Chapter Eight – Personnel Evaluation and Supervision

Understand the difficulty in arriving at goal consensus within criminal justice agencies.

Comprehend the importance of organizational structure to employee supervision.

Know the differences between the human-service approach to employee supervision and the traditional model of employee supervision.

Understand the difficulty in implementing a human service model of employee supervision within criminal justice organizations.

Explain the guidelines for performance evaluation and supervision.

Criminal justice organizations are expected to provide multiple services to the community.

Components of the criminal justice system have multiple goals and functions.

In some cases these goals and functions contradict one another.

Fragmentation and diversity within the criminal justice system exacerbate this conflict.

Attempts to reorganize components of the criminal justice system (monolithically) to reduce goal conflict often fail.

Organizational structure influences employee evaluation and supervision.

Differences exist because of organizational size, complexity, and mission.

Organizational diversity forces administrators to develop creative ways to evaluate and supervise employees.

Evaluation and supervision are also affected by budgets, differing goals, and the level of centralization.

Poor evaluation and supervision systems are characterized by:o Lack of clearly communicated rules, policies and procedures,o Inconsistent application of policies and procedures,o Failure to address problems and concerns,o Untimely professional feedback and disingenuous evaluation,o Inadequate supporting evidence and lack of documentation,o Inadequate training and lack of employee development, ando The tone set by management in the workplace.

Models of employee supervision have increased in recent years.

Public agencies actively seek improvement in employee supervision models by attempting to implement ideas from the private sector.

Some models have been developed within the criminal justice system.

Supervision models are highly influenced by motivation and job design.

Stresses a high degrees of centralization, formalization, complexity.

Includes the following elementso A hierarchy that includes; • An identifiable span of control• A precise unity of command, and• A clear delegation of authority

o Rulification, ando Specialization.

Key elementso Span of control – the appropriate number of

employees a supervisor can supervise.o Unity of command – one person in charge of a

situation and employee.o Delegation of authority – clearly defined tasks and

responsibilities to maintain organizational integrity.o Rulification – emphasizes the importance of rules and

regulations.o Specialization – the division of labor within the

organization.

Views supervision within the context of both individual and organizational goals.

Attempts to integrate employee goals into organizational goals.

First step is to determine what employees want.

Consistently, employees report wantingo To accomplish job tasks, ando To feel fulfilled with their roles.

Key elementso Employee ownership – when employees have more

say in how the organization is managed.o Sharing of power – allows employees to delegate

themselves.

Controversyo Human service activities make the officer’s job richer,

more rewarding, and less stressful.o Criminal justice managers do not have the authority to

share power with their employees. Somebody has to be in charge.

Regardless of their approach to supervision, criminal justice agencies are evaluated on the basis of their overall performance.

Conflicting goals, constraints and finite resources tend to ‘force’ criminal justice agencies into the traditional model of supervision.

Accountability, equity, fiscal integrity and efficiency are possible obstacles to innovation in public agencies.

Methods for evaluating employee performance have been, are, and will always be controversial.

No single method works in all situations and organizational environments.

Instead, key issues and concepts can assist criminal justice administrators with the performance evaluation process.

Yukl’s (1981) guidelines includeo Defining job responsibilitieso Assigning work, ando Setting performance goals.

Oettmeier and Wycoff’s (1998) model offers three levels of evaluation.o Individual performanceo Team levelo The organization’s ability to address problems

360 Evaluationso Recognizes the importance of multiple perspectives of

employee performance.o Encourages input from all those (stakeholders) affected

by an employee’s actions.o Sacramento PD uses four sources of information.o Other programs use as many as nine perspectives.

Comprehensive evaluations of officer performance enable insight into how successful the officer is at achieving organizational or unit goals.

Supervision models are just as diverse. Here again, there is no ‘one best way’. Most supervisors organize work into

four functions.o Traditional managemento CommunicationoHuman resource managementoNetworking

Engel (2004) identified four styles of supervision among police supervisors.o Traditional – supervisors who expect measurable

outcomes from subordinateso Innovative - supervisors who encourage officers to be

problem solverso Supportive – supervisors who act as a buffer between

officers and managemento Active – supervisors who work actively with

subordinate employees

Robbins and Judge (2007) identify three skill sets of effective supervision.o Technical skills – specialized knowledge or

expertiseoHuman skills – the ability to work with and

motivate peopleo Conceptual skills – the ability to analyze and

diagnose complex situations

Criminal justice organizations have many goals and often these goals contradict and conflict with one another.

This makes goal consensus difficult. Organizational structure plays a major role in how

employee evaluation and supervision will occur. The two primary models of employee supervision within

criminal justice organizations are the traditional and human service models of employee supervision.

Criminal justice administrators face multiple challenges when attempting to implement a human service model of employee supervision (conflicting goals, competing interests and fiscal/organizational constraints).

Guidelines do exist for effective employee supervision within criminal justice organizations.

These guidelines must fit the needs, goals, and structures of these organizations.

Research identifies the primary work functions of criminal justice managers and the work roles of employees.

Criminal justice managers use multiple styles of supervision and no single style is effective in all situations.

The effectiveness of a supervision style depends on the types of organizational goals pursued by the organization.

Captain Jones has just been assigned to command the Administrative Division of a large urban police department.

This division contains a diverse array of line and staff functions including:o Crime recordso Crime laboratoryo Special investigations (e.g. internal affairs, public

integrity unit)o Trainingo Human resources

In some units (e.g. crime records) employee performance is quantifiable. In others, (e.g. internal affairs) it is more difficult to measure employee performance.

The City Council has just approved a new employee merit pay system. Employees who perform meritoriously are eligible for up to a five percent pay raise.

Department policy requires that all employees are eligible for merit pay.

Using what you have learned about employee performance evaluation systems, develop a system that Captain Jones can use to make merit pay decisions for his diverse employees. This system should insure that:o Only meritorious employees receive raises, ando All employees are eligible regardless of their work

assignment.