Scribd
Upload
1K views

Case Study Pushing Paper Can Be Fun

The police captain is struggling to motivate officers to complete paperwork more thoroughly and accurately. Officers dislike paperwork and often rush through it or neglect it. This results in incomplete or incorrect reports that hurt the department's cases in court. The captain has tried competitions and promotions as incentives, but officers see no real reward or payoff for improving their paperwork. The captain remains unsure how to solve the motivation problem.

Uploaded by

Wibisana D Soekarno
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
1K views

Case Study Pushing Paper Can Be Fun

The police captain is struggling to motivate officers to complete paperwork more thoroughly and accurately. Officers dislike paperwork and often rush through it or neglect it. This results in incomplete or incorrect reports that hurt the department's cases in court. The captain has tried competitions and promotions as incentives, but officers see no real reward or payoff for improving their paperwork. The captain remains unsure how to solve the motivation problem.

Uploaded by

Wibisana D Soekarno
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 1

Case Study 2.

2
PUSHI NG PAPER CAN BE FUN
A large city government was putting on a number of seminars for managers of various departments
throughout the city. At one of these sessions the topic discussed was motivationhow to motivate public
servants to do a good job. The plight of a police captain became the central focus of the discussion:
Ive got a real problem with my officers. They come on the force as young, inexperienced
rookies, and we send them out on the street, either in cars or on a beat. They seem to like the
contact they have with the public, the action involved in crime prevention, and the apprehension
of criminals. They also like helping people out at fires, accidents, and other emergencies.
The problem occurs when they get back to the station. They hate to do the paperwork, and
because they dislike it, the job is frequently put off or done inadequately. This lack of attention hurts us
later on when we get to court. We need clear, factual reports. They must be highly detailed and
unambiguous. As soon as one part of a report is shown to be inadequate or incorrect, the rest of the
report is suspect. Poor reporting probably causes us to lose more cases than any other factor.
I just dont know how to motivate them to do a better job. Were in a budget crunch, and I have
absolutely no financial rewards at my disposal. In fact, well probably have to lay some people off in the
near future. Its hard for me to make the job interesting and challenging because it isntits boring,
routine paperwork, and there isnt much you can do about it.
Finally, I cant say to them that their promotions will hinge on the excellence of their paperwork. First of
all, they know its not true. If their performance is adequate, most are more likely to get promoted just
by staying on the force a certain number of years than for some specific outstanding act. Second, they
were trained to do the job they do out in the streets, not to fill out forms. All through their careers the
arrests and interventions are what get noticed.
Some people have suggested a number of things, like using conviction records as a performance
criterion. However, we know thats not fairtoo many other things are involved. Bad paperwork
increases the chance that you lose in court, but good paperwork doesnt necessarily mean youll win. We
tried setting up team competitions based on the excellence of the reports, but the officers caught on to
that pretty quickly. No one was getting any type of reward for winning the competition, and they figured
why should they bust a gut when there was no payoff.
I just dont know what to do.
Discussion Questions
1. What performance problems is the captain trying to correct?
2. Use the MARS model of individual behavior and performance to diagnose the possible causes of
the unacceptable behavior.
3. Has the captain considered all possible solutions to the problem? If not, what else might be
done?
Source: T.R. Mitchell and J .R. Larson J r., People in Organizations, 3r ed.(New York: McGraw-Hill, 1987),
p. 184. Used with permission.

You might also like