Essay Doctorate 822 words

Police generalists and Weber's division of labor theory

Last reviewed: October 20, 2013 ~5 min read
Abstract

This essay deals with policing and with a numerous amount of factors that play an essential role in making a department more or less successful. The paper addresses a wide range of topics with regard to policing, taking into account that it relates to ethics, management, decision-making, and a series of other concepts that are essential when regarding matters from the perspective of someone involved in the domain.

¶ … departments, police officer a generalist. Discuss inconsistent Max Weber's theory division labor? 2) Police departments written protocols including general orders procedures.

Max Weber promotes the idea of specialized division of labor, thus meaning that his theories are against instances such as a police officer taking on generalist roles. By carrying out specialized roles, individuals are more likely to assist the community as a whole in achieving positive results. This would also make it possible for the system to be better organized and for the idea of hierarchy to be less problematic.

Police departments need to encourage officers to take on open minded attitudes in spite of the fact that their role is to enforce laws whenever this is required. Officer discretion involves a law enforcement agent being able to properly understand the situation that he or she is in. Decision space is the information concerning the options that he or she has in the given circumstances and the ability to select the best course of action. Officer discretion also involves a process called option awareness, as this respective process entails a series of decisions that an officer needs to make in order to effectively deal with the situation that he or she has come across.

Coordinating police activity can be very different from supervising police activity and these actions practically exclude each-other. Gulick's POSDCORB's system makes it possible for one to gain a more complex understanding concerning the difference between the two actions. The former largely involves the person in charge having to take control over his or her subordinates and concentrate on influencing them to invest their physical and mental into their jobs while the latter relates to police officers themselves being well familiarized with their roles and only needing supervision, as they can take charge of these respective roles.

The Hawthorne effect is likely to generate mixed feelings within a department because of how individuals in this respective department perceive each-other's tendency to put across exemplary behavior. While group cohesion is likely to dominate the atmosphere in a police department, the Hawthorne effect is probable to influence some to change their attitudes as a result of acknowledging the situation they are in and the fact that it would be in their best interest to emphasize their honesty.

The idea of job satisfaction becomes especially intriguing when discussed in the context of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Job satisfaction is related to both esteem and self-actualization when considering Maslow's hierarchy of needs. An individual is thus likely to experience an increased self-esteem as a consequence of being satisfied with his or her job.

In spite of the fact that it is regarded by many as being obsolete, Theory X is very likely to generate positive results, regardless of circumstances. This theory's involve having harsher supervisors that are constantly concerned about influencing their subordinates to concentrate on working. This can have a positive effect on the community as a whole, as the idea of hierarchy is reinforced through this process and as managers become certain that their subordinates act in agreement with the community's interests.

A picture of stranded individuals as a result of Hurricane Katrina is certainly disturbing and likely to induce a lot of feelings, ranging from compassion to fear with regard to nature's power. In spite of the fact that these individuals acted in agreement with a series of laws that their community largely promoted, they ended up being stranded as a consequence of the hurricane disrupting balance.

In order for patrol commanders to act in agreement with chief directive regarding data quality control, mediators need to intervene and provide both camps with the opportunity to look at matters from a more general perspective. The aggressive type of policing typically associated with CompStat influences many to consider that it would be wrong for them to act in accordance with the system and thus leads to a series of divergences between individuals involved in the system.

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PaperDue. (2013). Police generalists and Weber's division of labor theory. PaperDue. https://www.paperdue.com/essay/departments-police-officer-a-generalist-125119

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