Motivation and Morale Police administration

Abstract

The current study aims to examine the effect of the lack of supervision and detachment between administration and low-level supervisors and beat officers and how this leads to low morale and motivation. Imperatively, low level of morale and motivation results in low productivity, which might give rise to absenteeism and poor watch, adversely affecting the society through increased level of crime. A questionnaire will be designed to achieve the purpose of this research study and will be distributed to selected beat officers working in different police precincts. The number of questionnaires analyzed will be to different police precincts. Data collected will be analyzed through SPSS using both descriptive statistics, correlation and regression data.

Problem Statement

Organizations endeavor to have more productive personnel, who are deemed the most significant resources and a determining factor for success. Low levels of productivity can be linked to poor employee morale and motivation. The accomplishment and efficacy of any entity relies to a large magnitude, on how properly personnel have morale (Shaban, Al-Zubi, & Alqotaish, 2017; Osabiya, 2015). In accordance to Stephen (2014), several theories of management give the suggestion that motivated personnel and those with high morale have a tendency to be more inspired and productive, and it is prudent for any management to utilize this perspective in order to augment that level of employee output and increase morale. Most of the people make the assumption that police work is dissatisfying and stressful owing to the hazard and risk involved in everyday duty. Without a doubt, there is come peril involved in policing, but a great deal of the lack of morale and dissatisfaction experienced by police officers is owing to organizational frustration and lack of connection between low-level officers policing the streets and police administrators (Boag-Munroe et al., 2017). Lack of consideration for the actual needs of the police officers is a huge part of the problem, aggravated by both organizational and environmental issues. In the policing workplace, one of the key problems is the feeling that administration has lost touch with low-level supervision and the beat officers. This is a key issue because it leads to low productivity (Swartout et al., 2015). One of the key issues linked to this is the lack of proper understanding regarding the actual and material needs of the beat officers (Bitner, 2013). The problem of this research study is to consider the actions that the administration can undertake in order to bridge the existing gap between administration and beat officers and comprehending such needs of the beat officers in order to sustain high levels of morale and motivation.

Purpose Statement

The purpose of this research is to investigate and explore the different perspectives of beat officers with respect to lost touch between then and administration, what can be done to bridge this gap and how administration can comprehend the actual needs of the neat officers to maintain high morale.

Conceptual Framework

Morale is delineated as a mixture of the attitudes of an employee towards the organization, work, and the immediate supervisor. It is a mindset or readiness to work, which as a result influences the objectives of an individual and the organization in its entirety. In the end, morale and motivation of personnel has an impact on the output level, costs incurred, enthusiasm, collaboration, initiative, and at large the level of success. According to Carpenter et al. (2011), the significant factors that have an impact on morale comprise of the attitudes and insolences of the administrators and managers towards the subordinates, working circumstances and state of affairs, hourly payment or remuneration of work and rules of safety. Other factors comprise of efficacious leadership and prudent dissemination of authority and responsibility in the organization and also the organizational structure that determines the ease of workflow.

The conceptual framework of the research study will be based on the Two-Factor theory. Also referred to as the motivation-hygiene theory, the theory which was developed by Frederick Herzberg provides comprehensive views regarding work morale and motivation. Herzberg classified different factors as either being satisfiers or dissatisfiers, also considered to be hygiene and motivation factors. On one hand, hygiene factors are the different factors within the job setting, which are indispensable for existence of morale and motivation at the workplace. They do not result in positive satisfaction for the longstanding period. Nonetheless, in the event that these factors are lacking and non-existent within the work setting, they result in dissatisfaction and lack of morale. There are different hygiene factors. One of the factors is compensation that ought to be suitable and reasonable, evenhanded and competitive to those in the same job setting. Another factor is physical working conditions that ought to be safe, restructured, and well-maintained. An additional factor encompasses interpersonal relations in the sense that the relation between personnel and supervisors ought to be suitable and acceptable. There is also the factor of having secure job status where the organization is expected to provide job security to the personnel. Most of all, there is organizational and administrative policies that ought to be flexible, objective and clear for all personnel (Hertzberg et al., 1959).

In contrast, according to Herzberg, hygiene factors cannot be deemed as motivators or satisfiers. In particular, motivational factors also referred to as satisfiers give rise to constructive satisfaction levels, which are intrinsic to the workplace. Notably, motivational factors generate morale and motivation for personnel for a better performance and increased output. Imperatively, these factors are included in the participation of the work and personnel consider these satisfiers to be inherently rewarding. The satisfiers signified the mental needs that were considered as an additional benefit. There are different motivational factors that impact morale and motivation (Herzberg et al., 2011). One of the key factors is recognition and sense of accomplishment in the sense that personnel ought to be acknowledged and praised for the attainments by supervisors and feel that there is a benefit of some kind in the job. In addition, personnel ought to hold themselves accountable for their work with supervisors granting them such ownership in the sense that they ought to diminish control but maintain accountability. Moreover, the job in itself ought to have meaning, be interesting and challenging for the personnel to have good performance and have morale (Hertzberg et al., 1959).

Research Questions

The research questions of the study will include:
1. What are the factors leading to the gap between administration and low-level supervision?
2. What are the needs of beat officers in the workplace?
3. What can administration do to satisfy the needs of beat officers and increase morale and motivation?

Research Method

This research study will make use of the deductive research approach, which comprises of beginning with the investigation of the prevailing theories, formulating hypotheses and research questions, and collecting primary data to test such hypotheses. Taking this into consideration, the fitting research method for the study is quantitative analysis. In accordance to Briggs et al. (2012), this research methods provides data that can be expressed and analyzed in numbers. In particular, one of the advantages of this research method is that the researcher is able to obtain descriptive data. Therefore, it becomes conceivable for the researcher to gain insight and a representation of the data sample and by extension the population. In addition, addition, the approach is timesaving owing to the ability to conduct research surveys. Furthermore, the researcher is able to be objective with respect to research outcomes and also comprehensively analyze the existing correlation between variables.

Data Measurement

Measurement takes into account the practice of observing and making recordings of such observations that are gathered as part of a research endeavor. Quantitative research necessitates that data measurements be both precise and reliable. The data will be measured using the ordinal scale, which considers the ranking of the data from the bottommost to uppermost and provides information concerning where the data points lies in association to another. In this regard, the data in this research study will be measured using survey research. This is one of the most significant areas of measurements that is utilized in research. The wide-ranging area of survey research takes into account any measurement processes that involve asking questions of respondents. In this research study, the participants will be asked a wide range of questions concerning their needs and how morale can be boosted.

Data Collection

The data will be collected using questionnaires. One of the key strong suits of questionnaires is that they facilitate quicker and candid collection of a huge amount of data. The data collected using this research instrument is highly impartial with very limited effect on research validity and reliability. This also implies that they are cost-effective as a great deal of data can be collected in a relatively short period of time. The questionnaires will comprise of two sections. The initial section will encompass demographic data question, which will seek to find the individual and demographic data of the participants, for instance, gender, age, position in the police department and years of professional experience. The subsequent section of the questionnaire will include questions regarding improved motivation and morale and lack of understanding between administration and low-level supervision. Questionnaires will be administered through different procedures, including e-mail, post, telephone, and face-to-face. The kind of procedure that will be used will be determined by the characteristics of the target population (Saunders et al., 2014).

Data Analysis

In advance of conducting data analysis, the participants’ finalized questionnaires will be primarily audited to ascertain whether there are any trivial blunders like unreliable and half-finished responses, which may be end up being costly to the research study in general if overlooked (Saunders et al., 2014). Subsequently, the data will be coded for the main purpose of quantitative analysis. In this research study, the data analysis will be implemented using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) tool. Data analysis will predominantly comprise of descriptive statistics, which will be employed to give a representation of demographic data and give out measures of central tendency like mean and median. The analysis will also include correlation and regression analysis, which will be imperative for testing the relationship between beat officers, morale and detachment with administration.

Conclusion

In conclusion, there is a significant need to facilitate personnel morale, satisfaction and productivity amongst the police force. They serve in a key function within the society and therefore it is imperative to take into consideration. The purpose of this research study is to investigate and explore the different perspectives of beat officers with respect to lost touch between then and administration, what can be done to bridge this gap and how administration can comprehend the actual needs of the neat officers to maintain high morale. The study will base its analysis on the conceptual framework of Herzberg’s two-factor theory to determine the different factors that will improve the morale of beat officers and the activities that the police administrators can partake in.

Limitations

One of the key limitations of the study is the lack of extensive resources for data collection. The quantitative research method necessitates a large sample size. Nonetheless, owing to the lack of resources, this study will not be able to conduct a thorough and comprehensive research. Another limitation is that owing to the reason that the study will make use of close ended questions within the structured questionnaire, it implies that the outcomes attained cannot at all times represent the actual happening, in a widespread form. In addition, the participants have restricted options for responses. Another limitation is that quantitative research is challenging, costly, and necessitates a great deal of time to perform the analysis. Moreover, due to both time and financial constraints, the research study will be limited to a small number of research precincts to the beat officers performing policing duties.

Expected Contributions of the Research and Expected Outcomes

This research study is expected to have significant contributions to different stakeholders including police supervisors and police administration. The policing industry will arguably be the biggest beneficiary of this study. The industry continues to struggle and face challenges in regard to detachment between the top-level administration and low-level personnel. More importantly, it is expected that the research study will significantly contribute to the better understanding of the police administrators regarding the satisfiers and dissatisfiers of the needs for beat officers and the actions they can undertake in order to improve the level of motivation and moral amongst the police force.


References

Bitner, C. E. (2013). Exploring the relationship between work-climate of police departments and officer performance at work. University of Illinois at Springfield.

Boag-Munroe, F., Donnelly, J., van Mechelen, D., & Elliott-Davies, M. (2017). Police officers’ promotion prospects and intention to leave the police. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 11(2), 132-145.

Briggs, A., Coleman, M., & Morrison, M. (2012). Research Methods in Educational Leadership & Management (3rd Edition). London: Sage.

Carpenter, M. A., Bauer, T., Erdogan, B., & Short, J. (2010). Principles of management. flatworld Knowledge.

Hertzberg, F., Mausner, B., Snyderman, B. B. (1959). The Motivation to Work. New York: John Wiley.

Herzberg, F., Mausner, B., & Snyderman, B. B. (2011). The motivation to work (Vol. 1). Transaction publishers.

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Saunders, M., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2014). Research methods for business students. London: Pearson.

Shaban, O. S., Al-Zubi, Z., Ali, N., & Alqotaish, A. (2017). The Effect of Low Morale and Motivation on Employees’ Productivity & Competitiveness in Jordanian Industrial Companies. International Business Research, 10(7), 1.

Stephen, I. D. (2014). Using Motivating Theories to Enhance Productivity in Cement Manufacturing Companies in Nigeria: An Overview. The International Journal of Social Sciences, 20(1).

Swartout, S., Boykin, S., & Dixon, M. (2015). LOW MORALE IN ORGANIZATIONS: A SYMPTOM OF DEADLY MANAGEMENT DISEASES?. International Journal of Organizational Innovation (Online), 8(1), 17.