Question:

Your paper will identify this issue and discuss it from a variety of perspectives and provide a resolution to that issue in Law enforcement Agency. Projected manpower shortfalls, need to “civilianize” portions of your departmentThe final paper will be at least 12 pages long (not counting the title page and the list of references page) and have at least 5 outside references. The entire paper will be in APA format (title page, abstract page, body, list of references).

Answer:

How to achieve management excellence in law enforcement agencies using TQM

Introduction

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a structured approach to organization management whose aim is to continually improve the quality of all products and services through refinements in response to feedback. It is a management philosophy whose emphasis is the role of quality at every level of an organization. TQM requirements are either defined separately or in adherence to certain established standards.

The origin of TQM is the manufacturing sector. Therefore, it would be interesting to determine how useful they would be in a completely different context, for instance, in law enforcement agencies. Since finding their introduction in the manufacturing sector, the principles of TQM have been applied in such diverse areas as schools, hotel management, and e-commerce. In all these areas, aspects of quality management are addressed from the point of view of the customer. Typically, TQM processes adhere to a four-step sequence comprising of plan, do, check, and act, known as the PDCA cycle (Mahler, 1997).

This paper analyzes the problem of how to achieve management excellence in law enforcement agencies using TQM, discusses it from different perspectives, and suggests a resolution on how best it should be addressed. Specifically, the paper discusses the problems of projected manpower shortfalls as well as the need to “civilianize” portions of the law enforcement department in order to achieve TQM objectives. These problems are addressed against the backdrop of the TQM process, which was first designed for commercial use.

The nature of TQM in Law Enforcement agencies

Like in all other organizations, the TQM process in law enforcement agencies entails the use of the PDCA cycle. In the planning phase, employees have to define the problem that needs to be addressed, collect all the relevant data, and then ascertain the cause of the problem. In the doing phase, the professionals are required to come up with and implement a solution, and then decide on a measurement for gauging its effectiveness. The checking phase involves confirmation of results through comparison of data before and after implementation. The sequence ends at the acting phase, where the professionals document their results, communicate appropriate changes to others, and make recommendations on the problems that must be addressed in the next PDCA cycle.

Today, law enforcement agencies face the challenges of escalating costs, budget cuts, and increasing calls for service. These agencies, in many ways, resemble commercial enterprises. The need for the utilization of new and innovative techniques of service delivery at low prices arises in law enforcement agencies just as it does in the commercial sector. Although technology advancements have helped a great deal in this goal, their full potential is yet to be fully utilized. For technology to be fully utilized, the processes by which all those services are offered have to be improved.

One of the levels through which TQM has been used in law enforcement agencies is at the level of decision making. Naturally, employees tend to have a keen interest into how to improve things as well as a vested interest in ensuring that their ideas always succeed. This sets the scene for evolutionary change of the variety that inspired quality gurus in the manufacturing sectors to come up with the PDCA cycle. Such an evolutionary process not only leads to quality improvement but also employee empowerment.

Meanwhile, the process of putting in place a strategy for TQM implementation in typical law enforcement agency settings has always been a challenging one. Seemingly, the greatest challenge has been creating the understanding that the best definition of quality can only be provided by the people to whose service the law enforcement agencies work. In this regard, quality management has to be understood not as a strategy but as a management philosophy, a new style of working and thinking.

Throughout the 1990s, improvement of quality in both the public and private sectors was a key management tool. During this time, terms such as total quality management, total quality service, total quality leadership, improvement management system, and total quality excellence, were commonplace. A critical challenge, though, has always been creating an understanding the need to implement quality initiatives that can lead administrators to improve the overall effectiveness of enforcement agencies. Most importantly TQM can bring about benefits to both the organization and the public that it serves.

The evolution of Total Quality Management

During the 1950s, Josepth Juran and Edwards Deming, both of them quality gurus, introduced theories of quality control that helped in the tasks of restoring Japan’s industrial sector, which had been torn apart during the World War II. However, it took almost two decades for the ideas put forward by these gurus to come to fruition, leading to the transformation of the country’s economy.

In the United States, TQM has already started spreading beyond the confines of the commercial sectors into all government departments, particularly in the course of the last decade. The debate on TQM continues to generate immense interest at both state and federal levels. The federal government has already embraced TQM as a way of solving management problems.

Although the federal government is not under the same magnitude of competitive pressures seen in the private sector, the country’s law enforcement agencies have already started embracing TQM as the ideal approach for solving a wide variety of demands that frequently present themselves within criminal justice organizations. A quick scan through quality improvement literature shows that the number of TQM programs in law enforcement is rapidly increasing.

In the US, local governments face conditions that resemble those that made stakeholders in private sector to embrace quality initiatives. For some criminal justice organizations, the amount of savings realized after implementing TQM has been significant. Moreover, some intangible benefits have been derived from this practice, mainly in the form of improved morale, better sensitivity to the needs of taxpayers, faster turnaround time, enhanced communications, and ultimately, improved customer service.

User satisfaction remains the ultimate requirement that needs to be strived for, whether the users are internal customers or external customers. In TQM, the term ‘customer’ (or ‘user’) is used to refer to the beneficiary or recipient of the output of a process, in this case a service. In other words, anyone who is delivering a service to another individual views him as his customer. Therefore, he ideally attempts to determine his needs and to improve the quality of the service offered. Some excellent examples of external customers of law enforcement agencies include the Public Defender’s Office, the State Attorney’s Office, and the City Commission. However, the ultimate external customer is the citizen.

On the other hand, the internal customer varies depending on which organization is under investigation. Every organization tends to have its own internal customers, who include the human resources and support groups. Each of these customers has different values, expectations, and other factors influencing the nature of services provided. For instance, in a county correctional facility, the internal customers are inmates, and the agency employees served by the supply and purchasing agent with the same facility are also internal customers. Each of these customers has different needs, all of which contribute towards the creation of a holistic image of the level of success of TQM processes. For this reason, managers and employers within a correctional facility will definitely find it impossible to focus on external customers if they do not understand the importance of first meeting each other’s requirements both within and across departments.

The needs and requirements of customers always keep changing, and therefore require frequent reassessment. Regardless of the precision of the measurement, the result always turns to be of little if any value, if focus is on the wrong target. This simply means that the best person to evaluate the effectiveness of the result is the person receiving the service, that is, the customer.

Towards the establishment of TQM processes in law enforcement agencies

 

Like in all other sectors where TQM processes are applied, focus in law enforcement agencies should be on continuous improvement. For continuous improvement to occur there is need for an environment where TQM can flourish to be established. The process of establishing this foundation involves introducing a series of steps in quick succession. Management has to ensure that all the relevant support structures are in place and all the resources required have been allocated. This necessitates the creation of a steering committee within the enforcement agency (Evans, 2005).

Ideally, the steering committee should be made up of top executives, who have vision, communication skills, and commitment to be actively involved in the entire process. For key staff members, the main role here is maintaining a disciplined focus on standard TQM methodologies, including structure analysis. They also need to define all internal processes, as well as describe organizational interfaces for the rest of the staff.

When the committee is fully operational and support staff members have assigned different tasks, it becomes easy to ensure that all other employees have received the necessary TQM training. Feedback from all participants is necessary, especially in the initial phase when the idea of TQM has not been deciphered by many people within the agency. The process of encouraging feedback paves way for the civilianization of portions of various departments. Moreover, the steering committee appointed by the law enforcement agency should put into consideration all projected manpower shortfalls and respond to them proactively.

Other than the committee, there is need for TQM boards across all departments, that is, along all functional lines within the agency. The heads of these departments should head these boards, which should be composed of all interested employees from different sections. The employees should be encouraged to nurture a spirit of competitiveness instead of regarding their participation as an extra duty.

The activities of these employees should involve carrying out process analyses, establishing performance improvement teams, targeting specific areas and processes that require improvement, establishing and maintaining schedules, and assigning and training TQM facilitators. The TQM boards should be used as a launching pad for the cyclical processes of identification, planning, implementation, and evaluation start. These processes should be refined on a continuous process through small incremental improvements.

Other than departmental TQM boards, specialized focus teams should be put in place with the aim of investigating specific improvement projects. These specialized boards should act as appendages of the TQM boards, meaning that all their activities and projects have to be sanctioned at the departmental level. Once the projects for which these focus teams were established to tackle are completed, they should be duly disbanded. This is the best way in which the process improvement model will be seen to be functioning in the law enforcement agency with an aim of maintaining TQM standards.

Full involvement of the agency’s workforce is imperative if all TQM processes are to be executed in the right manner.  Indeed, the tradition of participatory management that exists in the American society can work well with efforts to introduce TQM in law enforcement agencies. After all, TQM is based on the theory that greater employee involvement in determining organizational goals leads to increased commitment in achieving them. The introduction of incentives for increasing the success of the entire enterprise TQM encourages teamwork, commitment, and better quality.

Various perspectives and requirements

Transformation of organizational culture

There are many perspectives and requirements to put into consideration in the process of overseeing TQM operations in law enforcement agencies. One of these perspectives has to do with a change in the organizational culture. TQM involves the participation of the entire workforce in ensuring continuous improvement of the quality of services offered. With time, this participation leads to a cultural transformation whereby employees and supervisors are continually educated in the operating principles and practices of the law enforcement agency. As the improvement efforts reach maturity stage and spread across the agency, TQM starts to become entrenched as an integral component of organizational culture and every employee is able to participate routinely in the cyclic processes.

However, barriers arise from time to time, especially in a public-sector organization such as a law enforcement agency, thereby impeding the continuous improvement efforts that the agency has worked so hard to establish. All these barriers should be identified and acted upon. This will increase satisfaction as well as trigger successful improvements. Some of the most commonly occurring barriers include few team incentives, focusing on problem identification instead of process improvement, and unstructured, individualistic decision-making. Other barriers include ambiguous understanding of agency policies and insufficient planning for both short-term and long-term objectives and goals.

It is impossible to eliminate barriers completely. This is the reason why improvement efforts constitute an ongoing process. Indeed, law enforcement agencies exist with the aim of carrying a constant battle of preventing these barriers from recurring. It is the role of management to offer assistance by adopting a systematic approach to the definition and implementation of policy. Management should also strike a balance between the agency’s short-term objectives and its long-term goals. It should also facilitate an environment where participative problem-solving takes place. Moreover, management needs to address manpower shortfalls while at the same time recognizing and rewarding employees.

Implementation

A process of total quality improvement is not possible without efforts being made to install a new cultural philosophy. The notion of cultural change persists in the application of TQM to the police force because by its very nature, the ‘police culture’ of resistance to any type of change suggests fundamental difficulties for implementation. In all law enforcement settings, there is a culture that teaches everyone not to drop their guard and to be cooperative. Employees in these agencies tend to reach a certain comfort level, where they become completely resistant to change. Once this level of resistance has become deeply ingrained in the police force, it becomes almost intuitive.

In the police culture, people never wait to be told what should be done. However, once changes are introduced through TQM, employees have to be requested to come out of their comfort zones and to adopt a new cultural philosophy, something that are most likely to resist (Dewhurst, 1999). Although the existing system may not be working in the right manner, it tends to be undoubtedly comfortable.

In TQM implementation within the law enforcement agencies, there is no alternative to becoming transformational. Administrators must completely transform their way of thinking in their daily activities by redefining the way they deliver their services to citizens. There is need for a radical shift in paradigms. In most cases, resistance comes from the middle and lower cadres within the police force. The resistance reaches extreme proportions if the processes are unattractive and complex.

Meanwhile, there are some basic operating guidelines of ensuring that the TQM implementation is as barrier-free as possible, one of them being demonstration of personal support and leadership by the top management. A strategic plan, which everyone can understand should be put in place at the agency. Everyone should be assured that the basic requirement is simply to focus on the customers’ expectations and needs. Clear measures should be defined for enabling everyone track progress and identify opportunities for improvement. Adequate resources should be provided for recognition and training. This enables employees work with autonomy so as to reinforce positive attitudes and behavior. Additionally, they should be empowered to make decisions that foster teamwork. It also helps a great deal if systems are put in place for ensuring that everyone identifies with the day-to-day quality-related efforts being undertaken right from the beginning.

Three-phase implementation procedure

The implementation process is best undertaken in three phases. The first phase involves the creation of the right TQM environment and structures. This involves determining the members of the steering committee and training them. Additionally, a framework should be created for the interaction between different functional departments. This framework should be performance-oriented, whereby employees are able to relate their activities to subsequent improvements.

In the second phase, TQM boards should be created. The members of these boards should be given the relevant training, meaning that TQM facilitators need to be hired. These facilitators should help these boards analyze all their internal processes and highlight areas that need to be targeted for improvement. The third phase kicks off when every employee has been given training and the cyclic process of continuous process improvement has started.

Role of education and training in TQM implementation

Education and training play a critical role in TQM implementation. These activities should be undertaken against the backdrop of careful planning. During the planning process, careful attention should be on both the current training requirements and expected future training needs. Management, therefore, needs to have a clear visual picture of the demands that will keep arising as the quality improvement process continues to evolve.

Without the necessary skills, it is impossible for the police force to contribute effectively to the realization of TQM goals. The employees need to understand their jobs, their drastically evolving roles within the organization, and their expected contribution to the quality improvement initiative. This training should be undertaken as an ongoing process rather than as a one-time strategy of solving problems all at once. The training should be a living entity with the ability to survive all its members.

In many law enforcement agencies, variations may exist regarding the length of time needed to train staff properly. Resource challenges may exist in the form of budget constraints, especially in small agencies whose funding is limited. At other times, questions may arise regarding who ought to carry out the training. In this case, it may be carried out either as an external awareness program or an internal initiative. Sometimes, both aspects may be blended into one coherent program aimed at transforming the agency’s cultural philosophy in a way that creates the right environment for TQM implementation. However, since law enforcement agencies ordinarily operate within the country’s public sector, the best thing would be to conceive a TQM program at the national level, whereby funding trickles down into all divisions and departments (Tuck, 1996). This can create harmony, unity of purpose, and healthy competition among departments.

Key premises of the TQM framework in law enforcement agencies

With TQM in place, a law enforcement agency ideally becomes a community-owned organization. This manifests itself best through community policing as opposed to traditional policing. Community policing is a new philosophy of full-service personalized policing, whereby the same police officer, who is permanently deployed in one area, works and patrols it from a decentralized place, working in a proactive partnership with citizens in efforts to identify and solve problems (Zhao, 1997). Community policing is different from traditional policing, where the mission is strictly that of fighting crime, mainly through the use of strategies such as mobile patrol, impersonality, and performance standards based on incidents. Most of the underlying problems in the community, such as public drunkenness, child abuse, and domestic violence are best addressed using community policing.

Other than community policing, a TQM-driven law enforcement agency should be mission-driven as opposed to being rule-driven. Both the budget and personnel systems have to be mission-driven. On the overall, the agency should be results-oriented, whereby funding is made from the point of view of outputs and outcomes and not inputs. Such an agency should be directed towards meeting the customers’ needs and not those of the bureaucracy. Most agencies, the police force being one of them, do not get their funding directly from customers, and this makes them lose sight of these customers. This leads to goal displacement, whereby schedules are drawn to suit the employees and not the customers. TQM should address this anomaly through strategic planning and continuous improvement processes that are customer-oriented

Conclusion

In Summary, Total Quality Management can be applied successfully in law enforcement agencies in order to direct attention away from centralized bureaucracies to the tax-paying customers. Just like in the manufacturing sector, where TQM was first applied, the underlying aim should be continual improvement of the services offered by agency employees through response to customers’ feedback.

References

Dewhurst, F. (1999) TQM in public organisations: an examination of the issues, Managing Service Quality, 9(4), 265 – 274.

Evans, S. (2005) Law Enforcement and Delphi: An Exercise in Strategic Intelligence Research, Low Intensity Conflict & Law Enforcement, 13(1), 70 – 79.

Mahler, J. (1997) Influences of Organizational Culture on Learning in Public Agencies, Journal Public Administration Research and Theory, 7(4), 519-540.

Tuck, N. (1996) Criteria for developing performance measurement systems in the public sector, International Journal of Public Administration, 19(11), 1945 – 1978.

Zhao, J. (1997) Community Policing: Where are We Now? Crime & Delinquency, 43(3), 345-357.