Giving employees and associates the opportunity to measure their contributions over time is one of the most powerful motivators there are. The synthesis of scientific management and informal organizations can serve as the catalyst for lasting change and high performance within organizations over time. Bureaucracy and its implied top-down control over activities needs to be avoided. Today's organizations thrive on ownership and informal organizational flow of information, not on hierarchical organizational structures.
In terms of using these three concepts within a critical justice organization, the need for infusing ownership and accountability throughout the informal organization just as much in the formal one is critical. The use of scientific management approaches to allowing employees to have a say in the metrics that are used for managing them and how they are calculated further increases ownership in tasks and job roles. Bureaucracy and its definition of formal roles does have a place in criminal justice organizations, yet the agility necessary to bring both relevant measures of performance through scientific management, and the infusion of ownership possible using informal organizations also must be used. In short, all three aspects of organizations needs to be synchronized with one another to ensure the highest level of organizational performance is achieved.
Applying these to the three specific areas of the criminal justice system including police, the courts, and corrections requires a significantly different strategy for each. For the police, a bureaucracy is critical for defining roles, responsibilities and span of control over enforcing laws and protecting citizens and property. The need for scientific management is also critical, as the police need to be able to measure progress in meeting their objectives of dropping the crime rate in each category of measurement. For courts, the need for a high level of participatory management within the informal organization is critical, as there is much collaboration and coordination necessary for making sure courts fulfill their requirements and are consistent with one another's judgments and interpretations of the law. There is also a critical need for a low level of bureaucracy to make sure the...
The need for scientific management is also critical. In short, courts are the most complex of the three areas of discussion, and require a synchronized set of these three specific management theories. The need for bureaucracy in the form of well-defined rules, procedures and controls is also essential for corrections departments to run efficiently as well. As corrections departments have highly unique needs and also require intensive support for both the formal and informal organization structure, creating a high level of morale informally is critical. This is specifically the area where scientific management can be used for bringing ownership and self-defined levels of performance within corrections departments.
Conclusions and Recommendations
The need for having a synthesis of each of the three management theories is critical for police, courts, and corrections to have a balanced and effective organizational strategy. Think of the use of structurally dependent organizations requiring bureaucratic-based structures that are made more agile by having both key performance indicators defined through scientific management and the use of incentives to infuse ownership into the informal organizational structure as well. There is no single concept that needs to dominate these criminal justice organizations; rather it is the selective use of each to optimally align organizational resources with the objectives of each organization itself.
References
Manage, (2007). Definition of Informal Organization. Retrieved September 22, 2007, from 12 Manage Information Site Web site: http://www.12manage.com/description_informal_organization.html
Hammer, M (2003). The Agenda: Chapter 4, Putting Processes First. Retrieved September 22, 2007, from Chapter 4, the Agenda Web site: http://www.hammerandco.com/publications-agenda-ch4.asp
Taylor, F (1911). The Principles of Scientific Management. Retrieved September 22, 2007, from the Principles of Scientific Management Web site: http://www.eldritchpress.org/fwt/ti.html
Weber, M (2004), "Bureaucracy," in From Max Weber, eds. Hans Gerth and C. Wright Mills, 196-244. New York: Oxford University Press, 1946.
