Criminal Justice Organizations: Administration and Management

1. Criminal Justice Organizations: Administration and Management Chapter Nine – Occupational Socialization

2. Learning Objectives • Understand occupational socialization • Understand the basic precepts of organizational culture • Understand the socialization process as it applies to criminal justice agencies • Be able to discuss the problems in the socialization process in criminal justice agencies • Understand the basic strategies for socialization

3. Occupational Socialization • The process by which a person acquires the values, attitudes, and behaviors of an ongoing occupational social system. • It is a continuous process and may result in both legal and illegal behaviors. • Habitual behaviors, both good or bad, persist as long as the attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, habits and expectations of the members remain supportive of them.

4. Organizational Culture • A set of assumptions, values, and beliefs shared by members of an organization. • These create language, symbols, folklore, and direct the behaviors of the organizational members. • Organizational cultures are invented, discovered, or developed by groups in order to cope with external influences and internal change.

5. Organizational CultureKey Terms • Culture – complex whole of society and includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, customs and other capabilities and routines • Values – desirable goals • Norms – specify what people should do • Folkways – standard ways of doing things • Mores – strong views of right and wrong • Laws – codified mores

6. Organizational CultureKey Terms • Social control – the process of perpetuating conformity to the culture • Sanctions – rewards and punishments for conformity. Can be formal or informal. • Subcultures – groups that have their own beliefs and norms while sharing the values of the dominant culture • Counterculture – groups whose shared values differ substantially from those of the dominant culture

7. Organizational Culture • Key questions • How is the culture formed? • What forces are critical in forming the culture? • How the cultural arrangements impact the organizational goals? • How and to what extent administrators can influence the cultural arrangement of their agency?

8. The Socialization Process • The socialization process is both formal and informal. • Stages • Anticipatory – prior to employment prospective employees adhere to certain behavioral standards • Formal – occurs through formal training and active supervision • Informal – occurs though interaction with “significant other” peers, managers and even clients

9. The Socialization Process • A model of influences (Katz and Kahn, 1978) explains how socializing influences affect the individual. • Role expectations – standards of behavior • Sent role – communication of expectations • Received role – the individual’s perception and understanding of the sent role • Role behavior – the individual’s response to the complex information received

10. The Socialization Process

11. Problems in the Socialization Process • Most socialization problems are related to role conflict. • Compliance with one role expectation results in a lack of compliance to another. • Role conflict results in low job satisfaction, poor performance, and stress. • In extreme cases corruption and official deviance can occur. • Behavior that is illegal but encouraged by the organization’s culture

12. Socialization and the Police • No evidence that authoritarian or violence seeking individuals are attracted to police work. • Police officers are subjected to a rather intense socialization process. • Structural aspects that connect police officers • Police work is depersonalizing • Solidarity in the drive toward professionalism • The ambiguous nature of police work

13. Socialization in Corrections • Correctional employees are attracted to the profession because of its regular pay and job security. • Most new correctional employees know very little about the job. • Unlike police officers, correctional officers often delay formal training until after a few months of on the job training and informal socialization. • Informal socialization appears to be more influential than formal socialization.

14. Socialization and Community Expectations • Community expectations affect the socialization process. • Within the context of community expectations; • Appropriate behaviors are rewarded with public recognition, and • Inappropriate behaviors are punished by public criticism. • Well trained and educated practitioners are more likely to meet community expectations.

15. Strategies for SocializationImplications for Administrators • The socialization process can be influenced by effective and deliberate leadership. • Changing the culture begins with changing recruiting processes and selection criteria. • Formalizing the training process and distancing it from the actual work improve and objectify the socialization process.

16. Strategies for SocializationImplications for Administrators • Collective socialization – training new members as a group (i.e. formal academy training) • Sequential socialization – trainees pass through discrete stages on the way to becoming a fully accepted member of the group (e.g. post training probationary periods) • Serial socialization – relies on experienced veterans to develop newcomers (e.g. field training officer programs • Divestiture strategies – attempt to strip away certain characteristics before an individual is allowed into the group (e.g. haircuts and special uniforms)

17. Ethical Considerations • The formal socialization process is a mechanism for the organization to impose its dominant belief system and rules upon its members. • Subtle messages from the command staff are influential in either discouraging or encouraging unethical behaviors. • Autocratic management styles tend to drive wedges between employees and the organization which may result in various forms of unethical behavior.

18. Chapter Summary • Occupational socialization is a process by which a member of an organization acquires the values, attitudes, and behaviors of an ongoing occupational social system. • This process may include formal training and will include social interactions with work peers. • Organizational culture is a set of assumptions, values, and beliefs shared by members of an organization. • Organizational culture includes language, symbols, and folklore that direct the behavior of the organization’s members. • Anticipatory socialization is often based upon media, movies, and television program. It is often inaccurate.

19. Chapter Summary • Formal socialization is often weak and informal socialization is usually strong. • Criminal justice practitioners face role conflict, role ambiguity, conflicting expectations, and contradictory goals. Hence, the socialization process presents conflicting stimuli. • Managers continuously influence the socialization process. • Organizational socialization begins with recruiting and selection and is accomplished though the orientation and training processes. • Supervision provides a continuous impact on formal socialization.

20. Thinking Point and Question • You have just been elected Sheriff of the Boone County Sheriff’s Department. • Your initial review of the department indicates a very loosely managed and controlled organization. • Training is haphazard, supervision is nearly nonexistent, and deputies are allowed to come and go as they please. • The department recently lost a class action suit filed by a group of Hispanic inmates who were repeatedly physically assaulted by a group of ten jailers.

21. Thinking Point and Question • You have come to the conclusion that the Department’s subculture is corruption prone. • Using the information from this chapter develop a plan for addressing and changing the Department’s organizational culture so that it becomes more conducive to the standards of ethical policing practice.