Please respond to the four discussions. 250 word each with at least one reference. Thank You.
1. As the Chief of Police, I would drive my department with the management by objective concept. This is the concept that was instilled in me throughout my time in the Marine Corps. by my leaders. This style of leadership provides everyone with goals from the bottom all the way to the top. As you move up in the ranks or depending on the position you are assigned to your objectives will change and become more challenging as you pick up more responsibility and leadership of your own.
Management by objective allows the employees to strive for goals for progression and allows them to see the progress that they have made. Unfortunately, if the leadership sets unrealistic goals for the people to meet it could be counterintuitive and demotivate the employees if they do not meet the goals or know that the goals are impossible.
Quality circles also have a place in the workplace. They "greatly enhances the potential for producing small-scale service improvements and improves work unit morale among officers" (Stojkovic, Kalinich, & Klofas, 2015, p. 149). This gives the officers a place that they can look at themselves and discuss what needs to be done without the management bearing down on them and micromanaging them inside their discussion group. This could cause a demise between the different levels of management. The lower level could be against the middle and the middle against the upper.
A department to run smoothly needs to be on the same page from top to bottom and motivate each other. Motivation is the strongest and most efficient thing you can give to employees in an organization. If someone is motivated and believes in what they are doing, they will try harder and be more enthused to complete their goals. With this in mind is why my department would use the management by objective concept.
2. If I were either a chief of a police department or the warden of a prison because of my current and previous leadership positions I feel I would best serve my officers of either discipline by facilitating the management by objectives or MBO of which to lead. I was raised in workplace environments without lock stepping or micromanagement. I feel workplace environments should be comprised of those who possess internalized personal motivation and values.
I have also worked in only group dynamics therefore team building comes naturally just as the goals staff will set for themselves ergo being the best officer by being on time to shift call. The members of either group type should never be managed so much so for the purpose of making someone fit who obviously does not belong. Those of course are the distinct pros of utilizing this management style. As with anything else however there is a con.
The con here is knowing and identifying whether or not an individual does in fact belong to this department or to this prison? Generally by the time you find this out; there is no telling of how much damage a person could have created to the other members of the group by conducting staff splitting by however means that they possess.
3. Have you ever sat at the dinner table in silence, and not eating? That is the climate that most of us live in our homes today. The teenager that doesn't put the phone down, the youngest who's watching his favorite show, mom who reads the newspaper, dad is watching CNN, and grandparents playing Candy crush. With all this technology, not a peep is said around the table. This is the same situation that occurs too many times in the workplace.
Undeniably, technology has improved the accessibility of information. We now have cloud storage so you can do your work at your desk or at home. Skype, to be able to make international calls, via the internet using camera. Email to send and receive messages of immediate attention rather than waiting for it to come in the mail. Communication technology has made us efficient but not better communicators. The following is a simple example that happened to me recently.
Due to lack of motivation, to avoid talking to someone on the phone, we send e-mails to one another. The problem there is that we no longer type in complete sentences, so much so that messages are lost in translation due to lack of communication skills. Within this email, the sender may choose to use personal meanings such as sarcasm which the receiver may /may not understand, and eventually leads to confusion, misinformation and preconceived ideas about the sender. 4 of the 9 communication barriers in one email, which could have been resolved with a 3-minute phone call.
Think about it, because letters took so long to send and receive, these correspondences needed to be detailed and lengthy so that the receiver could respond efficiently without forgetting anything, basically we thought things out before we sent them. "We terminate employees, break off relationships with loved ones, and communicate good and bad news over the airways in succinct short comments. Sometimes leaving little time for reflection or emotion. In the past, this would have been a long conversation serving not only as a message but also a time for bonding and sharing some very personal feelings." (Crispo, A. W., 2012)
4. I would have to say that advanced communication technology has made it easier for individuals and organizations to communicate, however it has not made us better at the process of communicating. There are several advantages to advanced communication technology. This technology provides agencies the ability to connect with multiple other entities around the globe, increases intelligence sharing, improves homeland security and reduces costs associated with travel for face to face meetings (stojkovic, Kalinich & Klofas, 2015, P.119-120).
Additionally, the utilization of advanced communications technology assists police in their day to day jobs, and increases safety by reducing risk to the force and overall mission. However, individuals and organizations must strive to develop effective communications in both the formal organizational structure and the informal social system to be successful. Even in today's technologically advanced world the nine barriers to communication continue to limit people's ability to effectively communicate.
Through proper training and education people can become self-aware of issues such as preconceived ideas, denial, use of personalized meanings and motivation issues (stojkovic, Kalinich & Klofas, 2015, P.98). I am a firm believer that communication is an invaluable skill. During my time in my profession I have had the opportunity to work for great communicators, and not so great communicators. It is amazing how much more benefit, funding and assistance a team can achieve when their leader is an effective communicator.