Overall effectiveness of a unit

Posted by Melda Research on April 5th, 2019

Introduction

The performance of a particular unit is dependent on various individual and organizational factors. It Is the role of the leader to formulate and implement policies to ensure smooth running of the departments. Such roles include performance evaluation, planning, conflict resolution and work scheduling. This paper discusses the role how to evaluate the performance, reasons for break-down in communication, Mechanism to resolve rumor and grievances issues, and practical scheduling.

How to evaluatethe overall effectiveness of theunit

There is no one singleway to measure the effectiveness of a unit. Captain McCauley can use several bases to evaluate the unit just like other public units; the unit focuses on multiple goals police that may perhaps even be competing goals. For this reason, he should not focus exclusively on one goal at the expense of the others to avoid inviting poor performance on alternative goals. However, he can use one factor as the bottom line, for instance; he can use crime statistics as the units bottom line as the best indicator of how the unit is doing. However, themosteffectiveway to measureperformance is by usingseveralfactors. Secondly, reported crime rates depend entirely on processing of the information received by the department. Crime rates from the department’s data may be referred to as “organizational outcomes. Adepartment can manipulatecrimerates in a number of wayssuch as thebehavior of a call-taker orofficer toward an allegedvictim, departmental policiesorstructures that encourageorinhibitreportingoroutrightmanipulation of crime statistics. Additionally, not all crimes are reported and; as a result, it makes sense to supplement evaluation results with other factors. Captain McCauley may use several elements such as arrests and citations, clearances and response time.

Arrests and Citations

Arrests represent one of the most observable measures of officer's output. Arrest data is one of the few output measures widely collected from most agencies in any country. The captain can use the number of arrests made within a particular period to determine the overall performance of the unit. This is a clear measure since it data can also be compared with data from other units and departments to measure the performance of the unit. He should, however, be cautious when using such data since it is inadequate to use arrests as the overall performance indicator. This is because such data may include wrongful arrests and may also suggest a failure by officers to implement other more useful solutions

Clearances

Captain McCauley may also use the proportion of reported crimes solved by the officers as a measure of performance. Clearance rates can be very a valuable measure to determine the overall performance compared to arrests and citations.

Response Times

Captain McCauley may use the standard response to calls for service by the officers in his department as a measure of performance. Officers working under limited resource have often been able to make more efficient the existing resources improve both efficiency and effectiveness by implementing various forms of alternative response strategy. The captain should take into consideration factors such as geography differences, traffic patterns, topography and other factors that may make it cumbersome to compare response rates. It is possible to adjust for these factors using scientific foundation in order to generate accurate figures. It is possible for the captain to compute a comparative performance measure based on response times by using careful thought.

Major elements of the plan

The plan should have ways to evaluate the effectiveness of the unit. Secondly, the action plan should provide the mechanisms to be applied to improve the performance of the units. The action plan should also include various steps to be taken to ensure that the role of the citizens in increasing the detective and clearance rates is increased.

Evaluating individual detectives

The captain can also evaluate how an individual implements strategy to address a certain issue such as crime. For example, if an officer is aware of a particular issue of interest, his performance can be evaluated based on how he analyzed the problem and implemented appropriate strategy through assessing the results. The captain can also evaluate individuals on the basis of discipline, contribution towards teamwork, performance of the unit the individual belongs and other personal factors. However, he should consider role definition of each officer.

Underlying reasons for break-down in communication

There are various individual and organizational factors that might have led to the breakdown in communication between the officers.

Leadership

Leadership approaches may determine how information flows in the department. The tone of communication generally starts at the top. If the leader communicates openly and clearly, the approach tends to filter down throughout the department. When a leader lacks confidence in the groups’ vision or is indecisive, he may be unwilling to communicate to avoid showing his vulnerability. Such a silent approach to leadership may have led to distrust in the work environment and caused the informal gossip to take over.

Complexity of Departmental Structure

The greater the hierarchy in a particular department, the more the chances is for breakdown in communication. The people at the top can be able to view the overall picture of the department while the people at low level have little knowledge about other areas. The structural barriers may affect the flow of information or lead to distortion of the message. Complexity of departmental structure may have led to thebreakdown in communication.

Low Morale

When individuals within departments get reprimanded, their morale suffers. The low morale may influence the officers to disregard the organizational structure since they may fear disciplinary measures, they may not trust their leaders or they no longer feel included in the overall operations of the department. Low morale among officers may also be brought about by factors such as inadequate pay and lack of necessary incentives.

Mechanism to resolve rumor and grievances issues

Prompt treatment of grievances can help to promote a productive, harmonious and equitable work environment. There should be a mechanism in place to help resolve rumor and grievances issue. For example, a department may formulate a flow chart showing various stages and decisions to be followed if grievances are raised formally according to a grievance resolution process. There should also be room for an informal process of grievances resolution within the departments which can be an alternative way of dealing with various issues. Considering that the approach is informal, grievances raised in this manner should be taken seriously, and efforts made to resolve them.

Whose responsibility is to resolve those issues?

It is the responsibility of the union, command personnel and all other parties involved to resolve the issue.

Scheduling

As Sergeant Doe, I would first call Officer A and B from their vacation. Officers C and D have to teach on Wednesday and Thursday but arrange to attend the training on 19th. I would also call Officer H from the one-week vacation. I would also be available for the training to make up for the 6th officer.

Conclusion

It is the role of the leader to formulate and implement policies to ensure smooth running of the departments. The decisions of the leader always involve choosing the best alternative from various alternatives to arrive at best solution. Such decisions involve activities such as performance evaluation, planning, conflict resolution and work scheduling. However, there is no single best solution to a problem.

Sherry Roberts is the author of this paper. A senior editor at MeldaResearch.Com in pre written college essays. If you need a similar paper you can place your order from pay someone to write my research paper services.