Exploring the impact of the current West Midlands Police change programme

75 Pages·2015·1.51 MB·English

Exploring the impact that management scrutiny of quality of
service has on organisational culture and performance.

Submitted for: MA in Managing and Leading People
M45HRM

Coventry University
Faculty of Business, Environment and Society
Coventry Business School

June 2015

Tutor: Mike Winfield
Student ID: 2966089
Statement of Authorship

I certify that this dissertation is my own work and contains no material, which has been
accepted for the award of any degree or diploma in any institute, college or university.
Moreover, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously
published or written by another person, except where due reference is made in the text of
the dissertation. I also understand that under no circumstances should any part of this
dissertation be published, including on the Internet, or publicly displayed without receiving
written permission from the school.

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Abstract:

A study was conducted into the impact that locally based quality of service dip samples, had
on performance and culture within a policing environment. The research aimed to examine
the perceptions of those completing the dip samples against those subjected to them and
the impact that this has had. To provide context the study was focussed on front line staff
delivering locally based service.
Using a mixed methods research methodology, consisting of a web-based survey which was
sent to 4,728 staff, analysis of quantitative performance data and information from locally
based organisational service development teams, the study identified how quality
management practices influence performance and the organisational sub-culture within the
organisation.
It was evident from the research that whilst the majority of employees saw benefit in quality
of service checks the rationale behind them had not been sufficiently explained and
perceptions of disparity between organisational values and management scrutiny coupled
with a lack of; corporacy, bilateral communication, feedback and development have all
contributed to a divide between those conducting quality of service checks and those
subjected to them.
The study provides recommendations based of the findings of the research to the senior
leadership of West Midlands Police

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Acknowledgements:

I would like to thank my supervisor, Mike Winfield, for the guidance, encouragement and
advice he has provided throughout my time as his student. I have been extremely lucky to
have a supervisor who cared so much about my work, and who responded to my questions
and queries so promptly. I would also like to thank all the members of staff at Coventry
University who have helped me throughout the duration of this course.
I would like to thank West Midlands Police for providing the opportunity to undertake this
study. Without their catalyst this study and my academic development simply would not
have happened.
I would also like to thank Kevin Davenport for his continued support through, not only this
dissertation, but throughout my entire studies. He has been a constant point of inspiration in
providing a private sector context to my public sector perspectives and being a fantastic
proof reader.
Lastly I would like to thank those people, who have provided a much needed form of escape
from my studies; this enabled me to keep things in perspective – you know who you are!

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TABLE OF CONTENTS:
LIST OF TABLES: ................................................................................................................. 6
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTIONS ......................................................................................... 7
1.1 Research Background and Relevance ........................................................................ 7
1.2 Research Context ....................................................................................................... 8
1.3 Research Objectives .................................................................................................. 9
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................. 10
2.1 Conclusions for Literature Research: ......................................................................... 17
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY .......................................................................................... 19
3.1 Introduction and rationale for proposed methodology; ............................................... 19
3.2 Review of research paradigms: ................................................................................. 21
3.3 Methods .................................................................................................................... 23
3.4 Measures ................................................................................................................... 26
3.5 Combining the measures ........................................................................................... 26
3.6 Population ................................................................................................................. 26
3.7 Sample ...................................................................................................................... 27
3.8 Reliability and Validation ............................................................................................ 27
3.9 Research Limitations and Constraints ....................................................................... 28
CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS ................................................................ 29
4.1 Classification questions from web-based survey ........................................................ 29
4.2 Attitudinal questions from web-based survey ............................................................. 32
4.3 Behavioural questions from web-based survey .......................................................... 39
4.4 Signals from Noise data ............................................................................................. 45
4.5 Compliance data ........................................................................................................ 48
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CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION ................................................................................................ 50
CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS .............................................. 56
6.1 Introductions .............................................................................................................. 56
6.2 Findings from the study ............................................................................................. 57
6.3 Recommendations ..................................................................................................... 60
6.4 Recommendations for Future Research .................................................................... 62
REFERENCES: .................................................................................................................. 64
APPENDICES ..................................................................................................................... 74

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LIST OF TABLES:
Table 1: Neiderhoffers model of Police Cynicism (1967) ..................................................................... 13.
Table 2: West Midlands Police establishment breakdown .................. 24Error! Bookmark not defined.
Table 3: Respondents role breakdown ................................................................................................ 28.
Table 4: Respondents rank breakdown ............................................................................................... 30.
Table 5: Respondents rank return rate ................................................................................................ 30.
Table 6: Respondents location breakdown .......................................................................................... 31.
Table 7: Respondents length of service .................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
Table 8: Respondents thoughts of quality of service (QoS) dip samples ............................................ 33.
Table 9: Respondents thoughts on whether QoS checks impact on satisfaction ................................ 34.
Table 10: Respondents thoughts on caller/victim perceptions of QoS checks ..35Error! Bookmark not
defined.
Table 11: Respondents main priority in role ........................................................................................ 36.
Table 12: What is most important to respondents whilst at work......................................................... 37.
Table 13: What is respondents thoughts on organisational pursuit of satisfaction .............................. 38.
Table 14: Do respondents deal with crime differently to anti-social behaviour (ASB) ......................... 39.
Table 15: Do respondents deal with people differently owing to QoS checks ..................................... 40.
Table 16: Do QoS checks make respondents more likely to adhere to policy .................................... 40.
Table 17: How do QoS checks make respondents feel ....................................................................... 41.
Table 18: Respondents biggest barrier to delivering exellent service ................................................. 42.
Table 19: Respondent breakdown of who has received feedback ...................................................... 43.
Table 20: Impact of feedback on respondents ..................................................................................... 44.
Table 21: Signals from Noise explaination ........................................................................................... 45.
Table 22: Customer satisfaction with service – Crime. Feeling the Difference data ........................... 46.
Table 23: Customer satisfaction with service – ASB. Feeling the Difference data ............................. 46.
Table 24: Customer satisfaction with service – Crime. Birmingham North .......................................... 47.
Table 25: Customer satisfaction with service – ASB. Birmingham North ............................................ 48.
Table 26; QoS Comliance rates of Birmingham north supervisors/managers ..................................... 49.
Table 27: Forcewide customer satisfaction with service - Crime ......................................................... 52.
Table 28: Forcewide customer satisfaction with service - ASB ........................................................... 52.
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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTIONS
1.1 Research Background and Relevance

"We all need people who will give us feedback. That's how we improve", (Gates, 2013)
West Midlands Police is a public sector organisation whose mission statement is: ‘Serving
our communities, protecting them from harm’ and the Chief Constable advocates
organisational values which revolve around the public, working together and delivering a
service to be proud of.
West Midlands Police is structured around several centralised departments which are
governed from headquarters. These centralised departments fulfil an organisational wide
function. A widespread change programme in 2010 realigned organisational boundaries to
make them geo-coterminous with local authority constituency’s boundaries which resulted in
ten local Policing units (LPUs). There have been increases in organisational efficiency and
significant financial reductions and this has all been against a backdrop of crime reduction
and increases in customer satisfaction.
Change has been a constant throughout the organisation since 2010 but Rosen et al (2009)
warn that sustained periods of change may increase the possibility of misunderstanding and
dissent between front line staff and management.
This document seeks to explore the perceptions of locally based quality of service checks,
and any impact that their introduction has had, on performance and the organisational
subculture.
Researchers have long discussed how relationships occur in business between quality
management practices and performance and culture, and there is a plethora of literature on
the private sector but little on the public sector or specifically the Police.
Although organisational subcultures are almost intangible one of the goals of this research is
to extend current knowledge within a policing context, Coyle-Shapiro and Kessler (2000)
suggests that the realisation of employee’s expectations is important in achieving
performance objectives.
As a public sector organisation, there are high expectations of the Police to provide a quality
of service and therefore this study has relevance (Soeparman et al 2012)

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1.2 Research Context

In recent years the performance landscape of the Police has changed from liner quantitative
reductions of key performance indicators, set by government, to qualitative increases in
confidence and satisfaction.
As such, the pursuit of confidence and satisfaction has become the forefront of an
organisational drive to change the performance culture.
Whilst performance against linear reduction targets was easy to quantify, the more
subjective and qualitative nature of confidence and satisfaction has proved more
challenging.
West Midlands Police has, for some time, utilised independent companies to conduct
external surveys to gain an understanding of trust and confidence in the Police and to
identify ways to improve satisfaction and service delivery. This survey quantified confidence
and satisfaction into percentages allowing it to be measured and adopted as a performance
indicator.
‘Feeling the Difference’, which was started in April 2005, is West Midlands Police's public
perception survey. The survey is conducted in two waves per year, encompassing 16,800
interviewees broken down to local constituency areas.
Despite obvious weaknesses in the subjectivity of satisfaction for non service users, the data
quickly became a measure of performance within the organisation.
'Contact Counts', which was introduced in 2007, is an internally conducted customer
satisfaction telephone survey program. The survey program comprises two elements; a
random sample of people who have reported a crime to West Midlands Police in the last six
to eight weeks, and a random sample of people who have reported an anti-social
behaviour (ASB) incident to West Midlands Police in the same period.
The telephone interviews, with victims of crime and reporters of ASB, have historically been
conducted internally by the Quality of Service Bureau, a centralised department at
headquarters.
In December 2012 the Quality of Service Bureau devolved responsibility to the local
constituency areas. The concept was that the local constituency areas would be responsible
for scrutiny of its own service delivery.
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In the Birmingham North local policing unit it was decided that the scrutiny would be in the
form of quality of service checks or dip samples. They are allocated by the local
Organisational Service Development team and each supervisor and manager within the
constituency are given Crime report and an ASB log to dip sample each, every month.
This effectively means that every rank from acting Sergeant right up to Chief Superintendant
contacts two service users per month and goes through a series of pre set questions to
establish, levels of satisfaction with service.
There has been numerous studies into the impacts that quality management practices
(QMPs) have on organisational performance in the private sector but there is little on their
affect in the public sector. There is also little in the way of how QMPs impact on
organisational culture.
This study has focused on locally based staff on LPUs to identify specific cultural issues
between those conducting QMP dip samples and those subjected to them and the impact
that they have on performance.
There is anecdotal evidence to suggest that QMPs have changed the perceptions and
culture of some employees, this research will use qualitative web-based survey results and
organisational data sets to provide empirical evidence.
1.3 Research Objectives

There are three main outcomes for this research;

1) Examine quantitative data to establish if management scrutiny is having a positive or
negative impact on organisational performance.
2) Explore whether management scrutiny has influenced organisational sub culture or
positively or negatively impacted on service delivery. This will be done via an online
survey for all ranks; it will explore changes in behaviour based on the scrutiny and
the value that management place on the process.
3) Use the findings of this research to make recommendations to the senior leadership
of West Midlands Police regarding future quality of service scrutiny by management
and the likely impact upon culture and service delivery.

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