Organizational Change Provide a background analysis about the organization's internal and external environment (SWOT AND PEST)

Organization -- W.A. Police Communications (24/7 police operations call center)

SWOT Analysis (Sheriff Grady Judd, 2013)

Strengths

Weakness

Leadership

Teamwork

Communication

Education & Training

Technology & Equipment

Job Security

Benefits

Vehicles

Take Home

Hiring Process and Standards

Promotional and Transfer Opportunities

The Economy and the Budget

High Turnover

Employee Shortages

Unchanging Pay Scales

Loss of Experts to Retirement

Loss of Experts to Other Law Enforcement Agencies

Obsolete Vehicles

Consistency

Morale Succession Strategy

Inadequate Overtime Pay

Loss of Grants

External

Opportunities

Threats

Training and Educational Opportunities Multi-Agency Collaboration

Professional Certifications

Grants

Prospective Candidate Diversity

Community Relations

The Economy and the Budget

Issues with Retirement System

Fuel Prices

Workforce Shortage/ Large Vacancies

Crime Rate Rise Because of Economic Factors

Growth of Inmate Population

Comparison of Retirement Agency Pay to that of Other Agencies

Lost Grants Sponsoring Unfinanced Mandates Civil Lawsuits

Growth of Citizen Population

PEST Analysis (Tony Williams, Bob King, & Jayne Lee, 2011)

Main factors driving change in case of W.A. Police Communications can be studied via PESTLE analysis:

i. Political

The call center might be required to participate increasingly in delivery of national-level services, without or with provision of additional resources. There is a likelihood of increased focus on joint services for improving efficiency, irrespective of the local political situation, indicating a rallying of the police and other law enforcement bodies.

ii. Economic

Changes in economy can limit fund availability, curtailing ICT (Information and Communications Technology) investments; if a simultaneous improvement in organizational efficiency is expected, it would be highly challenging to fulfill those expectations. Technology department personnel would decrease in number, resulting in a skill deficit.

iii. Social

With population growth, a proportional growth will be witnessed in crime rate. The population is estimated to become increasingly diverse, a phenomenon that has information-related implications. Collaboration with global agencies and law enforcement officials will become vital. A gap in skill level may become apparent between different generations of personnel.

iv. Technological

Using an information systems upgrading strategy, the W.A. policing systems/network will be connected to that of other police forces or departments in the nation. Storage and processing advancements using thin client, virtualization, cloud computing, and other advanced technologies will prove helpful. Lastly, digital storage growth poses considerable management opportunities and challenges.

v. Legal

Implications will arise for information review, sharing, storage, and disposal.

vi. Environmental

Technology investment priorities have to cover opportunities of carbon footprint reduction, cost-savings via a Service Improvement Program, and information-sharing via the Public Protection Network.

2. Write a consultation brief to stakeholders to identify requirements and opportunities for changes that support organizational objectives.

Several large organizations have now implemented matrix layout, with an aim to retain centralized functions' scale economies as well as geographic business unit flexibility. However, coordination in such arrangements is a tough task. Matrix intersection managers were subject to two bosses' orders, resulting in delays and disagreements. Different process-directed departments continued to have issues with task alignment and coordination; silos are, after all, silos, be they functions (as in case of W.A. Police Communications), business processes, or product groups. For the W.A. Police's call center, the most effective means of structure and strategy alignment would be implementing a BSC (Balanced Score Card)-based organizational system. BSCs are valuable instruments in strategy execution and monitoring. Strategy maps facilitate description and communication of cause-effect relationships which deliver the value proposition of the unit. Hence, BSC-based systems offer a common lingo as...

Kaplan & David P. Norton, How to Implement a New Strategy Without Disrupting Your Organization, 2006).
3. Which opportunities do you believe are a priority to change where you would require input from managers?

Managers at the call center are required to satisfy the organization's and its workforce's expectations and needs. In case of a conflict in these needs, which will transpire every now and again, managers are pressured by the organization as well as the workforce. A few change priorities requiring managerial input in case of W.A. Police Communications include (Elizabeth Bakken, 2006).

1. Training and Academic Opportunities. New personnel, particularly executives, have to work longer hours. Given the critical nature of the job (averting and tackling crime), this organization's new recruits will feel even more pressured. Their personal and professional lives may be impacted by stress. The organization, in collaboration with managers, can identify appropriate training and educational opportunities for new recruits.

1. Community Relations. Given the purpose of W.A. Police Communications, sound community relations are especially crucial. The personnel of this high-pressure organization may have no time to cultivate healthy relationships with their internal (superiors, colleagues, etc.) and external (outside contacts, the W.A. public, etc.) communities. Expanding their network through scheduled informal lunch meetings, getting together on coffee breaks, etc. will help foster good community relations, and remain up-to-date with organizational and external developments. Further, such relationships prove useful when seeking the help of other departments across the nation.

4. Develop an outline of a change management project plan for the priority changes incorporating resource requirements, risk management and timelines.

For defining what the organization desires to attain with change implementation, it should know its current standing. Subsequently, precisely what direction it wants to head for and what course to adopt to reach there must be ascertained. Documenting the above will give rise to a strategic plan for change (John Crawford, 2013). W.A. Police Communications can seek State assistance for ensuring success of the change project (Uttar Pradesh Police Department).

Aspect of Change Management

Plan / Outline Brief

Resource Requirement

The W.A. Police Communications management team must include resource costs for the planning, implementation, supervision, and evaluation phases of the change project, within the total project cost.

Risk Management

Geographic diversity, and computer skills and educational qualification variations among recruits, as well as time constraints are the key challenges for the organization. W.A. Police Communications' management will be made in charge of developing a comprehensive recruit training program, materials and guidelines, defining user classifications and groups, and program administration.

Timelines

The change project plan will ensure provision of continuous, prompt, appropriate and applicable project-related information to organizational and outside stakeholders for acquiring their support. A comprehensive communication plan will be devised for the change program, in keeping with individual solutions' execution timelines.

5. Develop strategies to communicate or educate the changes and embed them.

Proper communication of plan, program, and goals to the workforce is imperative, to guarantee their cooperation and participation in organizational change. Canon U.S.A., which adopts the BSC approach, gives the term "democratizing strategy" for its internal communications processes. The organization actively fosters understanding of corporate strategy and its BSC through support functions and business units. Canon's strategy can work well for W.A. Police Communications. However, just like strategy planning may be delegated to a separate department, the task of strategy communication may also be assigned by the W.A. Police call center to a special department organized for the purpose, like in case of the United States Army and Chrysler, which employ the Office of Strategy Management's services to communicate their strategy and BSC to the workforce. No matter which of the above strategies is utilized, W.A. Police Communications must ensure the Chief Executive delivers all strategy messages to employees directly (Robert S. Kaplan & David P. Norton, The Office of Strategy Management, 2005).

Proper dissemination is that which involves employees of W.A. Police Communications in the process of creating awareness, understanding or a commitment to act. Key points to consider in this regard are (Sally Harmsworth & Sarah Turpin, 2001):

1. The workforce will mostly be interested in knowing how change fits specific contexts and the implications of change on staffing, infrastructure, financing, quality assurance, future policy, etc.

1.…