The Transition From Bureaucracy To Performance Management In Law Enforcement Agencies

This paper aims to show an elaborated management system that helps law enforcement managers to improve performance through an ongoing process of establishing desired outcomes, building performance standards, then collecting, analyzing and reporting on streams of data to improve individual and collective performance. Leaving behind the traditional bureaucratic approach we look forward to draw a performance management model, which is more rational than the traditional command-control model and may increase consistency in police management. Law enforcement agencies should implement a variety of important organizational changes. These changes are supposed to occur in different substantive domains, including the culture, behavior, and structure of police organizations. The paper presents a literature review, which identifies that the bureaucratic model of policing may no longer be functional for policing post-modern society and inconsistent with modern governance principles. A more democratic heteronomous model of leading law enforcement agencies, where management determines the broad philosophical principles and co-ordination of tasks while the practitioner makes localized decisions, may improve organizational effectiveness. The implementation of the principles espoused in this paper may improve the legitimacy of law enforcement agencies in heavily fragmented societies, reduce deviant behavior by police officers while increasing job satisfaction, support restorative justice issues for victims, and assist the maintenance of public order.