Disabilities Act has a profound affect on the criminal justice system. o Physical access to the court system o Fair treatment of disabled criminal justice employees o Health care benefits § Job redesign should also be cognizant of demographic changes. o A more multicultural workforce o The Millennial Generation

The “New Criminal Justice” § “New Criminal Justice” – responding to crime is no longer possible in an organizational vacuum (Klofas, Hipple and Mc. Garrell, 2010) § Crime control is more collaborative and involves community efforts to be effective. § Criminal justice agencies will have to open themselves more to o Different elements of the community, and o The scholarly and research communities

The “New Criminal Justice” § This will require the employment of a more flexible and highly educated workforce. § Job training will expand to include analytical strategies for evaluating programs. § Criminal justice agencies will become more structurally flexible. o Use of ad hoc teams to address specific crime problems o Elimination of highly structured and bureaucratic organizations

Chapter Summary § Job design is the deliberate and purposeful planning of the job including all of its structural and social aspects and their effect on the employee. § Early attempts at job design involved the application of scientific principles and focused on worker efficiency. § “Taylorism” is attributed to Frederick Taylor who believed in the division of labor, time motion studies and pay as the primary motivator of employees. § Utilizing Taylor’s principles, criminal justice work is designed to maximize the control of employees and enhance efficiency.

Chapter Summary § Job design is critical to reducing burnout, relieving work stress, and elevating job satisfaction among employees. § Job design theory has moved past Taylorism to include an examination of job enlargement and job enrichment. § How jobs are structured affects organizational performance. § Job redesign is an attempt to alter jobs such that employees have more of a say in how hobs are accomplished. § Job design efforts are no longer limited to organizational settings and must include community concerns.

Chapter Summary § The “new criminal justice” focuses on the systematic collection of information and collaboration with other agencies and community groups. § The “new criminal justice will force administrators to consider changes in a number of ways they do business, in particular; o Recruitment o Training, and o On-going development activities for employees.

Thinking Point and Question § The City of Bigton has experienced a significant increase in its population. Most of the new residents are Muslim and choose to live in Bigton because of its proximity to a new Mosque and Islamic Community Center. § Discuss how this qualitative change in the city’s population might or might not affect the manner in which the police perform their duties.