Customer Satisfaction with the Police - Essay Example

Contents 0 Introduction2 2.0 Background i.e. Public Sector Reform.2 3.0 Police Reform ..3 4.0 Objectives /Purpose/Aims of the Review ..3 5.0 The History of Customer Satisfaction in Policing3 6.0 Defining Customer Satisfaction ....4 7.0 Existing Customer Satisfaction Initiatives..4 8.0 Methodology.5 9.0 Literature Review5 9.1 Police Management by A. J. P. Butler5 9.2 Police Organization and Management Issues by Mastrofski S D6 9.3 The Politics of Quality in the Public Sector by I Kirkpatrick & M Lucio..8 9.4 Managing Public Services - Implementing Change, Thoughtful Approach by T Doherty & T Horne....9 10.0 Conclusion and Overview of Key Themes.10 11.0 References12 1.0 Introduction According to sociologist Max Weber the police, in society is seen to own the monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force to ensure law and order. Actually, the police are empowered by the executive arm of the government to ensure law and order exists in both the public and social domains usually through legitimized use of force. The first police force in the modern sense was created in 1667 in Paris by King Louis XIV who defined their main function of ensuring the peace and tranquillity of the public and of private citizens, ridding the city of any source of disturbances and thereby procuring abundance. This idea of the police has remained till to date and the police in the UK serve the public, through their mandate from the executive arm of government, to procure peace, tranquillity and abundance mainly through fighting crime and maintaining law and order besides protecting the public. This paper seeks to establish the available literature on the concept of customer satisfaction with the police and the public sector management, changes and reform. The paper shall also review literature on citizen satisfaction on police services especially in the rapidly changing public sector environment. 2.0 Background i.e. Public Sector Reform The public sector is a very volatile sector of society because the needs of the general public are not only diverse but also urgent. The dynamics of the public sector have shown that it changes every little while and this is the reason why reform has to come in hand and timely enough in order to make the services rendered to the public relevant and functional. The practice of reform did not start today. The organizations that are at the heart of public service such as the police and other government agencies and departments have hitherto implemented initiatives so as to improve the quality of the services they render to the public. The police for instance have initiated community policing as its reform agenda to help increase the quality of their service to the community. 3.0 Police Reform As intimated in the foregoing paragraph, police have in the past and continue to enact reforms in their bid to offer quality services to the public. The issue of community policing is just one example and now the inception and use of the VIPER initiative serve to prove the reform culture in the police service. The reform is embraced in the police service to ensure that they not only offer service but quality service to the general public. 4.0 Objectives /Purpose/Aims of the Review The purpose of this paper is to establish the customer satisfaction levels of users of a particular department or function and the general initiatives within the police service and public sector. Also, the paper aims to consider the citizen impact of quality service initiatives on police' working practices and organizational structures 5.0 The History of Customer Satisfaction in Policing Any service delivery organization or agency has customer satisfaction as its background. They will always want to know what the consumers of their services think about the service they are offering. However, it reaches a point where they have to be more aware of the services they are offering and there comes a need to establish the quality of the service through measurements using conventional methods. The police service for instance has had the customer satisfaction objective presumably since its inception. However, for the last 15 or so years the police have grown in its measurement of service quality and its bid to really satisfy their customers. For this reason, a number of initiatives have been hatched which border on technology, social and cultural developments so as to ensure that they offer quality and workable services to the public. 6.0 Defining Customer Satisfaction Customer satisfaction is a situation where the consumers receiving services from a government department, police service or a care centre are happy and satisfied with the way the services are rendered, the quality of the service itself and even the competence of the service deliverers. In a bid to ratify customer satisfaction, Total Quality Management (TQM) is often enacted. Total Quality Management (TQM) is basically a management strategy that is aimed at incorporating quality awareness almost in all organizational processes and activities. Some of the areas that have experienced the application of TQM are Education, manufacturing, call centres, governments departments, the police service and service industries among other areas. Operations management function of any organization such as the police can also be home to TQM. This is specifically so because operations at the police department define not only the organizational culture of the police but also chart the road for success or failure. It is therefore important that the quality of these operations is managed to ensure that they are ingrained in not only performance but also efficiency so as to foster a high degree of customer satisfaction. 7.0 Existing Customer Satisfaction Initiatives As mentioned above, a number of initiatives have been hatched by the police service to not only help increase their efficiency and performance but also ensure customer satisfaction through dispensation of quality service. Examples of the initiatives that foster service satisfaction include, but are not limited to, the popular community policing and the traditional style of identification parades which has now been succeeded by the modern technologically powered ID parade with the aid of video i.e. the VIPER initiative. 8.0 Methodology The review aims to pick the most potent ideas about customer satisfaction with the police and the management in the public sector by simply looking at the literature that has dealt with these themes and then highlighting them. The facts are then later consolidated to bring forth an issue on the customer satisfaction with the police and the general management styles in the public sector. 9.0 Literature Review A number of scholars have dedicated their time to study the police department on particular aspects. The aspect of customer satisfaction concerning the services rendered by the police department especially in UK has been covered, though to a little degree. Actually, there seems top be no much coverage on this aspect. It is however notable that the police organizational analysis has received much scholastic coverage especially in the late 20th century and early 21set century. There have been stunning researches to address how the police organization manages change, resources and performance in the changing public sector. The following reviewed books highlight both the concept of public sector management and customer satisfaction with the police. 9.1 Police Management by A. J. P. Butler As intimated in the foregoing paragraph, police have in the past and continue to enact reforms in their bid to offer quality services to the public. The issue of community policing is just one example and now the inception and use of the VIPER initiatives serve to prove the reform culture in the police service. The reform is embraced in the police service to ensure that they not only offer service but quality service to the general public. The author goes further to highlight aspects of management in the police service with specific emphasis on the satisfaction of the general public. He therefore asserts the fact that the police service most of the time is managed in such a way so as to meet the community's expectations. Venturing further into the subject of police management, the author looks at the ideas of an ideal police organization. He says that the ideal police organization applies the best management techniques coupled up with the TQM ideals to achieve substantial customer satisfaction. For this reason, an ideal police organization is that which engages in ethical practices, observes professionalism, offers efficient service to the public and ultimately satisfies its customers through its efficient services. Management culture is required in almost every organization and the police organization is no exception. There is need for practical management styles in the police organization; Management styles which are not only efficient and result oriented but also able to foster customer satisfaction thereby meting the community's expectations. These management styles need to set objectives and plans for action so as to achieve the goals set and above all encourage and enhance a satisfied public. Generally, the book was written with a practical approach and aim of serving each police officer at every level. The book can be helpful to any-level police officer and will help foster a customer satisfaction culture or encourage the orientation of police to offer services so as to meet the expectations of the community. 9.2 Police Organization and Management Issues by Mastrofski S D For the last 15 years, there has been a rapid evolution in the fabric of public management. The rapid change in public management domain has posed a big challenge and the organizations at the very heart of public management, such as the police service, have been hard pressed to flow with the change. The focus of this evolution has been on customer satisfaction and most of the management styles used in the private sector have been transferred to the public management. In so doing, the police have devised initiatives to achieve these; Initiatives whose main focus is to serve the public well and have their trust as they try to satisfy them at the same time. Ferlie, Pettigrew, Ashburner & Fitsgerald in their book The New Public Management in Action echoes this sentiment of the rapid change in the way the public is managed. The authors of this book try particularly to show the changes that public management has undergone in the last 15 years and they do so by looking at the restructured NHS. The entire book handles the changes in the management and organization in the UK public service mainly by looking at three main themes: the transfer of private sector management models to the public sector, management of change in the management of public sector and management's reorganization and role changes. The changes in public sectors have created new challenges where the public management organizations such as the police have to measure their performance by looking at the degree of satisfaction of their customers who are the general public in this case. Further, the book highlights the management of change by the public organizations by venturing into management training, increased professionalism and sound policies in the management and satisfaction of the public (Ferlie et al, 1993). Customer satisfaction is often brought about by sound management and deliverance of quality services and products. It has been realized that to a greater degree, the management function has more stake in fostering customer satisfaction. When management it is coupled up with quality services the results become absolutely stunning thereby increasing not only the public trust but also reasonable degree of satisfaction. Based on this submission, Public Management & Governance; edited by T Bovaird & E Loffler echoes this idea by offering a comprehensive and in-depth insight into the practice of public sector management and administration in its entirety. The book covers the gap in the market especially on the text concerning competent public management to foster public satisfaction. Even though the book doesn't venture into the degree of satisfaction of the public, it actually points out the general role that the quality of public management and administration has on fostering satisfaction in the public domain. The book further highlights topical issues such as stakeholder public sector, power devolution, policy-making and implementation and decentralisation especially when it comes to service delivery. The major focus of the book revolves around the practice of quality management and administration of the public through competent management of not only the resources and performance but also competent management of change itself. Any public organization that manages to manage change, and thereby shifts with the changing times, has an increased capacity of satisfying its customers because as change knocks at the door, the customers' needs and expectations also change. Therefore, the organization that does not adjust to change, risks trading away its relevance and legitimacy (Bovaird et al, 2003). 9.3 The Politics of Quality in the Public Sector by I Kirkpatrick & M Lucio The author of this book asserts the fact that any service delivery organization or agency has customer satisfaction as its background. They will always want to know what the consumers of their services think about the service they are offering. However, it reaches a point where they have to be more aware of the services they are offering and there comes a need to establish the quality of the service through measurements using conventional methods. The police service for instance has had the customer satisfaction objective presumably since its inception. However, for the last 15 or so years the police have grown in its measurement of service quality and its bid to really satisfy their customers. For this reason, a number of initiatives have been hatched which border on technology, social and cultural developments so as to ensure that they offer quality and workable services to the public. The book further proposes that the call for quality service in the public sector has hard-pressed the service-providing organizations such as the police to offer services that are able to secure customer satisfaction. In a bid to endorse customer satisfaction, Total Quality Management (TQM) is often enacted. Total Quality Management (TQM) is basically a management strategy that is aimed at incorporating quality awareness almost in all organizational processes and activities ingrained in not only performance but also efficiency so as to foster a high degree of customer satisfaction. All these hassles of measurement of service quality and enactment of TQM ideals to secure customer satisfaction represent the effort to manage change in the public sector. The public sector is rapidly changing and the organizations in this domain-especially those offering services- need to mange the change by taking the above mentioned orientation. 9.4 Managing Public Services - Implementing Change, Thoughtful Approach by T Doherty & T Horne This book almost entirely stresses the need for visionary leadership in the public sector. It appreciates the fact that the reform and complete efficient management of the public sector is through visionary leadership of the organizations in this domain of public service (e.g. the police). The book highlights the main characteristics of visionary leadership as; Being focused, Being future oriented, Leadership which is guiding i.e. has ability to show direction in everything that is done and Leadership that is enduring i.e. it is able to survive change and be able to manage change and work well even with minimal resources and still be able to manage those resources The book further ventures into the issue of change. The society changes everyday and so does the public sector. Based on this fact, the book proposes that the leadership of organizations in the public domain should be armed with visionary leadership to be able to mange change and survive that change. Through the development of a vision, the organizational leadership is able to bridge the gap which might have been caused by the unfolding change. The book goes ahead to define good organizational leadership. It defines a good leader as the one whom: delegates authority, has expectation of high standards, avoids close supervision, is interested in and supports the subordinates and engages participatory problem solving techniques. The authors strongly believe that the practice and engagement of better leadership styles in the public sector have the ability of making public sector organizations efficient, visionary, able to manage resources and change competently and able to secure customer satisfaction. The authors categorically state that regardless of the leadership style employed in the public sector organizations, three variables are responsible for determining the preferred leadership style. These variables include: Relationship-The extent to which the leaders or management is linked Task structure- extent to which tasks are clearly defined Position power- the leader's capacity to exercise power and authority 10.0 Conclusion and Overview of Key Themes In conclusion, the police service, especially in the UK has attracted considerable satisfaction from the public based not only on their innovations such as the VIPER, community policing and others but also in the delivery of quality services through competent public management and administration. The public has always been involved in policing activities. For instance, the initiatives such as community policing and the VIPER server as evidence to show how the police is constantly working closely with the community (their customers) to ensure that they are offering services which are up to date and which are in tandem with the needs of the society. However, there is an increasing call for management of resources and performance as a timely strategy to manage change especially in the public sector management represented by the police service so as to foster customer satisfaction. It is my opinion that the customer satisfaction initiatives go on in a more aggressive way and let them involve the community more to help decipher the most pressing community needs. It is not possible to achieve 100% satisfaction but through application of Total Quality Management ideals and employment of visionary leadership, it is possible that a considerable degree of satisfaction in the general public can be achieved. 11.0 References Keane Adrian, (2008): The Modern Law of Evidence, Oxford University Press, Ferlie, Pettigrew, Ashburner & Fitsgerald, (1993): The New Public Management in Action, Chapman & Hall, Bovaird A. G., Bovaird T & Lffler E, (2003): Public Management and Governance: An Introductory Text, Routledge Publishers, Berry G, Mawby R, Walley L & Wright A, (1998): Practical Police Management 2nd Edition, Police Review Pub. Co, Mastrofski SD, (2007): Police Organization and Management Issues For the Next Decade, Centre for Justice Leadership and Management, George Mason University Butler A. J. P, (1992): Police Management, Ashgate Pub Co Kirkpatrick I & Martinez-Lucio M, (1995): The Politics of Quality in the Public Sector: The Management of Change, Published by Routledge, Doherty T & Horne T, (): Managing Public Services: Implementing Change, Thoughtful Read More