Organizational Behavior And The Criminal Justice System - Term Paper Example

With the idea that the criminal justice system consists of diverse individuals, it is clear how the organization can be characterized by numerous personalities, attitudes, and perceptions that can define or influence the overall organizational culture and impact its objectives. Such diversity can lead to chaos, non-performance, and inefficiency. In order to convert this into an advantage, the study of organizational behavior can be undertaken. For example, there is the job-skill match principle.

Here, human resource managers in the criminal justice system must take pains to ensure that people being employed matches or fits their job. Say, a police officer's qualifications, character, and attitude must be suitable to his position. A good fit or match, wrote Mills et al. (2006), is one in which the potential employee and organization are compatible. (p. 98)Another excellent example is the way prisoners are managed in correctional facilities. As prisons play the important function of protecting the community from criminals, its fundamental responsibility is to rehabilitate offenders so that they do not become recidivists when they finally return to society.

Rehabilitation programs involve changing the prisoners’ criminal behavior and tendencies that is why the organizational behavior is crucial. The sheer number of prisoners – with their varying profiles and attitudes – must be considered in measures that would provide opportunities for personal change and skills acquisition. This example leads us to the need to regulate and direct the way individuals within the organization interact with each other. In prisons, offenders in their relations with each other could create conflict when unchecked.

Directing organizational behavior can help establish effective rules as well as mechanisms of conflict resolution and negotiation. Organizational Processes There are many other instances wherein individual processes in the context of organizational behavior can help organizations to function better and become more productive. Because of this the top organizational managers of the criminal justice system make it a point to define and direct the organizational behavior of their respective organizations.

For instance, the Central Office Strategic Apex of the American Correctional organization, in its mission statement, aims to: ensure that organizational behavior is in accordance with organizational goals and values; and, correct significant deviations in the