This chapter discusses problems of communication in criminal justice organizations. It covers the basic theory of communication including encoding, transmitting, receiving and decoding messages. It also discusses additional challenges with communication in organizations, including filters, chain of command, informal communication networks, rules and social structures. The chapter addresses communication roles, developing informal networks, and the impact of technology. It concludes with a thinking point about how an increase in a city's Muslim population may or may not affect police work.

1. C H A P T E R F O U R
PROBLEMS OF
COMMUNICATION
Criminal Justice Organizations:
Administration and Management
Learning Objectives
through
an agency’s chain of command
workplace
information

2. Basic Theory of Communication
–
one individual sending information to another
person who receives it.
o Person A (sender) encodes a message and transmits it through
some medium.
o Person B (receiver) receives the message and decodes it.
o Any interruption of this process diminishes the
communication.
Basic Theory of Communication
o Begins when the sender feels the need to communicate.
o Encoding – the sender translates the message into words or
symbols
o Transmission – the sender conveys the message through a
chosen medium (e.g. e-mail)
o Decoding – the receiver interprets and determines the
meaning of the message

3. between individuals, multiple dyads with groups and
groups external to the organization.
Basic Theory of Communication
o Preconceived ideas
o Denial of contrary information
o Use of personal meanings
o Lack of motivation or interest
o Non-credibility of the source
o Lack of communication skills
o Poor organizational climate
o Use of complex channels
o Communication gap
Basic Theory of Communication
Communication in Organizations

4. individuals is simple, but has a high
potential for failure.
organizations is far
more complex and affected by the:
o Organizational climate,
o Complexity of communication channels,
o Chain of command and hierarchy, and
o Informal social system.
Communication in Organizations
o Filters messages and may be a barrier
o Downward communication – allows executives a clear
path to send information to subordinates
o Horizontal communication – enables members at the
same level to share information, solve problems, and
coordinate activities
Informal communication
o A reaction to cumbersome formal communication channels –
the grapevine.
Communication in Organizations

5. o Exclusionary rules – limit and differentiate information
that can and cannot be used within certain contexts
o Organizational rules are often ‘understood’ and highly
influenced by the hierarchical nature of the organization.
o Content rules – govern standard word usage
o Procedural rules – govern how and when communication
happens
Communication in Organizations
o Social structures that evolve through repeated communication
between individuals and groups.
o Kinship networks – formed more for personal than
professional reasons
l communication
o The oldest and often most powerful form of communication.
o Rely on symbols, posture, inflection and other non-spoken
elements of the message
Communication in Organizations

6. o Information is the substance of communication
o Communication is the process of sharing information
– the rate and complexity of communication
– occurs when the flow of messages
exceeds and individual’s or system’s capacity to
process them. Affected by
o Dependence on the information
o Capacity of the receiver
o Receiver’s desire for the information
Communication in Organizations
o Absolute information – knowledge expressed
in recognized symbolic terms
o Distributed information – knowledge
dispersed
o Forms of information
• Environmental
• Motivational
• Instructional

7. Communication Roles
Criminal Justice Practitioners
members may enter or leave at any time.
nal justice workers may be a members
of multiple networks simultaneously.
through common members.
virtually endless.
Communication Roles
Criminal Justice Practitioners
Communication Roles
Criminal Justice Practitioners
Communication Roles
Criminal Justice Practitioners
Communication Roles
Criminal Justice Practitioners

8. Developing Informal Communication Networks
achieve
greater efficiencies or avoid historical
communication barriers.
– workers trade information and
assistance with other workers in order to gain
efficiencies.
– individuals who serve as conduits
between the groups they are a members of.
Implications
o In criminal justice the public’s right or need to know is
balanced with the necessity of keeping some information
confidential.
-organizational communication
o Hampered by the differential rules and expectations of other
organizations.
-organizational communication
o The need for communication between all levels of the criminal
justice system is more important following recent increases in
terrorism.

9. Communication Technology
facilitate and hamper communication.
information security procedures.
- and videoconferencing enhance
communication but do not replace face to face
interaction.
Ethical Problems
o An understanding of the importance of the
communication process,
o A commitment to create, promote and protect
ethical boundaries for conversation and
information sharing,
o The avoidance of misusing information as a
method of control, and
o The setting of boundaries and rules for
communication.
Thinking Point and Question

10. develop a comprehensive plan for improving inter-
agency communication. Your plan, at a minimum,
should include;
communications resources, and
o improve communications.
police, fire and building permit functions.
Chapter Summary
encoding, transmitting, selecting a medium or channel,
receiving, and decoding
ideas, denial of contrary information, use of personalized
meanings, lack of motivation or interest, non-credibility of
source, lack of communication skills, poor organizati onal
climate, use of complex channels, and communication gap.
downward from superior to subordinate and upward from
subordinate to superior.
Chapter Summary

11. tly with field workers
and vice versa.
for some purpose.
network share information with each other but not with
others who are not included.
individuals communicate face to face.
Chapter Summary
information is the actual message.
and exchange information for information. Information in
these networks is a commodity.
coordinated by interlocking work groups rather than by a
monolithic chain of command.
who are members of more than one group.

12. Thinking Point and Question
apparent lack of communication between agencies
within the city’s government”.
observes a palpable level of inter-agency distrust.
develop stronger lines of communication between
these agencies.
C H A P T E R S I X
JOB DESIGN
Criminal Justice Organizations:
Administration and Management
Learning Objectives
and efficiency to job design
to criminal justice

13. satisfaction, job stress, job burnout and job
design
Learning Objectives
ory
their application to criminal justice
organizations
and the community
relationship to job design
What is Job Design?
of the job including all of its structural
and social aspects and their effect on
the employee” (Hellriegel, Slocum,
and Woodman, 1995).
important concern.

14. What is Job Design?
“psychological job requirements” are
more widely used now.
o Adequate elbow room
o Chances to learn on the job and to keep on
learning
o An optimal level of variety
o A sense that one’s own work is meaningful
o A desirable future
Engineering and Efficiency
of job design were:
o Technological improvements, and
o Efficiency of labor.
processes and attempted to find optimal methods for
getting manual labor done.
motivated solely by wages or leisure.

15. Taylorism in Human Services
design studies.
Scientific Management and focused on increasing
efficiency through work fragmentation.
processes that were dependent on people into
smaller parts in order to increase the overall
efficiency of the process.
Taylorism in Criminal Justice
considerable.
o Police officers’ jobs are often fragmented and assigned to
non-
commissioned employees.
o Increased accountability and bureaucratization may reduce the
professional status of police officers.
o The use of standard classification and electronic monitoring
systems has removed discretion from probation and parole
officers.
o Correctional officer jobs have become highly circumscribed.

16. Responses to Job Characteristics
indicating sharp declines in job satisfaction.
expectations and the reality of criminal justice
employment.
after the initial years of employment but often
returns later in life.
Responses to Job Characteristics
satisfaction appears to be more affected by
o Boredom,
o Excessive demands,
o Role conflict,
o Role ambiguity, and
o A lack of participation in decision making.
stress and burnout than other work related issues.
Job Design Theory

17. quickly revealed that the desire for money
and leisure do not fully explain worker
productivity.
Taylor and focused on social attachments.
o Originated in Maslow’s (1943) Hierarchy of
Needs
o Applied by McGregor (1978)
Job Design Theory
Hertzberg’s (1966) Motivation-Hygiene Theory.
o Workers are motivated only after hygiene needs are met
and sources of intrinsic satisfaction are built into jobs.
o Job design is about motivating employees to meet their higher
order needs.
Hackman and Oldham (1987)
o Increasing certain core job dimensions affects personal and
work outcomes.

18. Job Design Theory
Job Redesign Programs
o Mass production industries have attempted to reduce or
eliminate assembly lines.
o Continuous process industries have attempted to enrich j obs
through autonomous work groups.
o Service industries have attempted to enrich jobs by combining
work from different parts of the job hierarchy.
o Flextime
o Job sharing
o Telecommuting
Job Redesign
Criminal Justice and other Human Services
suggest job redesign may be effective in the human
service industry.
own jobs by self selecting additional tasks.

19. l loading - increasing the responsibilities of
front-line staff
solving responsibilities to front line staff appears to
increase job satisfaction.
Job Redesign
Criminal Justice and other Human Services
work groups found in the private sector.
- and Problem-Oriented Policing
programs seem to increase worker satisfaction
because they provide officers with increased
autonomy and a sense of meaningful contribution.
among community corrections workers.
Job Redesign and the Community
should not be ignored.
th Disabilities Act has a profound affect
on the criminal justice system.
o Physical access to the court system
o Fair treatment of disabled criminal justice employees

20. o Health care benefits
changes.
o A more multicultural workforce
o The Millennial Generation
The “New Criminal Justice”
– responding to crime is no
longer possible in an organizational vacuum (Klofas,
Hipple and McGarrell, 2010)
ore collaborative and involves
community efforts to be effective.
themselves more to
o Different elements of the community, and
o The scholarly and research communities
The “New Criminal Justice”
will require the employment of a more flexible
and highly educated workforce.
strategies for evaluating programs.

21. structurally flexible.
o Use of ad hoc teams to address specific crime problems
o Elimination of highly structured and bureaucratic
organizations
Chapter Summary
job including all of its structural and social aspects and
their effect on the employee.
scientific principles and focused on worker efficiency.
in the division of labor, time motion studies and pay as the
primary motivator of employees.
designed to maximize the control of employees and
enhance efficiency.
Chapter Summary
stress, and elevating job satisfaction among employees.
examination of job enlargement and job enrichment.

22. performance.
mpt to alter jobs such that employees
have more of a say in how hobs are accomplished.
settings and must include community concerns.
Chapter Summary
the systematic
collection of information and collaboration with other
agencies and community groups.
consider changes in a number of ways they do business, in
particular;
o Recruitment
o Training, and
o On-going development activities for employees.
Thinking Point and Question
increase in its population. Most of the new residents
are Muslim and choose to live in Bigton because of
its proximity to a new Mosque and Islamic

23. Community Center.
population might or might not affect the manner in
which the police perform their duties.