Criminal Justice Organizations: Administration and Management

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Criminal Justice Organizations Administration
and Management

• Chapter Nine Occupational Socialization

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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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?

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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

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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 individuals perception and
  understanding of the sent role
• Role behavior the individuals response to the
  complex information received

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The Socialization Process
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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
  organizations culture

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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)

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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.

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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 organizations members.
• Anticipatory socialization is often based upon
  media, movies, and television program. It is
  often inaccurate.

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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.

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Thinking Point and Question

• You have just been elected Sheriff of the Boone
  County Sheriffs 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.

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Thinking Point and Question

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