FREE ESSAY ON LEASDERSHIP IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE ORGANIZATIONS

LEASDERSHIP IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE ORGANIZATIONS

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Introduction
This paper will describe my understanding of the text and of the lectures provided in the
class. Unlike most classes, where I understood only my view of the text, this class was
geared so each student would understand each other's view. 
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An organization is a collective that has some boundary and internal structure that
engages in activities related to some complex set of goals. Members of organizations
attempt to meet their psychological, ego and emotional needs within the organization.
Criminal justice organizations are particularly unique compared to other public or
private sector organizations because of the governmental granted authority. Management
within these organizations can be defined as the process by which the elements of a group
are integrated, coordinated and/or utilized so as to efficiently achieve the
organization's objectives. In Law enforcement and correctional organizations, the front
line officers manage people. This is especially true in the control of inmates. In these
organizations, we must consider the hierarchy to be inverted. The front line officers,
not limited to sergeants and lieutenants, influence the direction of the organization.
Leaders in criminal justice establish direction by developing a vision of the future,
align people through shared values and vision, and motivate and inspire people to move
them toward the shared vision. Leaders will challenge existing processes and systems,
focus on the future of the basic assumptions, values, and beliefs and create the basis
for structural or programmatic change.
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Conversely, leadership in corrections is often more complex. Prison and jail
overcrowding, along with the increasing number of geriatric, mentally ill and an influx
of younger and more violent inmates requires the managers of the organization to increase
the training and motivation of line officers in order to deal with problems.
In law enforcement agencies, leaderships must recognize the need for more community
policing programs. These criminal justice organizations must look inside themselves and
adapt change in order to meet their goals and objectives. The goals of organizations not
only provide direction but also serve as constraints or limits. An example in the
criminal justice model would be for an agency to make more arrests to meet the public
outcry, but also to insure the judicial and correctional systems handle the increase in
business. Organizations have very common structural dimensions. But some models are
different, such as centralized and decentralized. In the centralized hierarchy of
organizations, the decisions or personnel actions, planning, formulation of policies and
procedures, adjudication of conflicts and other significant issues are made from the top.
In decentralized organizations, the decision on these major issues is routinely made
throughout the organization. Whether an organization is centralized or decentralized
mostly depends on the type of agency and the beliefs of the top managers. This decision
depends on the expertise of all the managers and the staff personnel.
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Mission statements, if properly understood and accepted by organized personnel, is the
framework by which an organization will operate. A mission statement can be defined as a
statement or description of an organization's common purpose and continuing purpose for
existing responsibility of it's client or constituents, at least by implicating it's
ideology, values and operation's principals. An example of a mission statement by a
business may be:
(1) Quality comes first
(2) Customers are the focus of everything we do.
(3) Continuous improvement is essential to everything we do.
(4) Employee involvement is our way of life.
(5) Dealers and suppliers are our partners.
(6) Integrity is never compromised.
An example of a criminal justice organization may be:
" The mission of the department is to safely incarcerate convicted felons; to keep 
inmates secure, safe from physical and psychological harm and deterioration; and
And to provide inmates with opportunities for a successful, crime-free reentry into
Into society, while providing a safe, secure and stress-free work environment for
Staff."
Even though, both are different types of mission statements; both have one thing in
common - "Quality." Mission statements can drive policy, procedures and the different
structures of organizations, whether public or private.
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Communication can be define as glue for organizations. It will create a coordinated
effort to achieve attainment of goals and objectives. Poor communication, however, can
result in many management problems for it. If directions are not clear and well
communicated, subordinates will inadvertently disobey the meaning of the directive.
Managers must be sure when a directive is not followed if the employee was wrong or if
the directive to the employee was poorly communicated. A directive, whether spoken or
written, is one person sending information to another. This process if referred to as
encoding and decoding. Words are our most familiar means of sending messages to others.
However, the message we intend to send and the way out message received may differ
drastically. Many communication barriers may exist which may cloud or distort the meaning
of the message. Communication barriers definitely exist within the criminal justice
system. Police officers and courts and lawyers have differing views of offenders. Police
officers arrest offenders whom they view as probably guilty, whereas the court system
assumes the offender is innocent until proven guilty. An important move towards improving
communication in criminal justice agencies and in the criminal justice system as a whole,
is for agencies to move away from "boss-centered management and towards
subordinate-centered management."
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One of the most difficult issues in the criminal justice systems, especially the
corrections departments, is motivation. What really motivates people? Some theorists
define it as a state of mind. This state of mind will cause the employee to exhibit
certain behaviors. Some say it's the "psychological contract between the individual and
the work to be performed. One interesting portion of the text discusses the "need
theory." The need theory states that all people have needs, both physical and
psychological, which effect their behavioral patterns. As the great psychologist, T.
Maslow argued, people have 5 basic needs: (1) physiological needs - food, water and other
"must have" things in order to survive; (2) the need for safety and security; (3)
belonging needs - the desire to be loved; (4) self actualization needs (5) higher-order
needs, which include sense of belonging and esteem. The rank and file workers consider
the lower level needs, as most important, but most organizational managers perceive the
higher level needs as the most important. While reading the material in the text and
reviewing my own organizations mission statement, the path-goal and achievement -
oriented leadership method of motivation is practical in my agency. Senior management
attempts and most of the time succeed, to use this theory for its success. The
achievement values are as follows:
(1) Seek to achieve success through one's own efforts and not have their success
attributed to other factors.
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(2) Work on projects - which are challenging, but not attainable.
(3) Receive identifiable and recurring feedback about one's work and avoid situations
where the level of achievement is in question.
Individual performance is one's ability to complete a task along with motivation to do
the task. If criminal justice managers understand these issues, involving the employee by
explaining the expectations, understanding one's ability, create the motivation, the end
result will be maximum performance from the employee.
Another major factor in the success of the criminal justice system is effective
leadership. There are several models mentioned in the text. Particularly in the
"path-goal theory," there are the following: (1) the directive leadership behavior, (2)
supportive leadership behavior, (3) the achievement-oriented behavior, and (4) the
participate leaderships behavior. All great leaders all, but most have less and some have
only one. As demonstrated in my interview of a criminal justice manager, my organization
has mostly achievement-oriented leaders. Mostly became of the external factors of our
contract with the Department of Energy. Effective leaders and command staff-level
management must possess at least five leadership traits: (1) possess traits indicative of
a proactive approach to leadership; (2) be aware of the importance of building
professional relationships with employees; (3) balance the needs of employees with
concern for production; 
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(4) Incorporate a sense of "vision" within the organization and serve as a transformer of
culture when necessary; and (5) have an array of contingent strategies.
All of management and leaders within the organization must utilize all their skills to
ensure agency goals and objectives are met, especially in the criminal justice system.
The organization culture is very complex in nature within the criminal justice system.
The law enforcement, judicial and correctional systems, even though essentially in the
same business, are different. Each level of the justice system belongs to it's own
subculture. Each also, has subcultures within it. They act on individual socialization
within themselves. A great example would be life within a prison institution. The warden,
of course, is in charge of the institution but when off, the ranking correctional officer
is in charge when he/she is with the inmates. The individual group leader of the inmates
(according to the "pecking order") is in charge when the correctional officer is not
around. The examples given are of formal and informal socialization.
Before taking this course and thoroughly reading the text, I was only exposed to law
enforcement organizations. Most of the professors were either lawyers or law
professionals. It was enlightening to read the text and to hear a different perspective
from a corrections professional.
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