OnPolicing Blog

Organizational Culture By Design

October 24, 2024

Cultivating and sustaining positive relationships with the community is fundamental to effective democratic policing. These relationships, together with the quality of police-public interactions, govern the perceptions of procedural justice and police legitimacy. Law enforcement agencies are constantly working to strengthen community relationships by ensuring community members are treated with dignity and respect, displaying trustworthy motives, making unbiased decisions, and providing opportunities for community members to have a voice. The importance of this endeavor is highlighted by the fact that some have gone as far as to call for a divestment in the police in recent years after a series of controversial police uses of force led to diminished legitimacy.

On a fundamental level, the police require the support and assistance of others to fairly and effectively carry out their mandate: to control crime and prevent disorder. This is a truth reflected by the dramatic departure from the traditional top-down coercive strategies for community-oriented approaches in the 1990s.

Thirty years later, “community policing” remains a mantra for 21st-century policing. But has it truly been realized as imagined? We would charge that its frequent compartmentalization suggests it has not. Community policing must be embraced as an organizational philosophy, not relegated to a specialized unit. Achieving this goal requires a vision that is more than just words, but the lifeblood of the organization. An organization’s vision describes where an organization is going and should integrate a set of shared values around which employees feel united and motivated.

To leverage the power of vision in a manner resistant to erosion, law enforcement executives must create an organizational culture by design – not by default. All things equal, this means recruiting, hiring, training, assigning, and promoting for it. While culture often seems to be an abstract or intangible item to pinpoint within a law enforcement agency, it can be simply defined: It is values plus behavior. Culture is really nothing more than the composite of the values, beliefs, and behaviors of the individuals who comprise the organization. It is vitally important to remind ourselves that organizations do not possess values, the people who comprise them do. These values are the driving force behind the behavior displayed by officers in their interactions with members of the community, as well as internally with their colleagues.

Implementing a compelling vision within an agency cannot be the sole work of the chief executive; for greatest effect, it must be part and parcel of the effort of every employee. What follows is our five-element continuum framework for how an agency and its members can move from first introducing/hearing the agency vision to ultimately driving it within the agency. Chiefs might consider that any person who seeks a personal return from the department; who seeks to advance in position, authority, influence, or responsibility; or wants to be hired, selected for a specialized unit, or promoted must reflect on and describe where they are within this framework and be able to articulate what they are doing to advance themselves toward Level 5, which holds the most impact. Anyone seeking a leadership position must be at Level 5 – that is, able to state how they will further strengthen, drive, and inculcate the vision. If they are not driving the vision, it could be said that they are not yet fully ready for the remarkable organizational gift of a leadership opportunity.

The following delineates the five-element framework. This approach can be used by everyone in the agency to strengthen culture and to assess the degree to which the vision has been embraced and is being actualized.

Level 1: Listen and Understand

At the most basic level, agency members must start with listening so they can understand the vision and invest the energy necessary to learn the way(s) that the vision relates to the work of the organization.

  • Command and supervisory actions: Clearly articulate, disseminate, and discuss the vision in language that makes it practical and understandable throughout the organization. Use large/small group and individual settings to amplify and personalize the vision, taking time to bring your own experience and examples to those of the chief executive. Use language, examples, and questioning to create conversations around how the vision translates to operations and action. Use group settings to amplify these discussions with internal and external stakeholders.
  • Individual actions: Observe, question, reflect, and apply personal experience both to understand how the vision relates to your individual work and where and how you can contribute to an organizational culture reflective of the same.

 

Level 2: Align Yourself

  • Command and supervisory actions: Encourage individuals to build upon an evolving understanding to decide to support the vision. Use your own experience to inform others how and why you support the vision. Be accountable to the vision by ensuring that the structure of the organization comports with the culture aspired.
  • Individual actions: Acknowledge the vision as legitimate for the organization and community and worthy of your personal investment of energy and effort. This will likely be a natural extension of Level 1 above.

 

Level 3: Buy-In

  • Command and supervisory actions: Promote and encourage employees to make an overt decision to personalize and engage with the vision by providing opportunities. This is an ongoing process from initial discussion of the vision as a roadmap to deeper and more impactful engagement.
  • Individual actions: Make a personal decision/commitment that you are going to participate in actions and effort to embody and execute upon the vision. Continue to strengthen understanding by finding specific examples of how the vision is being implemented and what the inputs and outcomes of that work are, as well as the opportunities for additional effort. Find examples both within and outside the organization. Seek out others who demonstrate strong engagement with the vision through their conduct, actions, language, and behavior.

 

Level 4: Own It

  • Command and supervisory actions: Regularly assess the degree to which operations relate to vision. Measure results and involve subordinates in constructive dialogue aimed at continuous improvement. Privately and publicly give appropriate recognition to individuals for their actions.
  • Individual actions: Make a concrete, tangible commitment that the vision is valid, that you subscribe to it, and that you take personal involvement as your motivation for your work within the agency and the community. Owning the vision determines how you think, perform, and interact within and outside the agency. It also determines the satisfaction you take from your work. Be able to tell specific stories about how your actions have had an impact.

 

Level 5: Drive It

This is the most critical point – and the one that makes the most impact – but it is not an end point as an individual’s actions can always expand/strengthen, particularly as they advance their career. A person operating at this level chooses to engage with others to influence their understanding and involvement with the vision, expanding their impact with and through others.

  • Command and supervisory actions: Create an open environment to support individuals who are stepping beyond themselves to positively influence others through individual and appropriate public recognition. Use key moments, such as selections for special assignments and promotions, to recognize – and further encourage – high performers.
  • Individual actions: Take pride in the transformational effect that your attitude, conduct, leadership, and organizational philosophy have on the organization and community. Help others understand your personal journey in a way that moves them forward. When appointed to a new assignment or when promoted, use your position to mentor and positively influence others.

 

As leaders in policing, we are charged with protecting the community, our employees, and our agency through a wide array of techniques, but always with an overarching view of mitigating risk and limiting liability. How do we protect our organization and build organizational culture? We believe the answer lies in the actualization of a compelling vision, embraced by all members, where values and behaviors align with one another and are accepted through accountability at every level of the organization. Only then will your agency be primed to cultivate a positive, enduring, and force-multiplying relationship with the community served.

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Disclaimer: The points of view or opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official position of the National Policing Institute.