The Impact of Performance Culture on Criminal Justice Agencies in England and Wales

Managerial factors and organisational commitment ‐ A comparative study of police officers and civilian staff

“…The importance of unravelling the antecedents of police commitment cannot be underestimated, since the Home Office and leading police representative bodies, the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), and the Police Federation are currently involved in critical debates about what constitutes police performance and are trying to define systems to measure and improve performance and accountability (Reiner, 1998;Loveday, 1999).…”

“…However, police agencies have a unique organisational culture that emphasises commitment to the profession itself as well as support for hierarchical rank and status. Based on our observations of the service under analysis we would argue that it is more likely that the differences in commitment are attributable to inappropriate selection and promotion procedures that leads to the perpetuation of a command and control management style that has a negative effect on the organisation commitment of subordinates (Loveday, 1999;Blau, 1985): P3: Organisational commitment will increase with service length in civilians but will reduce with service length in uniform staff.…”

The strategic integration of pop and performance management: A viable partnership?

“…The central tenet of HRM is that employees are a source of competitive advantage and that business development and people development should be strategically integrated. Within a performance culture therefore the motivation and performance of individual officers becomes highly significant (Loveday, 1999). This means that the organisations management and personnel systems will play a leading role in'shaping operational strategy.…”

“…Indeed Loveday (1999) notes that despite a change in government in the UK, New Labour is committed to introducing 'performance measurement' systems in public services. Like POP however, the nature and definition of performance management, and what it means in practice are continually being critiqued and reassessed (Winstanley and Stuart-Smith, 1996).…”

“…The traditional characteristics of police organisation reflecting a top-down hierarchy and top-down decision making go against the philosophy of human resource management, performance management (in the soft sense) and performance culture. Loveday's (1999) review of HMIC inspections demonstrated how many police organisations were resistant to change at all levels in the police hierarchy, and this then begs the question whether many forces have the right mix of skills to successfully implement new human resource management policies that in essence works against existing police cultures.…”