Gauging Employee Familiarization with Mission: A Qualitative Review of Service Delivery Attitudes

Abstract

This article examines employee understanding of values, mission, goals, and resulting service delivery within the framework of community-policing. In a quasi-military structure, it is often assumed that once the chief sets the direction, all employees will comply in their behavior and actions. Change in organizational structure, aptly illustrated by the implementation of community-policing, disrupts core practices and is traumatic to many employees. Determining employee understanding, core beliefs, and readiness for a new program is an important first step to sustained change. Jumping into a new program and providing employees with a single “one size fits all” training program is not sufficient. This study examined employees’ perceptions regarding community-policing as practiced by their respective agencies. Focus group sessions were conducted in four police or sheriff agencies, separating each group by its rank or position. Outcomes of this study disclosed variations of definition, meaning, application, and practice expectations, stratified by rank or position in the departments studied.

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