Citizen Focus Cultural Baseline Study
Derbyshire Constabulary –
Executive Summary
Organisation Development & Research Ltd
Aston Abbotts
Buckinghamshire, HP22 4ND
Tel+44 (0)1296 682790
Fax+44(0)1296 680480
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1.0 Introduction
Derbyshire Constabulary commissioned Organisation Development & research Ltd (ODRL) to conduct a Citizen Focus (CF) Cultural Baseline Study in May 2008. Various phases of the study were carried out from May 2008 - October 2008. This report summarises the key finding of the study with particular focus on key strengths, areas for improvement and actions that the Constabulary may consider in order to make the necessary shifts toward building and sustaining a CF culture. The process and methodology used for the study are based on prior research conducted by ODRL to develop cultural dimensions that define CF culture in the context of policing as outlined below:
People: key dimensions include ‘Integrity & Valuing People’, ‘Development of Staff’ and ‘Putting the Citizen First’
Performance: key dimensions include ‘Achieving Results’, ‘Accountability’ and ‘Processes’
Partnerships: key dimensions include ‘Working as One Team (Internal)’ and ‘Working as One Team (External)’.
1.1 Aim of the Study
•To develop an integrated approach to building and sustaining a ‘Citizen Focus’ culture in Derbyshire Constabulary by aligning the vision and strategic priorities with the culture and working practices
1.2 Key Objectives
•To identify the current Citizen Focus Cultural Baseline of the Constabulary with a view to agreeing the extent to which it needs to shift/change against the backdrop of CF
•To identify the key strengths and areas for improvement based on the findings of the study in line with building and sustaining a CF culture
•To agree actions for change that would need to be implemented in order to build and sustain a CF culture in the Constabulary
2.0 Data Collection
Data was collected through qualitative and quantitative methods as outlined below.
2.1 Interviews: One-to-one interviews were conducted in April 2008 with the senior team and key stakeholders to develop a picture of the Constabulary’s strengths and areas for improvement in delivering CF services in 3 areas: ‘People’, ‘Performance’ and ‘Partnerships.’
2.2 Focus Groups: 7 focus groups were conducted in May 2008 with approximately 6-12 participants in each consisting of frontline officers and staff, inspectors, chief inspectors and staff equivalents and superintendents/ chief superintendents and staff equivalents. The questions were designed to provide a picture of the Constabulary’s current strengths and areas for improvement in 3 areas: ‘People’, ‘Performance’ and ‘Partnerships.’
2.3 Survey (CF-OSP©ODRL): A Force-wide survey was carried out in August/September 2008; the results were analysed and presented to the CF Board in October 2008. In all 1539 people responded to the survey - a response rate of 42%. The survey instrument forms part of ODRL’s toolkit and is made up of the 7 key dimensions as mentioned in Section 1.0.
3.0 Current Profile of the Constabulary
The findings of the study were translated into an explicit cultural profile of the Constabulary through the survey as described above. Appendix 1 provides the detailed profile of the Constabulary along the 7 dimensions under the umbrella of ‘People’, ‘Performance and ‘Partnerships’. The responses to the items of the cultural profile were along a bi-polar scale of 1-7. Responses below 4.0 indicate areas of strengths and responses of 4.0 and above suggest areas for improvement for the Constabulary. The qualitative information gleaned from the focus groups, interviews and open-ended questions helped to build a rich picture of the Constabulary and supported the findings of the survey.
4.0 Key Strengths and Areas for Improvement
The following sections summarise the key strengths and areas for improvement that the Constabulary needs to consider in defining an implementation plan.
4.1 People - Key Strengths
Diversity: Staff at all levels report a strong sense of awareness of the principles of diversity. For example, in their day-to-day activities, there is a fairly sound understanding of the diverse needs of the communities based in Derbyshire. Furthermore, in their interactions with the citizens, staff treat citizens as individuals with diverse needs/and apply tailored solutions as far as feasible to address their specific requirements. This is also replicated internally; staff respect the different needs of their colleagues.
Leadership:Findings of the study indicate that managers recognise and appreciate the contributions of staff. Senior leadership team is regarded as being effective, approachable, visible, taking an interest in listening to the needs of the people and on the whole is valued by staff. Furthermore, qualitative data indicates that the Chief Constable with his senior team provide effective leadership, a clear sense of direction and inspiration to extend the boundaries of the current levels of performance/achievements despite the fact that the Force has been under-funded over the years.
Commitment and Drive/Sense of Pride: Overall, DerbyshireConstabulary has a ‘can do’ attitude; people are proud of working for the Constabulary and are driven by serving the public through their work. Participants in the focus groups report a sense of belongingness and feel that working for the Constabulary is a privilege. Frontline staff are talented, committed and take on responsibilities through personal goodwill which is frequently over and above the requirements of their roles.
Citizen Focus: There is recognition and desire to serve the citizens effectively; furthermore, the profile suggests that staff would go the extra mile to serve the citizens. Overall, staff have a fairly clear understanding of the needs of the citizens and are open minded in addressing the diverse range of requirements of the citizen. In dealing with the citizens, staff demonstrate a deep sense of empathy in addressing their concerns. Overall, there is clarity of CF approaches and senior management decisions are supportive of CF practices.
4.2 People - Areas for Improvement
Leadership/Management Development:The findings of the study suggest that the visibility of leaders could be enhanced. There is a tendency on the part of middle and frontline managers to take ‘task focused’ and ‘top down’ approaches. Against the backdrop of CF, these approaches may be limiting if used as the only way of managing/leading people. Based on the evidence gleaned from this study, leadership styles need to be flexible to meet the needs of a given situation/individual. Furthermore, frontline leadership is likely to be critical in building and sustaining a CF culture in the Constabulary. For example, sergeants and inspectors receive minimal learning and development in frontline leadership and yet the role of the sergeant is likely to be pivotal in the future due to the changing expectations of the citizens and the national imperative of ‘Confidence’.
Empowerment of Staff/Valuing Frontline Officers:The data indicates that frontline officers feel de-valued and marginalised. Against the backdrop of CF, this is by far the most critical role as the public’s impression of the Constabulary is largely based on their interactions with the front line officers. There is scope to review and transform these roles by enhancing the level of empowerment and discretion. The current operating model which is based on a command and control structure may not be effective in driving and sustaining CF practices in the longer term. Responses from the survey also indicate that the dedication and commitment of frontline staff are not recognised by managers in a consistent manner.
CF Principles/CF Approaches: Further clarity/definition of CF would help to explain it in a concrete manner and to reframe mindsets at all levels in the organisation. There is an innate challenge in developing and sustaining CF practices as the focus to date has been very much on achieving targets, e.g., crime reduction and sanction detections. Furthermore, the current cultural profile indicates that staff tend to focus on individual tasks as opposed to taking the end-to-end citizen/customer experience.
Talent Management/Career Development: Findings of the study indicate that there are limited career development opportunities and that the Constabulary has little data on the potential of staff which constrains individual growth. Furthermore, there is perception that the available opportunities are not equally accessible to all staff.
Morale: The findings of the study indicate that the morale of the workforce could be improved. This needs to be probed more as the underlying reasons could relate to the constant depletion of people from the frontline and delivering more with less given the history of diminished budgets allocated to the Force.
Compliance: Based on the findings of both Phases 1 & 2, the communication style could be more assertive in order to unleash creativity and innovation. This is indicative of hierarchical ways of working which precludes authentic engagement with colleagues.
Blame Culture:Whilst the findings of the survey indicate that leaders/ managers recognise the contributions of people, staff report a prevailing blame culture when things go wrong. This needs to be explored further to understand whether these practices exist among colleagues or are also related to leadership behaviours.
4.3 Performance - Key Strengths
Accountability: The findings of the study indicate that staff take ownership in delivering services to the citizens. As indicated in the various sources of data, people are committed to being accessible to the citizens, are responsive in meeting the priorities of the public and feel personally responsible when things go wrong.
Clarity of Roles and Responsibilities: Overall, at the individual level there is clarity of roles and responsibilities; there is a fair understanding and awareness of factors that help to drive public confidence in the police; more work will need to be carried out to understand the depth and breadth of prevailing knowledge in this area.
4.4 Performance - Areas for Improvement
Processes: There is an overriding view that the processes are cumbersome which limits the Constabulary’s ability to provide quality of service to the citizens/customers. At present people tend to work in silos often creating duplication of tasks and activities. These practices prevent the Constabulary from providing a seamless service. In the case of some activities, there is significant paperwork and number of processes that need to be completed which make the end-to-end activity extremely resource intensive and slow. Processes need to be streamlined to meet the requirements of the citizens and the design of work should enable people to be more proactive.
Priorities: The findings of the survey and focus groups indicate that the organisation’s priorities at odds with public’s priorities. This may require further analysis/clarification in order to provide CF services to the citizens. Furthermore, the day-to-day services delivered tend to be conducted in a reactive manner. Against this backdrop, respondents also report that there is insufficient time to provide quality of service to the citizens/customers. Staff find it challenging to achieve targets and provide excellent service to the citizen; further clarification as to how these priorities can be balanced out would help staff in achieving the goals of the organisation. There is a perception that policing is ‘all things to all people’ which has a detrimental impact on providing a focused and high quality service to the citizens.
Discretion: The overall findings of the study indicate that staff are subject to controls and checks that limit their capacity to make decisions and respond to the needs of the citizens in a nimble manner. The Constabulary will need to take a structured approach in shifting this culture by providing clear steps and concrete examples of working with more discretion. Furthermore, front line leaders report that they are not empowered to make decisions which are mostly made by higher tiers of management. Similar themes emerged from focus group discussions and interviews.
CF Measures: The findings of the study suggest that staff would benefit from clarity of how CF working practices would be measured. The Constabulary may consider translating the principles of CF into concrete behaviours that are observable and measurable.
Performance Management: There is a view that it is difficult to address poor performance as the procedures and policies are complex. The current PDRs do not usually reflect unacceptable performance levels; staff are generally allocated ‘competent’ to prevent complications with addressing poor performance issues.
Creativity & Innovation: The findings of the study indicate that people tend to be risk averse; this maybe due to the performance culture and the need to have evidence supporting relevant actions. Furthermore, leaders/ managers could do more to unleash creativity and innovation in staff.
4.5 Partnerships - Key Strengths
Alignment with the Vision: Overall, there is a sense of pride in working for the Constabulary and a fair understanding of how individual roles contribute to the vision. Furthermore, in response to the question of reasons for working with the Constabulary, an overwhelming and recurring theme was to provide public service. Staff are intrinsically motivated and are proud to work for the organisation. This is a powerful lever to transform the organisation from its current platform of strengths into a truly CF Constabulary.
Safer Neighbourhood Teams: There is general recognition that Safer Neighbourhood Teams are critical in delivering services to the communities. They have helped to enhance the visibility of the service and encouraged a spirit of engagement at the local level. There is recognition that the Police cannot work in isolation and that the goals can only be achieved through strong community partnerships.
Lead Role (External Partnerships): The Constabulary takes the lead in addressing a number of local partnership issues by working with other agencies. There is an understanding and empathy of the differing needs of the partners; the joint problem solving approach is applied in many aspects of work. Overall, working with external partners is a well-established way of delivering services in the Constabulary.
4.6 Partnerships: Areas for Improvement
Silo Working: There is lack of co-operation between various departments with a tendency to work in an insular manner. There is a perception that this may get in the way of sustaining a ‘one organisation’ ethos.
Better PR: The findings of the study indicate thatthe Constabulary could do more to keep the public informed about changes. Also, successes could be celebrated in a more corporate manner.
5.0 Actions for Change
A detailed document setting out the actions for change has already been submitted to the Constabu8lary. The following sections provide a brief synopsis of the key actions for change to be implemented in the immediate and medium terms.
5.1 Communicate Findings of the Cultural Survey/Review Communication Processes
This would entail agreeing an overall strategy for communicating the findings of the cultural survey and developing a plan to disseminate the findings at all levels in the organisation. It is vital for senior and middle managers to take ownership of the results and to be involved in the communication process.
5.2 Enhance Communication Processes
The findings of the culture survey indicate that the communication processes with the senior managers are unclear resulting in dilution of messages within the chain of command. It would be useful to review the current strategies with a view to recognising and addressing factors that get in the way of authentic/effective communications at all levels in the Constabulary.
5.3 Leadership
As mentioned in the main body of the report, setting up regular leadership forums will help to enhance the visibility of senior leaders. This needs to be at a less formal level. Furthermore, the Constabulary could consider conducting open houses to exchange information/key issues.
Frontline leadership development will be critical to sustaining a CF culture in the Constabulary. The following points outline the key areas to be considered:
- Develop leadership standards and leadership development framework around the key clusters of leadership behaviours that are reflective of CF principles
- Take into account work that has already been carried out in the past
- Roll out the agreed leadership behaviours
- Design a 360 instrument around these behaviours
- Design and deliver a Development Centre* around the CF principles and leadership behaviours
- Develop a clear PDP format
- Frontline and senior leaders to have a well crafted personal development plans in the next 12-18 months
- Frontline and senior leaders to have clarity of learning and development actions/strategies with dates and deadlines
- Monitor/review outcomes to identify the changes that take place as a consequence of the development journey
- Tailored leadership development workshops
In view of the above it is critical to review the performance appraisal process - objectives and overall ratings need to be a combination of ‘results’ achieved and ‘how’ they were achieved.
5.4 Identify CF Hallmarks, Related Behavioursand CF Measures:
The findings of the study identified the need for clear definition of CF. It would be advisable to develop explicit hallmarks of CF with examples of aligned behaviours that are reflective of the context of the Constabulary. In our experience high performing organisations ensure that people are able to strike a balance between achieving results and delivering quality of service by demonstrating appropriate values/principles/behaviours linked to individual PDRs. There is an expectation for specific CF measures; in view of the changing national imperatives, it would be helpful to clarify the current state and whether it is feasible to develop explicit CF measures.
5.5 HR
People management and development practices would be critical in order to reinforce the desired culture of DerbyshireConstabulary. The role and positioning of Human Resources would need to be aligned with the suggested changes. A review of the current HR practices and the extent to which they support the desired culture would need to be carried out. This would set the backdrop for an overarching HR strategy for implementing other HR processes such as the CF framework based on the leadership framework for all levels of staff (see Sections on Leadership, Learning & Development and CF measures), a Talent Management Strategy and Performance Management system.
Talent Management: In order to identify talent we would recommend applying a development centre approach based on the key behaviours identified as reflective of high performance (CF behaviours). The investment of time and resources to design and deliver development centres can be relatively high; however, the robustness of this methodology tends to justify the cost.