Search results

The aim of this paper is to investigate the extent to which espoused values among police managers in the Norwegian police force are compatible with those of a learning organization.

A questionnaire was developed and administered to police managers in two police districts in Norway. A set of values was developed to measure police culture and their significant correlation with those of a learning organization. All values were believed to represent cultural dimensions of potential importance to law enforcement performance.

It was found that police managers espoused values of informality and empowerment rather than authority and hierarchical order. These values are the only police values that are found to be significantly correlated with those of a learning organization. Moreover, these findings contradict the previous literature within policing, which describes a police culture of hierarchy, authority and closeness. Also, these values only represent two of the eight values that were found to be crucial for becoming a learning organization.

There is a need for police managers to both espouse and enact values in accordance of those of a learning organization, but this study only investigates espoused values. Hence, further research is needed to investigate the possibilities for the Norwegian police force to become a learning organization.

The paper provides empirical research to generate insights into espoused values of the Norwegian police force and identifies those values that are crucial for their possibilities of becoming a learning organization.

Much of the commentary about police culture treats it as a monolithic and problematic feature of the police occupation that inhibits change and progress. The purpose of this paper is to draw on surveys completed by over 13,000 sworn police to describe officers’ occupational outlooks and explore the extent to which they vary across individuals and police agencies.

This paper draws upon employee survey data from 89 US police and sheriff departments collected in 2014-2015 to examine police culture through officers’ views of the community, police work, and police administration and to explore the extent to which these beliefs and opinions are affected by personal characteristics and organizational affiliation.

Results indicate that officers’ perspectives are more positive than might be expected and do not vary greatly by officer personal characteristics. They differ more substantially across police agencies. This suggests that police culture is to a significant extent an organizational phenomenon, not simply an occupational one.

Examining the views and perspectives of over 13,000 sworn police employed in 89 different police organizations provides a more representative and generalizable picture of police culture than previous studies that typically analyzed officers in only one police department.

In Chapter 1, a broad overview of the scope of entrepreneurialism in policing and criminal contexts which are broadly positive in nature was developed. In Chapter 2, the scrutiny to cover socio-cultural and organisational barriers to the implementation of entrepreneurial policing are extended. These include police culture, organisational traits such as ‘Machismo’ and ‘Conformism’, the restrictive nature of the police rank structure, the military model of policing, bureaucracy, risk-aversion, anti-entrepreneurialism, anti-intellectualism, the ‘Maverick’ stereotype, and the ‘Questioning Constable’. Many of these elements are of a negative nature and inhibit the implementation of entrepreneurial policing and practices. Also the entrepreneurial organisation and issues such as privatisation, commercialisation, innovation, and technology which also inhibit entrepreneurialism in policing contexts, but which also offer significant opportunities, are considered.

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether the relation between police transformational leadership and organizational commitment is mediated by organizational culture. Drawing on the competing values framework (Quinn, 1988), four types of cultural orientations (group, developmental, hierarchical, and rational) are analyzed.

In total, 358 South Korean police officers are surveyed. Using competing values as multiple mediators, a parallel four mediator model is estimated. Bias-corrected bootstrapping methods are employed to consider the small sample size, as well as the possible non-normal distribution of specific indirect effects.

The linkage between transformational leadership and commitment appears to be fully mediated by group culture. Interestingly, multiple individual officer characteristics, duty type, and departmental size do not impact respective constructs overall.

The use of cross-sectional data hinders causal ordering among constructs included.

Given the full mediation relationships among the three constructs, it is advisable to develop more nuanced leadership training programs optimized for fostering “considerate and supportive leaders” who have been known to impact group culture.

Including two understudied police organizational correlates (i.e. transformational leadership and organizational culture), this study accounts for the mediating role of organizational culture in the transformational leadership-commitment link with multiple variables frequently used in previous research being controlled.

Police agencies are under pressure to improve their performance and provide outstanding services for the community. In response, academics and practitioners have called to adopt effective methods that help these agencies to achieve their goals. Studies reported that benchmarking has a role to improve organisational performance. However, poor evidence of using benchmarking within police agencies and very few studies examine the relationship between it and police performance. Motivated by this gap, this study aims to explore and examine this relationship under the mediating role of innovation culture.

A quantitative methodology was utilised in this study. Data used to examine the hypotheses were obtained from the departments and stations of the Dubai Police Force (DPF), and the population comprised head section officers. A total of 338 questionnaires were distributed to respondents, 252 of which were returned. The hypothesised relationships were tested with the data collected by SPSS and SmartPLS statistical software.

Findings clearly show that benchmarking is directly and indirectly associated with the organisational performance of the DPF through innovation culture. Results support the notion that innovation culture facilitates the implementation of proper benchmarking projects in the DPF, which positively affects different aspects of its performance.

This study includes several limitations. Specifically, the generalisability of the findings should be considered. The analysis applies only to the DPF in the UAE. Thus, investigating and analysing variables in different police agencies in the UAE or internationally would be valuable.

Several recommendations are provided in relation to the obtained results to assist managers and decision makers in the DPF and other police agencies. This study includes suggestions for improving police performance by establishing an innovation culture and adopting benchmarking practices.

Although several contributions indicated that benchmarking and innovation culture is a key determinant of success, the literature lacks empirical studies investigating this link in the police field. This study is the only one to date that examined this relationship in police services. Accordingly, this study seeks to bridge this gap and delivers empirical evidence and theoretical insight to better understand this relationship.

The purpose of this study is to develop a broader understanding of police organizational culture in South Korea. More specifically, given its history and culture, the aim is to examine various elements of organizational culture as perceived by line officers and supervisors.

The data for the present study came from a survey of police officers in South Korea who attended training courses at the Korea National Police University (KNPU), and at the Police Comprehensive Academy (PCA), from June through August of 2008. A total of 406 police officers completed the questionnaires representing an overall return rate of 62 percent.

The results suggest that, overall, police officers across rank and job assignment were dissatisfied, and at best ambivalent, on all dimensions of organizational culture. Lower ranked police officers, relative to other ranks, appear more dissatisfied with managerial support, open lines of communication, and organizational support. Officers who are part of the police administration (e.g. general affairs, public security, intelligence) are less disenchanted with management support, communication, and innovation than are patrol officers and criminal investigators. This study suggests that both rank and job assignment influences South Korean officers' perceptions of their organizational culture.

This research does not attempt to compare officers' perceptions before and after the Grand Reform, as data are not available for study. In a limited way, it can be interpreted that after over a decade since the implementation of the Grand Reform more work is needed in improving officers' attitudes regarding their organizational climate.

Unlike studies done in the USA, which have de‐centralized police forces, this study offers a unique opportunity to examine the organizational culture of a centralized police force. Additionally, this paper examines the extent to which officers' perceptions of police culture are similar along rank, experience, and job assignment variables.