2 John Dixon is the recently appointed Chief of Police for a major city in the UK. He has

Question

2 John Dixon is the recently appointed Chief of Police for a major city in the UK. He has inherited a major problem in

that its residents are very concerned with various forms of antisocial behaviour and minor crimes carried out by a

small number of people, which makes living, working, travelling and socialising in the city centre unpleasant rather

than life threatening. The city’s residents have recently voted for it being one of the five worst cities in the UK in which

to live. There is little or no contact between the police and these residents.

The city is split into a number of police districts, each with its own senior officer in charge. Their focus is on the

response to emergency calls and solving serious crimes in their district rather than the less urgent crimes affecting

everyday living in the city. Response times and serious crime solution rates are the traditional measures by which their

performance is measured and leave them open to criticism of simply reacting to events. There is little sense of being

part of a city police force and, consequently, little sharing of information and experience between the different districts.

The failure in policing antisocial behaviour in the city is seen as being largely the result of a shortage of resources.

There are also important internal and external groups varying in their support or resistance to any necessary change

in policing strategy. Key players include the mayor of the city anxious to improve the reputation of the city, the city’s

press, traditionally used to highlighting police failures rather than successes and finally the courts of justice, which

are reluctant to take on the increased workload that any moves towards reducing antisocial behaviour would produce.

John is aware of the complexity of the problem he faces in changing the way the city is policed to improve the quality

of life of its citizens. He has, however, an impressive track record as a change agent in previous appointments and is

confident that he can bring about the necessary change.

Required:

(a) Using change management models where appropriate, provide John with a brief report on the nature of

change needed in the way the city is policed in order to improve the city’s quality of life. (12 marks)

Answer 1

正确答案：
(a) To: John Dixon
From: Change Management consultant
Changes to policing and impact on the city’s quality of life
This is a complex problem involving different stakeholders each of which is looking for different results from the policing
system. The recognition of the need to change is one of the most difficult parts of the change process. There will be
considerable commitment to the current ways of doing things reinforced by the ways in which performance is measured. The
various stakeholders involved will have different perceptions of the problem and the need for change. They will have different
levels of power and influence and different levels of interest in seeing the change happen. Mendelow’s model for mapping
may prove useful in understanding how to handle the expectations of the different groups. The key players would clearly be
the senior officers in charge of the city’s districts who will be responsible for implementing any change in the way the city is
policed. You will have to decide how to convince these officers that a change to the way they currently do things is needed.
One suggestion is that they actually get first-hand experience of the conditions being faced by the city’s residents. Another
group with significant power and interest are the courts because if they refuse to process the cases of antisocial behaviour
then the whole strategy will fail. However, the interest of the mayor and the media in the reputation the city has gained may
be used to counter the reluctance of the courts to take on the extra workload.
One of the most popular models for understanding change and likely resistance to it, is to carry out a forcefield analysis.
Johnson, Scholes and Whittington argue that such an analysis ‘provides an initial view of change problems that need to be
tackled, by identifying forces for and against change’. They ask three key questions:
What aspects of the current situation might aid change in the desired direction, and how might these be reinforced?
What aspects of the current situation would block such a change, and how can these be overcome?
What needs to be introduced or developed to aid change?

Forcefield analysis
Pushing Resisting
Residents’ desire for safer city Police commitment to serious crime
Mayor of city – city’s reputation District focus and not city concern
John Dixon’s desire for change Traditional performance measures
Courts fear of increased workload
Police resources over committed
Forcefield analysis was first developed by Kurt Lewin and linked to his 3-step model of change where to accomplish desired
change it is necessary to get the various stakeholders to recognise the need for change and unfreeze the situation. This will
require you to use some or all of the styles of managing change explained below. One of the real problems is that each
stakeholder will feel that they have an objective view of the situation. Getting a shared view may be very difficult to achieve
and require real leadership on your part.
Once the need to change is agreed there will need to be major changes in the way the city is policed to achieve the desired
goal of eliminating antisocial behaviour and improving the quality-of-life for the city’s residents. Real change will be needed
to the way in which police resources are deployed, the systems used to police on a city rather than on a district basis and
the way results are measured and publicised. There will be a need for ‘quick wins’ to show the potential positive results
achievable with the new strategy.
Finally, rewards and sanctions must be put in place to re-enforce the desired state of affairs and prevent behaviours slipping
back to the previous position. Here you will need to look at how to refreeze the situation and clearly show how the new
position means that the goals of the city and its stakeholders are really shared.
There are many available change models for a programme such as this such as the Gemini 4Rs framework and most will
look to assess the scope of change required and the timeframe. available to achieve it. Undoubtedly, you will require many ofthe skills associated with project management in a major change programme such as this.
Yours,