Managing Police Organizations

Control in an Organization

CJA 474

December 12, 2012

Control in an Organization

The style and structure of a police organization are the deciding factors in the success of the organization and moral of the officers. This paper is a written review of case study questions for structured exercise 14-2 in Managing Police Organization. The answered questions will cover one officer’s recollection from years prior of a partner’s statement concerning departmental structuring and leadership. The frustrated prior officer has reservations concerning how to achieve organizational management. Policing organization are historically known for a bureaucratic style of leadership. The officer reflects on how society promotes the right to expression and yet an individual’s occupational reality is just the opposite and those beliefs are left at the workplace door. In the workplace freedom of expression is often replaced with control, uniformity, and compliance (Law Library - American Law and Legal Information, 2011).

The case study gives insight into how the many years of bureaucratic leadership molded the officer’s own style of leadership and later gave raise to questions of effective organizational administration. The knowledge of the drawbacks of this type of organizational style plagued the officer present-day approach. The dilemma of control versus shared ideas was vital to organizational success.

Deciding which style would prove successful requires understanding the management styles available. Bureaucratic management style functions with a manager-leader responsible for the organization (Whisenand, 2009). Control is top to bottom and has formalized rules and guidelines. The managers’ practice top-down control and must be able to properly delegate. In many case successful bureaucratic managers were bottom level subordinates that climbed the ladder. This is the foundation used to provide the knowledge base and skills to make key operating decisions. Some leaders may...