A Living Entity Issues - Essay Example

? A Living Entity First Affiliation Introduction Criminal justice is the field of government that involves people and institutions that are responsible for maintaining social control, mitigating criminal activities, and charging law offenders with sanctions, rehabilitation efforts, and penalties. The person that is accused of offense has protection provided for by law to ensure that the criminal justice personnel do not cross their mandate (Cohn, 1977). Some of the branches of the criminal justice system include the legislature that is responsible for creating laws for people to follow; the second branch of the criminal justice system is the adjudication that includes the courts responsible for punishing law offenders with rehabilitation programs, jail terms or fines. The third and final branch of the criminal justice system is the corrections department, and in this arm includes jails, probation and parole, and prisons (Cohn, 1977). When an offender breaks the law, the police are the first aspect of the corrections department that the offender will encounter. After the arrest and investigations are completed, the person is then taken to the second arm of the criminal justice, that is the courts, where they are tried and if found guilty, are sentenced to serve a prison term, or a different penalty depending on the offense (Cohn, 1977). The court transfers the guilty person to the corrections department that may include serving a prison sentence, probation and house arrest, rehabilitation, and depending on how severe the offense is capital punishment may apply. Emotional labor It is in the background of these responsibilities and duties to a nation that the criminal justice personnel find themselves in difficult situations. One of the aspects of criminal justice system that make the profession more emotionally draining than a typical 9-5 job is the need to make sure that justice prevails at all times. This becomes more difficult because the law protects each individual even if the said person is a known offender to the law enforcement. Therefore, the police may find themselves in situations where a known killer or rapist walks free because they are protected by the law. In events where the police are unable to protect a civilian from the acts of a known offender, or in a case where the prosecution fails to prosecute a suspect fully due to different technicalities, such situations may cause a huge emotional turmoil on the part of the criminal justice personnel. In addition to this, members of the criminal justice system often come in contact with victims of heinous and deviant criminal acts that may cause a tremendous emotional effect on the part of the officer. Therefore, in such situations, members of the criminal justice system can be said to have a high influx of emotions compared to other office jobs. Emotional labor according to the definition is a state emotional regulation that manifests itself in public through facial and other physical bodily expressions. Emotional regulation is the ability by an individual to react to different situations in a way that is socially tolerable and acceptable (Mastracci, 2012). In this manner, individuals must be able to know how to conduct themselves when reacting to a given situation or an occurrence. When police officers are involved in life threatening situations, or when arguing in courts, emotions are likely to boil, and certain people may say or act in a comportment that is not professional. An example of such behaviors may include crying, using excessive force, shouting and calling other people unpleasant names (Mastracci, 2012). In criminal justice, it is essential to train law enforcement officers on the need to regulate their emotions to avoid miscarriage of justice on account emotional outburst. Some of the ways emotional labor can be reduced is through education and attendance seminars on how to handle and control different situations without letting the weight of the event get the better of the personnel in question. Stress and criminal justice Challenge stress is defined as the stress associated with different challenges that an officer of the criminal justice system faces while performing their duties. Challenge stress has a close relationship with positive of any given job activity (Cavanaugh, 1998). Such challenges may include hardships in the work area, restrictions from different quarters of the justice department, and the pressure to perform their work. Every worker is required to perform their jobs to the satisfaction of their employers in order to keep their jobs going. However, the justice department faces a higher challenge compared to other professions in that their work evolves on a daily basis. The criminal justice faces the challenges of topping crime before it happens, punishing criminals, and correcting the behaviors of such criminals. Such expectations may cause a lot of challenge stress due to the fact that management of human beings is always a hard task and one cannot control the behavior of an entire population. Hindrance stress, on the other hand, has a negative relationship to job satisfaction and a positive relationship to a high job turnover in any given field of work. In hindrance related stress, the relationship is closely tied to attitudes to work, and behavioral aspects, a staff member, employs towards the duties they ought to perform (Cavanaugh, 1998). Hindrances produce a negative emotional turmoil on the part of the employee such as worry, frustrations, and anguish without providing any gains to the employee. In the legal fraternity, such hindrances may include heightened scrutiny and regulations on criminal justice employees. Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory of Motivation The two factor theory states that there are different factors at work place that either cause job satisfaction, or job dissatisfaction and such factors are independent of each other. The two factors include motivations such as recognition and responsibility that will give a positive satisfaction as a result of conditions set within the work place. These conditions lead to recognition of an employee by the employer and personal growth on the part of the employee (Miner, 2007). The second factor includes hygiene factors that ensure that employees have a job security, get fringe benefits and their salaries are acceptable to job standards. With the absence of these hygiene factors, there is a likelihood of job dissatisfaction among the workforce. The hygiene factors are embedded in the policies of the company or organization and may also include supervisory practices. These factors go hand in hand in ensuring that an employee is motivated to perform better through the motivation factors while the hygiene factors ensure that there is no dissatisfaction on the part of the employee. In regard to this theory, a criminal justice manager can motivate the employees by offering the high wages that directly correlate with their job demands. In addition to this, the employees can be awarded risk benefits, and insurance covers for the employee and members of their employee’s family in the event personnel of the criminal justice branch suffer injury during work. Another aspect that a manager would address is due promotions for high performing officials in order to keep the staff motivated to work harder and bring better service to the department. Vroom’s Expectancy Theory Vroom’s Expectancy Theory states that an individual I likely to behave in a certain manner in opposition to a contradictory behavior due to the motivation of the benefits that person may enjoy upon their choice of behavior. Therefore, the motivation behind the person’s behavior is driven by the desirability of the outcome of their actions (Miner, 2007). This theory encourages managers to relate rewards directly to performance and make sure that the employees get the rewards that they deserve in direct relation to their work. This theory relates efficiency in work performance directly to the desired with desired goals, such that an employee understands that good performance will lead to them attaining the organizations goals. Another relationship is that of instrumentality where performance equals outcome (Miner, 2007). This reward is mainly associated with pay increments, recognitions and promotions. The final relationship is the individual valence that associates the values an individual places on the goals, needs, and motivational sources. Job Characteristics Model Job characteristics model is a concept that explains how the features of the tasks available to an employee affect the employee’s state of mind and how this in turn affects the work outcome. These characteristics identify with skill variety, task significance, autonomy, task identity and feedback, and outcomes of job performance. In the criminal justice system, the manager can ensure that an employee be responsible for a certain skill variety in order for them to complete an identifiable piece of work that is directly attributable to them (task identity). This ensures that there is no overlap of duties, and members of staff know their areas of operations to minimize confusion. References Cavanaugh, M., & Boswell, W. R. (1998) "Challenge" and "hindrance" related stress among U.S. managers. Ithaca, N.Y.: Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies, Cornell University, ILR School. Cawsey, T. F., Fournier, B. A., & Adamson, R. S. (1981) the role of valences in the job characteristics model of motivation: Waterloo, Ont.: School of Business and Economics, Wilfrid Laurier University. Cohn, A. W. (1977). Criminal justice planning and development: Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications. Mastracci, S. H., & Guy, M. E. (2012) Emotional labor and crisis response working on the razor's edge: Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe Miner, J. B. (2007) Organizational behavior 4: from theory to practice. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe. Sales, B. D. (1977) The Criminal justice system: New York: Plenum Press. Smith, V. V. (1983). A study of motivational factors contributing to job satisfaction for nurses an examination of Herzberg's two-factor theory: S. l: Oklahoma State University. Read More