Ethnic Groups and Stratification

As Cloud (2014) states, “if you are building a culture where honest expectations are communicated and peer accountability is the norm, then the group will address poor performance and attitudes.” What this means is that culture is especially important in an organization and depends upon the good will of all members of that organization to adhere to the principles and framework that support the culture.

The ideology behind the Cloud statement was not much practiced by the 11 officers who witnessed but did not participate in the Rodney King beating. The ethical issues as they pertain to LAPD vision and mission at the time were clearly related neither to serving nor to protecting. Had King represented a threat to society, a simple arrest would have been warranted—but a severe beating? Never. The officers obviously want above and beyond their jurisdiction and acted as judge, jury and punisher. The 11 officers who stood by failed to communicate to their peers that necessity of refraining from such abuse of the law.

At the same time, the LAPD culture undoubtedly promoted this type of silence and for an officer to step in between another officer and his victim would have been to overstep a silent code supported by the LAPD culture. In this sense, the Cloud quote reveals the danger of allowing a corrupt or negative culture to persist in an organization. When a corrupting culture is recognized as a norm and respected by members of the organization, ethical activity becomes harder to achieve. Any of the 11 officers who witnessed but failed to intervene in the beating of King may have suffered from the debilitating and limiting culture that the police organization placed on them. This is why it is important that a culture promote positive, ethical values rather than values that undermine and harm society.
Week 5
Beginning with the end in mind (Rothaus, 2006) is an excellent way to approach organizational development. It provides a vision for all stakeholders and allows them to see the ultimate goal to which they are all in unison meant to be striving. It supports the idea of teambuilding by putting everyone on the same page at the outset: everyone knows what the expected output is and everyone can align their designated duties with this pre-determined point.
Two methods that might be used to incorporate the idea of beginning with the end in mind when building a team would be to first identify that strategic goals of the team and how to accomplish them and second to have regular meetings that we can stay on track and be certain of attaining the goals. Two benefits that would derive from this approach would be better communication and more accountability.
From the perspective a line-level member of the organization, the benefits of this approach are that you understand the objective of the team and what everyone is working towards, and you also can have confidence in what you are doing knowing that it is building towards a goal. Two problems that might be perceived if no such approach was taken would be that you would experience a rudderless feeling, as though the ship was not being steered and there was no point to anything the team was doing. This could cause you to feel unmotivated and unwilling to cooperate.
Ethical issues in correctional and law enforcement agency operations can be impacted by teambuilding because teams make up the core of the movement of the organization. Their output correlates with the ethical inputs provided by the organizational culture and each affects the other. It is important for leadership to embrace this philosophy because without it, the organization will lack cohesion and a spirit of mission, which is vital in obtaining objectives.
Week 6
The vision/mission statement of the Chicago Police Department is the following: “The Chicago Police Department, as part of, and empowered by, the community, is committed to protect the lives, property, and rights of all people, to maintain order, and to enforce the law impartially. We will provide quality police service in partnership with other members of the community.”
The central message here is that the CPD is empowered by the community and is thus dedicated to the community. The CPD has the responsibility of protecting the community—and that is its mandate. It is also mandated to enforce the law of the community without bias.
As a citizen, my impression of the organization is that is committed to serving and protecting the community and I would expect the CPD to be friendly and devoted to the community it serves. There should be no hostility between the community and the police. I believe the mission/vision statement is realistic and attainable but that there should also be more indicators to discuss more fully the relationship that the CPD wants to foster with the community by putting the community’s needs first and showing respect for the community that gives the CPD its mandate. There community still undoubtedly feels that there is tension between police and the people and this tension is not clearly resolved by the vision/mission statement.
References
City of Chicago: Police Mission. (2017). Retrieved from
https://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/cpd/auto_generated/cpd_mission.html