Exploring the impact that management scrutiny of quality of

service has on organisational culture and performance.

Submitted for: MA in Managing and Leading People

M45HRM

Coventry University

Faculty of Business, Environment and Society

Coventry Business School

June 2015

Tutor: Mike Winfield

Student ID: 2966089

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Statement of Authorship I certify that this dissertation is my own work and contains no material, which has been

accepted for the award of any degree or diploma in any institute, college or university.

Moreover, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously

published or written by another person, except where due reference is made in the text of

the dissertation. I also understand that under no circumstances should any part of this

dissertation be published, including on the Internet, or publicly displayed without receiving

written permission from the school.

.

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Abstract:

A study was conducted into the impact that locally based quality of service dip samples, had

on performance and culture within a policing environment. The research aimed to examine

the perceptions of those completing the dip samples against those subjected to them and

the impact that this has had. To provide context the study was focussed on front line staff

delivering locally based service.

Using a mixed methods research methodology, consisting of a web-based survey which was

sent to 4,728 staff, analysis of quantitative performance data and information from locally

based organisational service development teams, the study identified how quality

management practices influence performance and the organisational sub-culture within the

organisation.

It was evident from the research that whilst the majority of employees saw benefit in quality

of service checks the rationale behind them had not been sufficiently explained and

perceptions of disparity between organisational values and management scrutiny coupled

with a lack of; corporacy, bilateral communication, feedback and development have all

contributed to a divide between those conducting quality of service checks and those

subjected to them.

The study provides recommendations based of the findings of the research to the senior

leadership of West Midlands Police

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Acknowledgements:

I would like to thank my supervisor, Mike Winfield, for the guidance, encouragement and

advice he has provided throughout my time as his student. I have been extremely lucky to

have a supervisor who cared so much about my work, and who responded to my questions

and queries so promptly. I would also like to thank all the members of staff at Coventry

University who have helped me throughout the duration of this course.

I would like to thank West Midlands Police for providing the opportunity to undertake this

study. Without their catalyst this study and my academic development simply would not

have happened.

I would also like to thank Kevin Davenport for his continued support through, not only this

dissertation, but throughout my entire studies. He has been a constant point of inspiration in

providing a private sector context to my public sector perspectives and being a fantastic

proof reader.

Lastly I would like to thank those people, who have provided a much needed form of escape

from my studies; this enabled me to keep things in perspective – you know who you are!

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TABLE OF CONTENTS:

LIST OF TABLES: ................................................................................................................. 6

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTIONS ......................................................................................... 7

1.1 Research Background and Relevance ........................................................................ 7

1.2 Research Context ....................................................................................................... 8

1.3 Research Objectives .................................................................................................. 9

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................. 10

2.1 Conclusions for Literature Research: ......................................................................... 17

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY .......................................................................................... 19

3.1 Introduction and rationale for proposed methodology; ............................................... 19

3.2 Review of research paradigms: ................................................................................. 21

3.3 Methods .................................................................................................................... 23

3.4 Measures ................................................................................................................... 26

3.5 Combining the measures ........................................................................................... 26

3.6 Population ................................................................................................................. 26

3.7 Sample ...................................................................................................................... 27

3.8 Reliability and Validation ............................................................................................ 27

3.9 Research Limitations and Constraints ....................................................................... 28

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS ................................................................ 29

4.1 Classification questions from web-based survey ........................................................ 29

4.2 Attitudinal questions from web-based survey ............................................................. 32

4.3 Behavioural questions from web-based survey .......................................................... 39

4.4 Signals from Noise data ............................................................................................. 45

4.5 Compliance data ........................................................................................................ 48

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CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION ................................................................................................ 50

CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS .............................................. 56

6.1 Introductions .............................................................................................................. 56

6.2 Findings from the study ............................................................................................. 57

6.3 Recommendations ..................................................................................................... 60

6.4 Recommendations for Future Research .................................................................... 62

REFERENCES: .................................................................................................................. 64

APPENDICES ..................................................................................................................... 74

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LIST OF TABLES:

Table 1: Neiderhoffers model of Police Cynicism (1967) ..................................................................... 13.

Table 2: West Midlands Police establishment breakdown .................. 24Error! Bookmark not defined.

Table 3: Respondents role breakdown ................................................................................................ 28.

Table 4: Respondents rank breakdown ............................................................................................... 30.

Table 5: Respondents rank return rate ................................................................................................ 30.

Table 6: Respondents location breakdown .......................................................................................... 31.

Table 7: Respondents length of service .................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.

Table 8: Respondents thoughts of quality of service (QoS) dip samples ............................................ 33.

Table 9: Respondents thoughts on whether QoS checks impact on satisfaction ................................ 34.

Table 10: Respondents thoughts on caller/victim perceptions of QoS checks ..35Error! Bookmark not

defined.

Table 11: Respondents main priority in role ........................................................................................ 36.

Table 12: What is most important to respondents whilst at work......................................................... 37.

Table 13: What is respondents thoughts on organisational pursuit of satisfaction .............................. 38.

Table 14: Do respondents deal with crime differently to anti-social behaviour (ASB) ......................... 39.

Table 15: Do respondents deal with people differently owing to QoS checks ..................................... 40.

Table 16: Do QoS checks make respondents more likely to adhere to policy .................................... 40.

Table 17: How do QoS checks make respondents feel ....................................................................... 41.

Table 18: Respondents biggest barrier to delivering exellent service ................................................. 42.

Table 19: Respondent breakdown of who has received feedback ...................................................... 43.

Table 20: Impact of feedback on respondents ..................................................................................... 44.

Table 21: Signals from Noise explaination ........................................................................................... 45.

Table 22: Customer satisfaction with service – Crime. Feeling the Difference data ........................... 46.

Table 23: Customer satisfaction with service – ASB. Feeling the Difference data ............................. 46.

Table 24: Customer satisfaction with service – Crime. Birmingham North .......................................... 47.

Table 25: Customer satisfaction with service – ASB. Birmingham North ............................................ 48.

Table 26; QoS Comliance rates of Birmingham north supervisors/managers ..................................... 49.

Table 27: Forcewide customer satisfaction with service - Crime ......................................................... 52.

Table 28: Forcewide customer satisfaction with service - ASB ........................................................... 52.

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTIONS

1.1 Research Background and Relevance

"We all need people who will give us feedback. That's how we improve", (Gates, 2013)

West Midlands Police is a public sector organisation whose mission statement is: ‘Serving

our communities, protecting them from harm’ and the Chief Constable advocates

organisational values which revolve around the public, working together and delivering a

service to be proud of.

West Midlands Police is structured around several centralised departments which are

governed from headquarters. These centralised departments fulfil an organisational wide

function. A widespread change programme in 2010 realigned organisational boundaries to

make them geo-coterminous with local authority constituency’s boundaries which resulted in

ten local Policing units (LPUs). There have been increases in organisational efficiency and

significant financial reductions and this has all been against a backdrop of crime reduction

and increases in customer satisfaction.

Change has been a constant throughout the organisation since 2010 but Rosen et al (2009)

warn that sustained periods of change may increase the possibility of misunderstanding and

dissent between front line staff and management.

This document seeks to explore the perceptions of locally based quality of service checks,

and any impact that their introduction has had, on performance and the organisational

subculture.

Researchers have long discussed how relationships occur in business between quality

management practices and performance and culture, and there is a plethora of literature on

the private sector but little on the public sector or specifically the Police.

Although organisational subcultures are almost intangible one of the goals of this research is

to extend current knowledge within a policing context, Coyle-Shapiro and Kessler (2000)

suggests that the realisation of employee’s expectations is important in achieving

performance objectives.

As a public sector organisation, there are high expectations of the Police to provide a quality

of service and therefore this study has relevance (Soeparman et al 2012)

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1.2 Research Context

In recent years the performance landscape of the Police has changed from liner quantitative

reductions of key performance indicators, set by government, to qualitative increases in

confidence and satisfaction.

As such, the pursuit of confidence and satisfaction has become the forefront of an

organisational drive to change the performance culture.

Whilst performance against linear reduction targets was easy to quantify, the more

subjective and qualitative nature of confidence and satisfaction has proved more

challenging.

West Midlands Police has, for some time, utilised independent companies to conduct

external surveys to gain an understanding of trust and confidence in the Police and to

identify ways to improve satisfaction and service delivery. This survey quantified confidence

and satisfaction into percentages allowing it to be measured and adopted as a performance

indicator.

‘Feeling the Difference’, which was started in April 2005, is West Midlands Police's public

perception survey. The survey is conducted in two waves per year, encompassing 16,800

interviewees broken down to local constituency areas.

Despite obvious weaknesses in the subjectivity of satisfaction for non service users, the data

quickly became a measure of performance within the organisation.

'Contact Counts', which was introduced in 2007, is an internally conducted customer

satisfaction telephone survey program. The survey program comprises two elements; a

random sample of people who have reported a crime to West Midlands Police in the last six

to eight weeks, and a random sample of people who have reported an anti-social

behaviour (ASB) incident to West Midlands Police in the same period.

The telephone interviews, with victims of crime and reporters of ASB, have historically been

conducted internally by the Quality of Service Bureau, a centralised department at

headquarters.

In December 2012 the Quality of Service Bureau devolved responsibility to the local

constituency areas. The concept was that the local constituency areas would be responsible

for scrutiny of its own service delivery.

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In the Birmingham North local policing unit it was decided that the scrutiny would be in the

form of quality of service checks or dip samples. They are allocated by the local

Organisational Service Development team and each supervisor and manager within the

constituency are given Crime report and an ASB log to dip sample each, every month.

This effectively means that every rank from acting Sergeant right up to Chief Superintendant

contacts two service users per month and goes through a series of pre set questions to

establish, levels of satisfaction with service.

There has been numerous studies into the impacts that quality management practices

(QMPs) have on organisational performance in the private sector but there is little on their

affect in the public sector. There is also little in the way of how QMPs impact on

organisational culture.

This study has focused on locally based staff on LPUs to identify specific cultural issues

between those conducting QMP dip samples and those subjected to them and the impact

that they have on performance.

There is anecdotal evidence to suggest that QMPs have changed the perceptions and

culture of some employees, this research will use qualitative web-based survey results and

organisational data sets to provide empirical evidence.

1.3 Research Objectives

There are three main outcomes for this research;

1) Examine quantitative data to establish if management scrutiny is having a positive or

negative impact on organisational performance.

2) Explore whether management scrutiny has influenced organisational sub culture or

positively or negatively impacted on service delivery. This will be done via an online

survey for all ranks; it will explore changes in behaviour based on the scrutiny and

the value that management place on the process.

3) Use the findings of this research to make recommendations to the senior leadership

of West Midlands Police regarding future quality of service scrutiny by management

and the likely impact upon culture and service delivery.

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

Service quality is often conceptualised as the comparison of service expectations with actual

performance perceptions (Zeithaml et al., 1990)

Improving service, satisfaction, performance and efficiency are the ultimate aim of

implementing quality management practices (QMPs) within the West Midlands Police.

Some early research suggests that QMPs' were once heralded as ‘key practices’ that can

achieve superior performance, based on personal experiences of self appointed experts

(Crosby, 1979; Deming, 1986 and Juran and Gryna, 1980).

These were mostly based upon qualitative analysis and the author believes that there are

weaknesses here which revolve around the subjectivity of the authors.

Saraph et al. (1989) made more meticulous attempts to investigate the effects that QMPs

have on performance and it was Powell (1995) who first used statistic methods to verify the

relationship between QMPs and performance. However it was concluded that whilst QMPs

are statistically related to positive performance, the relationship is weak.

There is also a large body of literature which describe service quality strategies. Some of the

more prominent of these are derived from SERVQUAL (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry

1988) and SERVPERF (Cronin and Taylor 1994). These models highlight the significance of

five dimensions of service quality, which are:

1. Reliability - when services are correctly and consistency provided,

2. Responsiveness – timely,

3. Assurance - with competence and commitment,

4. Tangibles – can its impact be measured,

5. Empathy - with concern for the individual,

It is suggested that in the absence of such dimensions, a negative service encounter is

anticipated, along with poor positive affect and low satisfaction.

Research shows that the empathy dimension generates significant differences between

perceptions of positive and negative service (Lee, 2008).

Whilst some of these dimensions may not fit with the Police service or public sector

organisations it supports Rosen and Kirwan (1994) who challenge the perception that

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customers value just reliability over other components. They argue that the empirical

evidence is unconvincing and that the aspects of service most valued by customers are

subjective and depend upon the circumstances.

Filiatrault et al. (1996) also used survey results to relate service productivity and service

quality to profit and customer satisfaction. Again the author believes the subjective nature of

quality and satisfaction may have a damning impact on the data.

Whilst the literature points towards a positive correlation between QMPs and improved

performance the impact of QMPs on excellent business performance is not clear and mixed

(Daniel, 2003)

Several empirical studies have identified commitment of senior management as a key factor,

in achieving quality of service (Ahire, 1996; Saraph et al, 1989; Pun, 2001.) Wombwell

(2014) said that “although leaders should lead from the front, abiding by the values their

organisations had set” the values “should also be supported and recognised throughout an

organisation.”

The participation in QMP within the West Midlands Police by all ranks, from first line

supervisor’s right up to Chief Superintendant, displays the organisational commitment to

quality of service and that the pursuit of this is a top management commitment (Buch and

Rivers, 2002).

There is literature about the adverse affects of management scrutiny, Edel (2012) suggested

that the constant checking up on staff by ‘hovering managers’ can be seen by some as a

representation of organisational insecurities, this in turn could undermine the confidence that

staff have in their managers and the organisation.

Some studies have even shown that QMPs have no effects or even negative effects on

performance, 80% of over a hundred British firms and nearly two‐thirds of five hundred

American firms experienced no gains (The Economist, 1992).

Steare (2014) discovered that a prominent finding of his research was “how far people’s

values changed when they were at work” he elaborated that “most employees were good,

moral people at home …. but as soon as they got into the workplace they came to believe

that doing the right thing was about following orders”

This shift between inherent personal values and adopted professional values could pose

interesting conflict. In a scenario whereby the employee feels the organisations values

undermine their personal values the author believes that this could cause dissent and may

lead to under performance in the workplace, management action and loss of respect for the

organisation. Bilaterally if the employees personal values undermine the organisational

values this could lead to the same outcomes.

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The author believes that ensuring the organisations values and vision are aligned to the

recruitment of staff is vital to ensure employees personal and professional values share

common ground.

Gonzalez (2011) suggests that if a manager is always looking over the shoulder of their staff

then they are doing a poor job. He also states that staff must be trusted to do their job

without someone intrusively managing them and transformational managers should have

confidence in their staff to make independent decisions in a mistake friendly environment.

King (2009) believes less intrusive styles of management may be more likely to be accepted.

It is also suggested that staff should be allowed and empowered to make changes to self

identified areas for development, this demonstrates that management and the organisation

trust employees and could increase motivation and job satisfaction. (Ballinger and

Schoorman, 2007)

Donnelly et al (2006) note that customers of a Police service, such as those having a

peaceful environment in which to live, may be ignorant of the service being delivered.

These passive service users may therefore have disproportionately high expectations from

the Police as they have never has cause to ‘use’ them but may often be dissatisfied with the

reality of service. This in turn could question their perception on the value of the Police.

The cultural link between QMP and service delivery is an interesting topic. It is a broad and

multi faceted. Schein suggests “culture creation and management are the essence of

leadership” (Schein, 2004).

One definition of culture is “the collection of relatively uniform and enduring values, beliefs,

customs, traditions and practices that are shared by an organisation’s members, learned by

new recruits and transmitted from one generation of employees to the next” (Huczynski &

Buchanan, 2007).

Hesketh (2010) suggests that a very strong culture lies within the organisation at all levels

and Police culture has been cited as an organizational influence which impedes reform

(Loftus, 2010)

Deal and Kennedy (1982) suggest that culture is “the way we do things around here”. The

author, based on his own observations, suggests this is fitting of Police Officer with long

service within the Constabulary (for example those with over twenty five years service).

These experienced Officers tend to reinforce past solutions to issues that have allowed the

organisations to survive onto new recruits (Schein, 1990).

Champoux (2010) states that experienced employees are not knowingly aware of the basic

underpinning assumptions that direct the organisation’s behaviours.

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Stage Cynicism Length of Service Perspective

Stage One Pseudo Cynicism New recruits Idealistic, their desire is to help people.

Stage Two Romantic Cynicism First five years These officers are the most vulnerable to cynicism.

Stage Three Aggressive Cynicism Ten year mark Failures and frustrations, resentment, and hostility are obvious and prevalent

Stage Four Resigned Cynicism Approaching retirement Detachment, passiveness, an acceptance of the flaws in the system.

Reiner (2010) has identified the ongoing existence of elements of police culture in modern

day policing and highlighted the challenge that eradicating many aspects of this faces.

Officers feel that embracing this culture is important, in order to be accepted themselves, this

is a paradoxical situation and Foster and Newburn (2003) suggest that hopes for reform in

the police rest on new recruits.

Niederhoffer (1967) defined four stages that may lead to police cynicism, the below table has

been created by the author, based on Niederhoffer:

Table 1: Neiderhoffers model of Police Cynicism (1967)

Another paradox facing Police culture is the way in which new recruits are trained. After an

intensive training programme run centrally, new recruits are allocated locally based coaches

- these are often experienced officers and normally fall within the aggressive cynicism

bracket of Niederhoffers (1967) model. The author also suggests that Niederhoffers’ model

is applicable to multiple organisations, if not all, and is not limited to the Police or the public

sector.

The experienced officers may not be aware of their behaviours or cynicism (Champoux

2010) and the new recruit may accept and assimilate the culture to be accepted. (Foster and

Newburn 2003) Without a wholesale change of the training for new recruits this is unlikely to

change in the near future.

In his inaugural speech, upon being appointed as Chief Constable of the West Midlands

Police, on the 1st June 2009 Chris Simms identified five drivers for change. They were:

Change to the performance culture

An emphasis on trusting the judgement of our people

A stronger approach to partnership

Pursuing organisational change based upon the simplification of mission and

structure

Projecting messages locally and nationally.

The intended aims of the subsequent change programme – programme paragon, were to;

improve trust and confidence with communities, increase quality of service and to move

forward as an organisation.

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The Chief Constable also rebranded and reiterated the Force’s vision statement and values

(see appendix one)

The Policing landscape has evolved significantly since the implementation of programme

Paragon and one of the main reasons for the changes may be the emphasis placed on

neighbourhood policing. This has increased access to service, built capacity with

communities and dissolving some of the barriers between the police and the community

(Dantzker, 2005)

Neighbourhood policing is not without its critics within the organisation. Front line response

personnel still question the value of neighbourhood teams and this cynicism has been linked

to the key themes of; boredom, role ambiguity - the confusion a person experiences related

to the expectations of others (Nelson & Quick, 2006) and the advent of new managerialism

(Hobbs 2008).

The impact that the introduction of neighbourhood policing is challenging to quantify, public

surveys are an easier way to gauge perceptions but according to Dowler and Zawilski

(2007), the “majority of public knowledge about crime and justice is derived from media

consumption”.

With this subjectivity in mind Jackson and Bradford (2009) reported that the perceptions of

low level disorder and anti-social behaviour had a far stronger correlation with public

confidence than fear of becoming a victim crime.

The way the police respond and deal with low level disorder is also an important issue and

studies have linked police visibility with higher levels of confidence (Skogan 2009, Innes and

Innes 2011). These studies however are in contrast to the Peelian Principles (1829) which

state “that the test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, and not the

visible evidence of police action in dealing with them”

Furstenberg and Wellford (1973) found that satisfaction was linked to the police taking time

to explain what they would do, when attending an incident and then making a follow-up call

or visit with victims of crime.

Coupe and Griffiths (1999) studied victims of burglary. They discovered that the

competence, sympathy and courtesy of the first attending officer was most strongly linked

with satisfaction, followed by whether there was any follow up contact or information from the

police.

Tyler and Fagan (2008) and Gau (2010) suggest that satisfactory handling of contact

initiated by members of the public can contribute to improving wider confidence in the police.

Bradford et al. (2009), upon surveying residents of London, found that whether or not officers

appeared to take the matter seriously had the biggest influence on whether a victim was

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satisfied. In all of these examples the impact that the attending officer has on satisfaction

and confidence is positive. It is the attending officer’s empathy, as outlined in the five

dimensions of quality service (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry 1988) which has made a

significant impact.

Whilst the work of officers who display a high emotional intelligence (Goleman 1996) when

dealing with customer led interactions may present an opportunity to increase confidence

and satisfaction it is important to note that another study by Dean (1980) found that crime

victims and persons stopped for traffic violations expressed significantly less satisfaction with

police than those who had called the police for service.

It is also important to note the diversity of communities and the expectations that different

demographic cross sections of the community hold. Reisig and Stroshine Chandek (2001)

explain the notion of expectancy disconfirmation: “citizens with high general confidence are

likely to have higher expectations of the service they will receive, and service that falls short

of these expectations is likely to result in dissatisfaction. “

In modern Policing it is important to understand, who the Police’s customers are. Lusk &

Birks (2014) suggest that this is a very broad term and depending on viewpoint, criminals

could be customers but so could those who call for assistance.

One of Sir Robert Peel’s principles (1829) states that “the police at all times should maintain

a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the

public and the public are the police.”

The author believes that this message has been eroded over time and that modern day

Police officers view their role solely as crime fighters and viewing the public as complainants

or offenders, not consumers of police services (Loftus, 2010)

“Police culture exerts considerable influence over the way officers think about and interact

with their publics” (Loftus, 2010)

Some Police officers may have a negative perception of the area which the work resulting

from their experiences of it. They may also avoid such areas outside of their working hours.

This may be a sign of the fact that officers find it difficult to switch off in their working

environment but also the degree of separation officers feel between themselves and the

communities they police (Twersky-Glasner, 2005).

This is also a paradox as the organisation seeks to recruit individuals who are representative

of the demographic cross sections of the community.

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Literature relating to the sense of isolation from the public emphasises what has been

identified by Loader and Mulcahy (2003) as an increased demand on police officers, along

with increased media and political scrutiny.

Metcalfe and Dick (2000) suggest that commitment to an organisation is shaped by the

extent to which employees feel valued by the organisation. If organisational commitment is

low, staff will be less willing to go the extra mile and be less committed to trying to achieve

the organisational goals and values (Porter et al, 1974).

Reuss-Ianni and Ianni (1983) suggested that the Police culture has clearly defined and

apposing sub cultures rather than one indistinguishable culture. They described these as

‘Street Cop Culture’ and ‘Management Cop Culture’. Whilst both share the overarching aim

of providing safety and security to the community the Street Cop culture is based on values,

tradition and discretion whilst Management Cop Culture is based on; resources, politics,

finance and the attainment of targets.

The paradox is that the Street Cops feel alienated by Management Cop’s use of political

messages and business talk which only increases the division between the two cultures, this

only fuels the “they don’t know what it’s like” mentality and adversely impacts on their feeling

of being valued (Metcalfe and Dick 2000).

Chan (2007) also observed the concern over the cultural impact on behaviour and

performance, in relation to the distinction between ‘Street Cops’ and ‘Management Cops’.

In the pseudo military hierarchy of the Police, Street Cops are at the beck and call of

Management Cops. In the past Management Cops tasked Street Cops with performing

against targets and measured Street Cops in balanced scorecards, league tables and

performance reviews. This may have led to Street Cops waiving some of their discretion to

hit targets, against their own personal values and in detriment to the individual and the

community. Whilst Management Cops believed that this was the right thing to do in the

political climate of the time a retrospective review may show conflict with Sir Robert Peel’s

principles. (1829)

Again this ‘them and us’ mentality is not just limited to the Police or public sector, there is a

large body of literature around the relationship between ‘shop floor and management’ and it

is hard to see how this cultural void can be bridged without a ‘co-operative’ or ‘John Lewis’

model of partnership in place.

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When a member of the community has a negative experience of contact with the Police this

will impact on their trust of, and confidence in the Police. This will have a long lasting affect

which will influence future contact.

These negative encounters will only isolate the Police from the community. Pollock (2008)

concluded that if this is the case, then their loyalty is to other police officers and not to the

community.

The governmental shift from quantitative crime reduction performance targets, to qualitative

increases in satisfaction and confidence, to the abolishment of targets altogether has been a

challenge for both Management Cops and Street Cops. This has been the catalyst for

wholesale change within the organisation and as the goal posts have changed so has the

alignment of Force Values which has put them more in line with that of the Street Cop.

Whilst several studies show that the involvement of Management Cops drives quality of

service (Buch and Rivers, 2002; Ahire, 1996; Saraph et al.,1989; Pun, 2001.) this does

nothing to bridge the cultural gaps between Management Cops and Street Cops. Nor has it

aided the rebuilding of relations damaged by Street Cops in their attempts to attain

Management Cops earlier performance targets.

The introduction of locally based QMPs within West Midlands Police may be more beneficial

to Management Cops. Google’s head of people operations, Laszlo Bock (2015), suggests

that employees need to give their work meaning and “even a small connection to the people

who benefit from your work not only improves productivity, it makes people happier”

If the need for QMPs were explained to Street Cops that this reconnection of Management

Cop to Police customers would be positive for them and Management Cop would “celebrate

the achievements of teams and make a point of cheering failures where important lessons

were learnt” (Brock, 2015) then the author believes there could be a reduction in the sub

cultural divide.

This could form the basis of an empowered work force similar to that described by Wycoff

(2004) and the experimental Police department whereby twelve principles of quality

leadership were introduced to change Policing from the inside out (Appendix Two)

2.1 Conclusions for Literature Research

A summary of the literature reveals a consensus about the part that QMPs play in the

improvement of performance.

Powell (1995) has used statistical analysis to evidence that the relationship between QMPs

and performance whilst Filiatrault et al. (1996) used the results from qualitative surveys to

18

assess the correlation between service productivity and quality to customer satisfaction.

Although Powell (1995) found the relationship to be weak there was still causation between

them, Filiatrault et al. (1996) also saw positive influence of QMPs but the subjective nature of

the qualitative survey data may undermine the ability to draw any conclusive inferences from

them.

Whilst the review shows the impact QMPs to have a positive effect on performance there

appears to be mixed data around whether QMPs can turn positive performance to excellent

performance (Daniel, 2003)

The cultural impact that QMPs, conducted by Management Cops, have on front line staff

however is less positive.

Edel (2012) suggests ‘hovering managers’ have an adverse affect on staff and that it also

displays organisational insecurities, Gonzalez (2011) also says that managers constantly

looking over their employees shoulders can create dissent, undermine the confidence, and

respect, that they have for them.

The perception of QMPs conducted by ‘Management Cops’ could also undermine the

positional respect that their rank holds over ‘Street Cops’, Chief Constable, Chris Simms

(2009) identified one of the drivers for change as “trusting the judgement of our people” and

the Force values state that staff must “do the right thing and deliver a service that our friends

and family would be proud of” so why the need for QMPs?

King (2009) suggest that less intrusive methods of QMPs may be more widely accepted by

Street Cops whilst Ballinger and Schoorman (2007) add that trusting staff to make their own

decisions, as the Force Values and Chief Constable’s drivers for change suggest, could

increase employee satisfaction and improve motivation.

Schwartz and Davis (1981) suggest that, culture may be seen as having been constructed

through past decisions made by Management Cops. There have been several internal staff

surveys conducted over recent years designed to assess the opinions and views of

employees. The results of such surveys are often seen as a cultural barometer however,

any internal surveys have potentially been designed by managers, as such are they really

measuring culture or merely employees’ compliance to the culture that has been created for

them?

19

The distinction between the improvement of service delivery and customer satisfaction

through QMPs by ‘management cops’ and the impact upon the ‘street cops’ delivering front

line service is challenging.

Brock (2015) warned not to confuse development with managing performance. “If you marry

criticism with consequence, if people feel that a miss means that they will be hurt

professionally …. they will argue instead of being open to learning and growing” he suggests

making developmental conversations safe and productive by having them all the time with

your staff and starting with the attitude “how can I help you be more successful?”

The author believes that there is a difference between the organisational or ‘management

cops’ reasons for the introduction of QMPs and the perceptions, by ‘street cops’ of them.

If street cops feel that the QMPs allow management cops to connect with the community

(Brock, 2015) in a way which makes them more appreciative of the work street cops do, then

they may be less cautious and cynical of them. ‘Management Cops’ could also identify

through the QMPs those who excel and “use them as exemplars for others, and also as

teachers”

Communication will ultimately be the medium by which these perceptions are eroded over

time. If ‘management cops’ intentions of QMPs are ethical and in line with the organisations

mission and values, and the ‘street cops’ feel that they have the support of management

cops there is an opportunity that they could drive genuine improvements in public initiated

contact (Tyler and Fagan, 2008 and Gau, 2010) and improve service delivery and customer

satisfaction for the benefit of all.

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction and rationale for proposed methodology

The aim of this section is to outline the rational used in deciding the research concept and

methods to be utilised in this study. The researcher will also provide context around where

the harvested data has come from. This chapter will also provide details of the research

population, sample size and data collection process.

The methodology used in this study was designed to examine further into the understanding

of management scrutiny and the impact on both quality of service and culture amongst front

line staff as discussed by Reuss-Ianni and Ianni (1983) Dow et al. (1999), Powell (1995) and

others.

20

Redman and Mory (1923) define research as a “systematized effort to gain new knowledge”

Rajaseka et al (2013) expand this slightly to a “logical and systematic search for new and

useful information on a particular topic.”

A fundamental component of any meaningful research should be a methodical review of

existing literature of the subject matter (Ellis and Levy 2009). This review will also provide an

educational relevance point, context and validity to the new research. It is also vital to

ensuring a sound base for the project (Levy and Ellis 2006) and the need to know what is

already known cannot be overestimated (Hart 1988)

The author has sought relevant literature from diverse sources, ranging from; academic

journals, newspaper articles, books and websites amongst others over a significant period of

time to ensure research was based upon past works right up to the present day. Each are

correctly referenced in the bibliography.

The literacy review identified a wealth of research into QMPs and the affect that this has on

both performance and culture. The particular focus of this research is around the impact that

locally based QMPs performed by local supervisors, managers and senior managers has on

performance and the culture of front line staff delivering locally based services.

Punch (2010) argues that research on policing should not just concentrate on items which

are ‘policy relevant’ and it should include research that allows external scrutiny.

The range of the survey was limited to locally based staff on LPUs, the researcher wanted to

focus on those staff with geographic responsibilities over its communities rather than

centralised departments who have organisational wide responsibilities.

Guba (1990) and Crotty (1998) suggest that the research process can be characterised

through: epistemology (the theory of knowledge that defines what kind of knowledge is

possible and valid) ontology (What is reality? This theoretical perspective is what grounds

the methodological reasoning and principles) and methodology (the strategy that links the

choice of methods to the desired outcomes)

The aim of this research is to illustrate and understand the impact that QMPs have on

performance and the impact they have on culture.

Disciplines tend to be governed by specific paradigms, such as:

Positivism (experimental testing),

Post positivism (which promotes the use of context with experimentation and

suggests that context free experimental design is insufficient)

21

Critical theory (ideas in relation to an philosophy, it suggests that bias should be

expressed and knowledge is not value free)

Constructivism (each constructs their own reality so there are multiple interpretations.

This is sometimes referred to as interpretivism and can be subjective).

Postpositivists acknowledge that knowledge, theories, background and the values of the

researcher can influence what is observed however positivists believe that the researcher

and the researched matter are independent of each other.

The researcher has a natural tendency to adopt an objectivist perspective on situations

based on the need to justify action based on fact. This however makes the assumption that

there is a reality independent of perspective (Wikgren 2004). This objective viewpoint can

leads to a positivist’s approach where the role of the researcher is to collate these facts and

provide explanations of social phenomena, this is habitually achieved through quantitative

methodologies (Ellis and Levy 2012; Krauss 2005).

Constructivists or Interpretivists take the belief that to understand social phenomena you

need to understand the sense individuals place on any given situation, (Krauss 2005), this

however means that the knowledge of the study is both time and context sensitive.

Interviews and open question surveys tend to sit towards the interpretivism approach as they

collect qualitative data.

There is a third approach which is a hybrid of both called a mixed method. This is where

both quantitative and qualitative methods are used in the same project. It is sometimes

referred to as a triangulation (the use of quantitative research to validate qualitative findings

& vice versa). It can also be utilised as it links theory to practice.

Weisburd & Neyroud (2011) have documented the severance between research and police

practice, and identified that most police practices are not systematically evaluated and that

“we still know too little about what works and under what conditions in policing.” and that the

use of evidence-based practice is not central in the development and implementation of

organisational activities.

Innes (2010) suggests that in times of crisis it is vital to have a greater and more holistic

understanding of policing. Research is described as being able to act as a ‘mirror’ reflecting

the ‘complex realities of policing’ or as a ‘motor’ providing the ‘engine for change and

improvement’.

3.2 Review of research paradigms

A paradigm is a belief system (or theory) that guides the way we do things, or more formally

creates a set of practices. This can be anything from thought patterns to action.

22

A systematic review of the diverse philosophies available is a key component of the research

process as it may broaden the researchers’ perspective on different options available prior to

formalising an approach to research (Holden and Lynch 2004).

Positivists view data, information and the subsequent analysis as being free from subjectivity

of, the researcher or participants. This form of research seems to be the most prevalent in

science, where experimentation can be used to understand natural laws, cause and affect

(Krauss 2005)

Positivism is unsuitable when researching social science subjects, such as behaviours,

culture, relationships as it does not account for emotive responses. Critical theory research

is subjective and therefore value based (Healy and Perry 2000), it also tends to have lengthy

timelines which would negate its validity for use in this research project.

Constructivism believes that there is a reality that individuals experience but that our

interpretation of that reality gives it a meaning and context. This is obviously subjective and

therefore there are many possible interpretations and perspectives. A constructivist

approach may well have been fitting for this piece of research but constructivists tend to

favour a ‘zoomed in’ approach (Kanter 2011) to and can sometimes ignore the objective

reality involved (Chompalov and Popov 2014).

Realism has elements of both positivism and constructivism and acknowledges that there

are multiple perceptions of a single reality. It also accepts that the values of the individual

are related to the perceptions and are not separated from it, as in other paradigms. (Healy

and Perry 2000)

Qualitative and quantitative methodologies are suitable for researching mechanisms that

formulate events (Gollin-Kies 2014) in the critical realism paradigm. Interviews and case

studies are appropriate as are statistical analysis of data from questionnaires (Bloch et al

2013) which make critical realism relevant for many researchers.

There is much literature about the differences between quantitative and qualitative

approaches, the author believes these differences have less to do with the chosen

methodology but more to do with the theoretical approach of the researcher.

Between the years 2000 and 2007 Mazeika et al. (2010) conducted a review of the research

on policing literature. They identified four research typologies: theoretical/discussion

research, descriptive research, correlate research and outcome research. There is obvious

common ground here with critical realism which, in conclusion is the best description of the

researchers philosophical paradigm. The elements of both constructivism and positivism

coupled with the capacity for both qualitative and quantitative methodologies make this a

best fit.

23

In conclusion, the researcher’s philosophical paradigm is best described as critical realism

which, as discussed, contains the elements of positivism and constructivism where a single

reality has multiple perceptions, within this paradigm both qualitative and quantitative

methodologies are appropriate (Gollin-Kies 2014; Krauss 2005)

3.3 Methods

The researcher identified two distinct types of data that was available; direct and indirect,

which are more commonly known as primary and secondary data. Primary data is generally

harvested via direct observation, this makes it purer than secondary data but is often more

challenging to collect. Secondary data is usually easier bit can be less valid owing the

generalisations and approximations.

The researcher believes that the use of both qualitative and quantitative methodologies was

necessary to encompass the different aspects of the impact of QMPs on both performance

and culture. A mixed method approach, as outlined by Johnson et al (2007), will provide

capacity for the quantitative analysis of the impact on performance and qualitative impact on

culture. Different data sets will be utilised to triangulate the results and findings

A number of reasons led to the researcher choosing to harvest primary data using a web-

based survey distributed via an email link. Web-based surveys have the advantage of low

cost and quick distribution. Web-based surveys also provide the ability to transfer responses

directly into a spreadsheet, eliminating handling errors and help prevent survey alteration by

the respondents. (Kehoe & Pitkow, 1996; McCoy & Marks, 2001; Smith, 1997).

The web-based survey would explore the perceptions of QMPs by both those conducting

them and those subjected to them and the cultural impact on them. The arrangement and

content of the questions contained within the survey reflected issues identified through the

literacy review of both QMPs and culture.

West Midlands Police has an establishment of over eleven thousand employees. A survey

of this magnitude would have been unmanageable for the purpose of this research so, in

order to make the survey manageable, the researcher chose to limit the potential

respondents of the survey to those who were locally based on LPUs. The following tables

outlines full time establishment (FTE) posts across the organisation against employment

type and the breakdown of LPU staff against their department.

24

Table 2: West Midlands Police Establishment breakdown

There is literature to suggest that web-based surveys can include: informed consent

information, rating definitions and examples, various scale formats such as Likert and

demographic or classification items (Preece et al, 2002; Witmer et al, 1999). It was also

noted that open-ended questions can be successfully accommodated in web-based surveys

and respondents were more likely to write lengthier and more honest comments than on

postal mail surveys (Bachmann & Elfrink, 1996; Loke & Gilbert, 1995; Kielser & Sproull,

1986; Schaefer & Dillman, 1998)

Despite QMPs being locally delivered the quantitative data available, in terms of satisfaction,

was for the whole organisation. The research therefore wanted to ensure a geographical

spread across the whole organisation to allow for any local anomalies. The researcher

believed that a web based survey, send out via internal emails, would give an adequate

sample across the locally based ranks of; Police Community Support Officer (PCSO), Police

Constable, Sergeant, Inspector, Chief Inspector, Superintendant and Chief Superintendant.

The questionnaire was designed to seek the views of QMPs by those who conduct them and

them who are subjected to them. The researcher was also mindful that the adopted method

design related to the project objectives to ensure the methods had validity. Included in the

survey were; classifications questions, attitudinal questions and behavioural questions.

The researcher also sought to make the questions as clear as possible to negate any

ambiguity and imprecision, despite this being an internal survey the researcher also

designed the questions to avoid the assumption of any prior knowledge on the subject to

avoid any assumptions. The ability of the respondents to recall accurate was also

considered, whether they would know the answer and the use of double questions (Bell

2005)

The researcher used a number of open questions and avoided the use of leading questions,

vague questions were also avoided as was jargon (Denscombe 2014)

Emp Type FTE

Police Officer 7231.8

Police Staff 3109.1

PCSO 690

Grand Total 11030.8

Sergeant Inspector

Birmingham East LPU 451.0 61.0 7.7 46 124 77 66 55 15 6

Birmingham North LPU 262.0 48.0 6.7 32 79 49 28 33 12 4

Birmingham South LPU 357.0 63.0 9.0 30 111 63 54 47 14 4

Birmingham West and Central LPU 633.0 99.0 11.0 73 166 99 123 69 18 6

Coventry LPU 467.0 103.0 7.6 33 130 87 83 54 14 5

Dudley LPU 317.0 52.0 8.0 25 91 58 44 41 12 4

Sandwell LPU 417.0 73.0 7.5 48 115 69 69 50 15 5

Solihull LPU 256.0 35.0 6.8 28 68 51 43 36 12 4

Walsall LPU 374.0 54.0 8.0 28 116 64 60 47 13 4

Wolverhampton LPU 437.0 86.0 11.0 42 123 64 78 50 16 5

Total LPUs 3971.0 674.0 83.3 385 1123 681 648 482 141 47

LPU StaffPCSOOfficer CAPT Response Investigation Neighbourhood Command Team

25

Web-based surveys provide additional format and response control, over their non web-

based counterparts (Preece et al 2001; Stanton, 1998). A good example is the use of radio

buttons which prevent multiple answers when only one is asked for.

Strictly speaking web based surveys should be designed to support multiple platforms and

browsers (Yun & Trumbo, 2000) however this web based survey was built using an online

tool from Bristol Online Surveys, this is the only tool authorised by Coventry University for

use.

The last feature the researcher included was to provide basic feedback and a “thank-you”

acknowledgement of submission was included upon completion of the survey (Smith, 1997).

The researcher felt that although not necessary this would a nice gesture to show thanks for

the respondents’ time in completion of the survey.

A hyperlink was emailed to all; Police Community Support Officers (PCSO), Police

Constables, Sergeants, Inspectors, Chief Inspectors, Superintendants and Chief

Superintendants. The email also contained the consent information and the participant

information so that all recipients were clear that they were not obliged to take part. The

email also clearly stated that this, whilst authorised by West Midlands Police, was not an

official West Midlands Police survey and would form part of a Master’s Degree dissertation.

Prior to any research taking place the research proposal was submitted to both West

Midlands Police academic research team and Coventry University for ethical approval.

The researcher also utilised a piece of analytical software owner by West Midlands Police

called Signals from Noise. This allows the analysis of quantitative ‘Feeling the Difference’

and ‘Contact Counts’ data contained within the Police data warehouse to evidence any

impact on performance that the introductions of QMPs may have had.

The researcher also sought specific data from locally based organisational service

development teams on the compliance of those conducting local QMPs for analysis.

Lastly the literature review was used to collect secondary data, using a methodical analysis

of the existing literature on the impact of QMPs on performance and culture as a base for the

research by understanding what was already known (Levy and Ellis 2006).

The research proposal which included the methodology and methods, including proposed

population and sample sizes were reviewed by Coventry University who subsequently

granted ethical approval.

26

3.4 Measures

A number of measures on the web-based survey were based on a five point Likert scale

(Garland, 1993) these ranged from strongly agree to strongly disagree. All of the web-based

data was handled by an online tool provided by Bristol Online Surveys, which is the

recommended platform of Coventry University. The likert scale however was not suitable for

certain questions where open comments or a singular response was required. The open

comment answers will be compartmentalised by the researcher into similar categories which,

whilst introducing a degree of subjectivity, will allow for much easier analysis of the data.

The quantitative data secured from organisational service development team will be

analysed and triangulated alongside the quantitative ‘Feeling the Difference’ and ‘Contact

Counts’ data to allow an evaluation of any correlation or causations from the data.

Whilst there are limitations to the methods and measures adopted for this piece of research,

the researcher feels that it is the best fit for this particular document.

3.5 Combining the measures

How the measures from the mixed method design correlate is fundamental to determining

the reliability, generality and validity of the findings.

Whilst the mixed methods used has provided significant quantitative and qualitative data

there are a number of limitations such as time available and resources which has potential to

undermine the evaluation.

The resultant analysis and evaluation have identified a number of areas which include;

performance changes based on the introduction of QMPs, management acceptance of

QMPs, front line staff’s understanding of QMPs and the impact that QMPs have on service

delivery.

3.6 Population

The population for this study consists only employees working for West Midlands Police. The

email with the web-based hyperlink was sent to 4,728 Police Officers and Police Community

Support Officers; this is the amount of staff that delivers locally based service to

communities which was the aim of the survey.

3.7 Sample

27

Ensuring that the harvested data is representative of the population subject to the study is an

essential part of any valid research. It is equally as important that the generalised findings

from the sample survey are fed back to the population from which the data was harvested.

Suitability, availability, time and resources are a number of factors which direct sample

sizing. The email invitation to take part in the survey was sent to the aforementioned 4,728

staff and 305 completed surveys were returned - this equates to a return rate of 6.5%.

Whilst this appears to be a low return rate there is contrasting literature on response rates in

web-based surveys. Some have reported return rates as high as 70% (Brennan & Hoek,

1992) and some as low as 0% (Pradhan, 1999).

The subject of the study and characteristics of the sample seem to have significant impacts

on the response rates. For example, a study of job satisfaction among scientists achieved a

37% response rate (Parker, 2001), whereas a large study of the demographic composition of

White House electronic service users only achieved 8% response rates (Boncheck et al,

1996).

When making the comparison between web-based and postal surveys one study found

higher response rates in web-based surveys than in postal surveys (Brennan & Hoek, 1992),

whereas most others have reported the opposite (e.g., Kittleson, 1995; Tse et al., 1995).

Equal response rates between Internet and postal mail surveys have been found in other

surveys (Bachmann, Elfrink, & Vazzana, 1996; Mehta & Sivadas, 1995)

Upon reflection the author believes that response rates could have been improved if

reminders had been sent to all those in receipt of the first email invitation.

3.8 Reliability and Validation

If results are consistent over a period of time and display a reflective and proportionate

representation of the total population being studied and if they can be reproduced using

similar methods, then the results can be said to be reliable. Validity, on the other hand, is

proven by whether or not the answers to the questions, or objectives sought, have been met

(Golafshani 2003).

The researcher has identified a correlation between the literature review, the data from the

organisational service development team, data from the ‘Contacts Counts’ surveys and the

results from the web-based survey. It could be said therefore that given this triangulation

from a number of different data sources that this study has reliability and validity (Healy and

Perry 2000)

28

3.9 Research Limitations and Constraints

It is well recognized in the behavioural sciences that surveys are not perfect vehicles for

collecting data because surveys require subjects to recall past behaviour [Schwarz, 1999].

As ‘everything we encounter and experience is open to multiple interpretations’ (Haynes

2014) there is a degree of subjectivity in the qualitative side of the research methodology.

Zhang [2000] found that Web-based survey respondents had higher self-perceived

Information Technology (IT) literacy. West Midlands Police do not provide specialist IT

training for its staff, there is an expectation that new recruits have a level of IT literacy

however more experienced staff may not have the level of IT confidence to complete the

survey. Yun & Trumbo (2000) also found that those who return web-based surveys tended

to have high connectedness with their career.

Time constraints have limited the researchers’ population solely to the West Midlands Police;

this may limit the validity of the findings and the relevance of the results to other Police

Forces and public sector organisations. Time constraints and survey saturation amongst

West Midlands Police employees subject to an invitation may have also impacted on their

ability or willingness to complete the survey.

The respondent’s perceptions of the efficacy of the survey to actual make positive change

may have been a barrier to completion and the researcher’s population size and return rate

may limit the validity of the responses. There was also no capacity to prevent multiple

submissions which is central to ensuring the authenticity of data (Yun & Trumbo, 2000)

The researchers’ subjectivity may have influenced the compartmentalising of the qualitative

results from the open question sections of the web-based survey. Whilst the open

comments are a direct lift from surveys the quantification of these categories may not be as

authentic as they could be.

Schein (2009) elaborates on the subjectiveness of surveys, he believes that culture cannot

be measured use of them alone as it may only measure the ‘superficial characteristics of the

culture’.

Retrospectively the researcher feels that the mixed methodology was the correct decision,

as Watt (1997) suggests “….if you haven’t done internet survey research – you will” however

the research would consider a more tailored population and sample size.

Whilst email response is faster than postal survey responses (Sheehan and McMillian, 1999)

it may have been beneficial to provide less IT literate respondents with the opportunity to

29

complete a hard copy. This may have had unintended consequences and impacted on the

data input but would have provided a more holistic platform for potential respondents.

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS

An email containing a hyperlink to the web-based survey was sent to 4,728 Police Officers

and Police Community Support Officers via West Midlands Polices secure internal email

system. The email also contained the participant information sheet and consent form for

potential respondents to ensure compliance with the ethical research standards of Coventry

University. These individuals were those who met the population definition as outlined in the

methodology sector. The survey was launched on 10th April 2015 and closed on 10th May

2015. Overall 305 responses were received which equates to an overall return rate of 6.5%.

Throughout respondents were anonymous to the researcher and no personal information

was collected.

4.1 Classification questions from web-based survey

The first section of the survey was designed to provide classification data of respondents.

This was important to differentiate between; ranks, roles, length of service and to ensure that

there was a proportionate geographic spread to measure the validity from an organisational

perspective.

The first question asked respondents what their role was. This was a simple question with

strict response control which prevents multiple answers being selected. (Preece et al 2001;

Stanton, 1998)

Table 3: Respondent role breakdown

This question revealed that the majority of respondents (35.7%) were from neighbourhood

teams followed by response teams and investigations teams who were similar with 27.9%

and 26.2% respectively. CAPT (Community Action and Priority Team) and command team

respondents were considerably lower with 5.6% and 4.6% respectively.

30

The second question asked respondents what their rank was, again this was to provide

context for the later discussion.

Table 4: Respondent rank breakdown

The overwhelming majority of respondents (60%) were Police Constables. Sergeants made

up 20% of respondents, 9.8% were PCSOs, 7.2% were Inspectors and 3% were Chief

Inspector or above.

The researcher then wanted to explore any disparities between ranks of those who were in

receipt of the email against those who completed the survey; this would effectively provide a

return rate per rank.

Table 5: Respondent rank return rates.

Interestingly 29.8% of Command team members completed the survey, 15.6% of Inspectors,

12.7% of Sergeants and then 4.6% and 4.5% respectively for Police Constables and

PCSOs.

4.5% 4.6%

12.7%

15.6%

29.8%

Return rates per rank

PCSO Constable Sergeant Inspector Command Team

31

The discussion will explore any potential inference which can be drawn from these return

rates in comparison to established literature (Brennan & Hoek,1992; Boncheck et al, 1996;

Kittleson, 1995; Parker, 2001; Pradhan, 1999; Tse et al, 1995).

The next question was again a simple choice (Preece et al 2001; Stanton, 1998) and

referred to the geographic location where the respondent works. Whilst each geographic

LPU has a different establishment in terms of employee posts there does appear to be a

proportionate response across the organisation.

Table 6: Respondent location breakdown

Birmingham West & Central LPU for example has a much large establishment than say

Solihull LPU so there is little surprise that there they have a greater representation in the

survey. Whilst the establishment variances will negate any statistical inference being drawn,

these results do show that the research has validity from a pan-organisational perspective.

A limitation of this data is the inclusion of the ‘other’ category which 9.2% of respondents

selected. This could either be to create further anonymity for the respondent or it could be

that non-locally based respondents have completed the survey. If the latter is the case then

the data collected will be distorted as the objectives of this study is aimed at locally based

staff.

The next question sought to establish respondents’ length of service. This was an open

question where respondents could answer in free text. This presented a challenge when it

came to analysing the data as the researcher had to compartmentalise the qualitative open

comments into a quantitative format that could be statistically represented. This researcher

noted that this potentially introduced a degree of subjectivity in the results. The researcher

was interested to establish where respondents fitted in Niederhoffers (1967) model of police

32

cynicism and how this may affect the attitudinal and behavioural questions later in the

survey.

Table 7: Respondent length of service

The results showed that the majority of respondents (37%) had between ten and fifteen

years service, 21% had between six and nine years service, 38% had over sixteen years

service and probably unsurprisingly, owing to the freeze on Police recruitment over the last

few years, only 4% of respondents had less than five years service.

4.2 Attitudinal questions from web-based survey

The attitudinal section of the survey was designed with the use of open questions and

allowed the respondents to enter free text, this would allow the researcher to elicit lengthier

and more honest answers (Bachmann & Elfrink, 1996; Kielser & Sproull, 1986; Loke &

Gilbert, 1995; Schaefer & Dillman, 1998).

The first attitudinal question was “what do you think of quality of service dip samples?” when

posing this question the researcher was mindful of the terminology and use of jargon. It was

believed that dip sample would be more universally understood than quality management

practices (Denscombe 2014)

4%

21%

37%

19%

11%

8%

Length of Service (Years)

0 - 5 6 - 9 10 - 15 16-20 21-25 26 +

33

The free text responses again had to be compartmentalised by the researcher into a

qualitative format that could be statistically represented. The researcher did this by grouping

similar responses together and then deciding on a header which was representative of the

comments in the group. Whilst again this potentially introduced a degree of subjectivity in

the results the author decided that this could be minimised by including the generalised

quantitative results alongside some qualitative open comments. Owing to the anonymous

nature of the surveys the researcher has not included the participant numbers in the open

comments, these are available via the researchers online BOS (Bristol online survey) web

portal which is available at https://www.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/

Table 8: Respondents thoughts on quality of service dip samples

22% of respondents said that they had never heard of the quality of service dip samples.

25% of respondents said that the dip samples were a waste of time, some of the open

comments elaborate:

22%

25%

7% 6%

17%

4%

19%

What do you think of quality of service dip samples?

Never Heard of it Waste of time Unethical in method

Do not get the time Could be good if done correctly Good but time consuming

Valuable

“It is a complete waste of time and resources. In my opinion it is like being back at school and being checked on.

I also think it sends out the wrong message to members of the public because it appears that we cannot be

trusted”

“I think when officers are rarely able to take food breaks due to shortage of staff and we have officers spending

time doing dip samples something is very wrong”

“Supervision should be conducting more constructive tasks. It feels the trust has been lost for officers to provide

a professional service”

34

19% of respondents said the quality of service dip samples were valuable:

7% of respondents suggest the dip samples are unethical in their methods;

17% of respondents suggest that the dip samples could be good if done correctly:

The second attitudinal question was to assess the respondent’s perception of quality of

service checks. The question was ‘do quality of service checks impact on satisfaction?’

A Likert scale (Garland 1993) coupled with a single choice option (Preece et al 2001;

Stanton, 1998) revealed that:

Table 9: Respondents thoughts on whether quality of service checks impact on satisfaction

The majority of respondents (43%) neither agreed or disagreed that QMPs impact on

satisfaction. Retrospectively the researcher believes the inclusion of this category may have

presented an easy option those taking the survey and would consider other options if

undertaking similar research in the future. The researcher also feels that the question would

have had more relevance if it had included the word ‘positively’ making the question - ‘do

quality of service checks positively impact on satisfaction?’

“Excellent way for the police to ensure that they are providing the right service. It keeps the local supervisors in

touch with what their staff are doing”

“It shouldn't need to be done. Staff should be trusted to do the job, however quality checks is a standard

business process that almost all organisations have”

“Of limited value. They are an indicator of perception more than reality”

“A show of a lack of support/trust from an already distanced and disinterested management”

“Time consuming and paying lip service to it. The data set given is not large enough to reliably give the

correct information on satisfaction”

“A higher than average number of dip samples has not had a positive impact on satisfaction levels - therefore

dip samples are a disproportionate diversion of resource from mainstream duties”

35

31.1% of people either agreed or strongly agreed that quality of service checks impact on

satisfaction whilst 25.9% of people disagreed or strongly disagreed with the question. It is

however difficult to comment on whether respondents believed this would be a positive or

negative impact owing to the ambiguity in the question.

The intention of the next attitudinal question was to gain an understanding of what value the

respondents perceived that callers/victims had of the QMPs.

The question posed was “what do you think the callers/victims feel about the quality of

service dip samples?”

Table 10: Respondents thoughts on caller/victim perceptions of quality of service checks.

The majority of respondents (28%) thought that victims/callers would be happy and

reassured that quality of service is being taken seriously.

11% 5%

15%

13%

12%

11%

28%

5%

I have no idea They have no knowledge Fed up with the amount of calls Wonder why? Checking up on staff Got nothing better to do! Happy and reassured that quality of service is beign taken seriously

“I think generally that people like these and feel that the police are actively trying to improve, however if the caller

has not received the answer they want they will not provide good feedback, despite officers doing their job

correctly.”

“That it is a continuation of the professionalism of service and provides reassurance, often giving them an

opening to give feedback after perhaps reflecting on how a matter was handled.”

36

13% of respondents imagined that the victims/callers would wonder why they are being

called:

12% of respondents that victims/callers would believe that those conducting the checks were

checking up on staff:

The next attitudinal question was “in your role what do you feel your main priority is?” this

was designed to assess any discrepancies between the organisational mission statement

and those of the employees.

Table 11: Respondents main priority in role.

The majority of respondents (21%) said that providing a good service was their main priority,

18% said that the public or the community was their main priority. What is seen as the core

responsibilities of; responding to 999 calls, bringing offenders to justice, investigating crime

and protecting vulnerability was the main priority for (a combined) 38% of respondents.

14%

13%

6%

6%

8% 18%

21%

6%

3% 5%

In your role what do you feel your main priority is?

Responding to 999 Calls Investigation of Crime Dealing with bureaucracy

Bringing offenders to justice Management/Supervision The public/community

Providing a good service Protecting vulnerability Self preservation

“I imagine they are rather bemused. They are not customers; they have no choice to take their ‘custom’

elsewhere”

It “puts them on the spot. Sometimes drags up memories of a bad experience”

“They always seem receptive and from my end value contact from a senior officer. I have been challenged

as to "checking up on staff when there is no need unless you think the police do not do a good job....."

“It is my experience that victims are either: a) grateful for the call and highlight good work or that further

work needs to be done; b) confused as to why we are calling them back; or c) just plain annoyed that we

have called them back and taken up even more of their time. I would suggest there is an equal split across

these categories.”

37

Some of the qualitative open comments gave interesting context around the headers chosen

by the researcher.

The next attitudinal question was “what’s most important to you whilst at work?” the

researcher was seeking to understand what personal value respondents held at work

(Steare 2014)

Table 12: What’s most important to respondents whilst at work.

36% of respondents said that the thing which was most important to them whilst at work was

“doing the best that I can” whilst 21% said “being allowed to do my job”.

16% said self preservation and “going home alive” was the most important thing to them

whilst at work whist only 15% said the most important thing was “to feel like I’ve made a

difference.” 11% said that the most important thing to them was having the support from

their supervisor or manager.

36%

16%

1%

11%

21%

15%

What’s most important to you whilst at work?

Doing the best that I can Self Preservation Wages Supportive Supervision/Management Being allowed to do my job To feel like I've made a difference

“Providing the public with good quality policing, based around threat and risk”

“Same as it's always been, protect the public, apprehend offenders, gather evidence and assist in the

prosecution of criminals at court. I don't really care about what Supervision check on their computers; I just

get on with my job. I know I'm professional and so do the people that matter”

“Providing a culture and structure in which policing can be delivered in partnership with statutory and

voluntary stakeholders.”

38

The next attitudinal question posed the questions “what are your thoughts around the

organisational pursuit of satisfaction with service?” this was design to explore respondents

views on the change in performance culture.

Table 13: Respondents thoughts on organisational pursuit of satisfaction.

The majority of respondents (27%) thought that the pursuit of satisfaction with service was

great and the way forward for the organisational.

19% of respondents thought that the organisation should be focussing on getting the basics

right before focussing on quality of service:

20%

11%

9%

19%

9%

27%

5%

What are your thoughts around the organisations pursuit of satisfaction with service?

Waste of time Only doing it as it’s a target Not priority in the current climate Should be focussing on the basics Good idea but too much scruitiny It's great and the way forward Don't know

“We should aim to deliver service that meets clients needs and identify areas of weakness so that

improvements can be made”

“Commendable and needs to be monitored to ensure cuts are not having a greater adverse effect than is

necessary”

“As we are a public service then their satisfaction is paramount regarding the work we do”

“Service satisfaction isn't just about clearing up negative feedback from a poor service, it is also about

recognising good service and how that service has made that person feel”

“fine if we have staff to do it but as earlier mentioned, we are struggling every day to provide the minimum

service required so to have officers spending time and the service spending money on this I don’t think it’s a

priority”

“Confidence and satisfaction help drive police legitimacy and pursuit of excellent service delivery to

improve satisfaction is a laudable aspiration. However, the rub lies in what expectations we set as we can

be in danger of setting ourselves up to fail”

39

20% of respondents feel that it is a waste of time:

11% of respondents feel that it is only being done to hit a target:

4.3 Behavioural questions from web-based survey

The first behavioural question posed a statement to respondents: “I deal with victims of anti-

social behaviour (ASB) different from victims reporting a crime?” and then answers, on a

Likert scale (Garland 1993) coupled with a single choice option (Preece et al 2001; Stanton,

1998) revealed that:

Table 14: Do Respondents deal with crime differently to ASB.

Over two thirds of respondents (67.6%) either disagreed or strongly disagreed with the

statement suggesting that they deal with victims of ASB differently from victims of Crime.

21% said they neither agree or disagree (again an area for development should similar

surveys be done in the future) but interestingly 11.4% agreed or strongly agreed that they

deal with victims of anti-social behaviour differently from victims of crime. In retrospect the

researcher feels like the inclusion of a positive or negative component would have added

“It is typical of many public services trying to make the general public happy with everything that they do. In

my opinion, sometimes you have to do things that the public may not like or agree with, but they are done for

the greater good. It seems like one more case of bureaucracy within the public services.”

“It's important but I feel a lack of staff engagement is impacting service delivery more. If the organisation

engaged with the workforce, treated them less like a collar number and valued them instead, customer

satisfaction would rise”

“Misguided. Oppose to seeking to ACTUALLY achieve a target or outcome, efforts are thrust into SHOWING

and JUSTIFYING that we are trying to achieve an outcome.”

“It is a worthy goal, but current measures are arbitrary - a fall in satisfaction can be indicated by as little as

one or two victims, dependent on survey size each month - for factors that are beyond our control - some

people get a high level of service but simply are dissatisfied with being a victim in the first place.”

40

more value to the question, for example “I place more importance on dealing with victims of

crime over victims of anti-social behaviour?”

The second behavioural question posed another statement which was “knowing that a

supervisor/manager/senior manager may be contacting my victim/caller changes the way in

which I deal with them?” This statement was designed to assess any impact that QMPs may

have on service delivery.

Table 15: Do respondents deal with people differently owing to QMP.

The overwhelming majority of respondents (83.6%) either disagreed or strongly disagreed

with this statement. With only a minority of 4.3% agreeing or strongly agreeing that the

knowledge that a supervisor/manager/senior manager may be contacting my victim/caller

changes the way in which I deal with them.

Building on the second question respondents were provided with the statement “knowing

that a supervisor/manager may be contacting my victim/caller makes me more likely to

adhere to policy?” again this was designed to assess any impact that QMPs may have on

service delivery and a Likert scale (Garland 1993) coupled with a single choice option

(Preece et al 2001; Stanton, 1998) revealed that:

Table 16: Does QMP make respondents more likely to adhere to policy.

Over two thirds (69.8%) either disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement, 23%

neither agreed nor disagreed with the statement and the minority (7.2%) either agreed or

strongly agreed with the statement.

41

The next behavioural question asked the question “How does the knowledge that

supervision/management are taking an interest in quality of service make you feel?” again

Table 17: how do QMP make respondents feel.

Almost a quarter of respondents (24%) stated that they were not worried by the

management scrutiny as they do their best every day.

21% said that they were pleased that quality of service was being taken seriously:

11%

21%

24% 7%

10%

13%

13% 1%

How does the knowledge that supervision/management are taking an interest in quality of service make you feel?

Has no impact on me I'm glad, they should be taking QoS seriously Doesn't worry me as I do my best every day No thought on the matter They are only doing it to his targets Complete waste of time Suspicious and feel untrusted Makes me do a more thorough job

“This does not affect how I deal with people. I believe that I treat the callers the way I would like to be treated.

The only difference is that I ensure that I write up logs/crime numbers more efficiently so that all my actions

are recorded”

“This is good. In my previous role out of this employment there has always been mystery shoppers so again

the service delivered is monitored and that areas that may have not had satisfied customers is reviewed and

training is given to the individual to improve their service that they deliver to the public sector”

“Reassured that the good work of officers is being heard by management. However, also reassuring to know

that those few that perhaps are not providing the public with the standard of service that they should be

receiving will be supported/developed.”

42

13% said that it was a complete waste of time and another 13% were suspicious and felt un-

trusted by those conducting the checks.

10% of respondents said that the checks are only being done to achieve targets:

Only 1% said that it made them do a more thorough job.

The next behavioural question asked respondents “what is the biggest barrier to you

delivering a service to be proud of?”

Table 18: Respondents biggest barrier to delivering excellent service.

27%

7%

16% 4%

9%

3%

4%

17%

7% 4%

2% What is the biggest barrier to you delivering a service to be proud of?

Lack of resources Ineffective supervision/management Lack of time There are no barriers Poor IT/equipment Sheer volume of demand Budget Cuts Bureaucracy

“Fine. WE are in a role that is open to judgment and accountability. I don't believe myself or my team would

do anything intentional to avoid doing the best that they can.”

“Self serving and self justification on the part of individuals far removed from the coal face”

“not concerned, however I would be keen to see where poor service is identified that it be used to progress

staff”

“just the latest fad to distract from actual policing.”

“Because I know that I am open to scrutiny then it influences how I respond to matters”

43

27% of respondents said that lack of resources was the biggest barrier, 17% said

bureaucracy was the biggest barrier, 16% said lack of time whereas 9% said poor IT and

equipment was the biggest barrier. Other respondents said that budget cuts, the sheer level

of demand, ineffective supervision/management were barriers, whilst interestingly 4% said

there were no barriers to prevent delivering a service to be proud of.

The last two behavioural questions were designed to assess whether frontline staff; have

had feedback from a supervisor/manager and if so what impact it had. The first of these

questions simply posed the question “Have you ever had feedback from a

supervisor/manager about an incident you dealt with that was dip sampled?”

Table 19: Respondent breakdown of who has received feedback.

43.9% of respondents said “No” whilst 36.1% said “Yes” the remaining 20% were those who

complete the QMP dip samples.

The last question was a follow on from the previous and asked the question “If Yes to

previous question what impact did this have?” the researcher sought free text from

respondents to allow lengthier and more honest answers (Bachmann & Elfrink, 1996; Kielser

& Sproull, 1986; Loke & Gilbert, 1995; Schaefer & Dillman, 1998) the research hoped that

this would provide detail around the cultural impact that QMPs had upon front line staff.

44

Table 20: Impact of feedback on respondents.

22% said of respondents who received feedback said that it was a negative experience as

the feedback was not constructive, 20% said that it made them feel like they’d done a good

job:

15% said they were very pleased to receive feedback, 11% said that it had no impact, 10%

said it made them feel valued:

10%

15%

20%

11%

9%

7%

22%

2% 4%

What impact did feedback have?

Made me feel valued Very pleased

Made me feel like I'd done a good job None

Happy that my Sgt/Insp aware None but nice to hear as I was just doing my job

Negative experience as not constructive Relief it wasn't bad!

Made me do my job better

“Made me smile :) and it was actually nice someone emailed me to let me know, they actually appreciated

all that I did”

“I have received several positive feedbacks from my work in relation to the DIP samples. This has had a

positive impact and made me feel that my positive approach is reflected in the work that I do and that

people perceive my efforts this way. This is nothing to do with WMP but this is a result in my personal

standards of work and effort”

“Made me feel good that someone actually appreciates the hard work that I have done, you rarely get a

thank you from management for individual jobs or our victims”

and the remainder said that they were happy that their supervisor/manager were aware, no impact but it

was nice to hear as I was just doing my job and only 4% said that it made me do my job better.

“I have had positive and negative feedback I was pleased with the positive and learnt from the negative.”

45

4.4 Signals from Noise Data

Signals from Noise (SFN) is a performance monitoring and improvement software tool which

creates charts based on pre-defined measures or a combination of measures and structure.

These statistical process control (SPC) charts are used by the organisational service

development (OSD) team to monitor various aspects of organisational performance over

time. They are also used to detect opportunities to learn and identify areas of leverage.

A 'process' such as monthly crime is monitored over time and numbers of crimes plotted on

a line chart. Upper and lower control limits and the average are calculated from the data.

Table 21: Signals from Noise explanation

SPC charts allow the distinction to be made between naturally occurring variation in crime

levels (counts or rates that fall or rise within the control limits) and special cause variation,

where something unusual is occurring in a crime area. Special cause is also referred to as

‘significant’.

As a rule 'step changes' from the mean are statistical changes in performance, these are

brought about by eight or more consecutive points below average (as demonstrated on the

chart above)

The researcher started to look at customer satisfaction with service for both crime and anti-

social behaviour (ASB). The researcher chose the whole Force area as the geographic

parameter and chose the time frame as ‘Feeling the difference’ waves since they began, for

crime this was April 2007 and for ASB it was January 2008.

46

Table 22: Customer Satisfaction with service – Crime. Feeling the difference data.

As you can see from the above chart, which shows customer satisfaction with service for

crime, there has been only one breach of the control limits, this was a breach of the lower

control limit in October 2014. There was also a positive step change in performance

between April 2008 and April 2010. Over the time period under review the average

percentage of victims of crime satisfied with service is 85.2%.

Table 23: Customer Satisfaction with service – ASB. Feeling the difference data.

47

The above chart, which shows customer satisfaction with service for ASB, shows there have

been two breaches of the lower control limit in January and July 2008. There was also a

positive step change in performance between January 2011 and June 2014. Over the time

period under review the average percentage of victims of anti-social behaviour satisfied with

service is 75.3%.

Table 24: Customer Satisfaction with service – Crime, Birmingham North LPU.

The above chart is more geographically focussed on customer satisfaction with service for

crime in north Birmingham, there are no breaches of the control limits and there are no step

changes in performance. The average percentage is 88% which is 2.8% higher than the

Force average.

48

Table 25: Customer Satisfaction with service – ASB. Birmingham North LPU.

The above chart is again more geographically focussed on customer satisfaction with

service for ASB in north Birmingham, there is a breach of the upper control limit in April 2015

but there are no step changes in performance. The average percentage is 78% until

February 2012 when there is a step change in performance and the average raises to 79%,

which is 3.7% higher than the Force average.

4.5 Compliance data

The researcher posed a series of questions of the locally based organisational service

development (OSD) at Birmingham north LPU and requested all statistical data that they

held around the compliance of supervisors/managers and senior managers completing the

QMP dip sampling.

Although QMPs for quality of service have been in place since the introduction of Contact

Counts in 2007 locally based dip samples were only started in December 2012, the initial

idea was to give ownership and responsibility for quality of service back to LPUs. Each

month locally based OSDs would allocate each; acting Sergeant, Inspector, Chief Inspector,

Superintendant and Chief Superintendent an ASB log and a crime report to dip sample.

Once completed an online monitoring tool is filled in and submitted, these are collated by the

quality of service team and these are used to provide Contact Counts statistical data which

is turn enables the creation of SPC charts in SFN.

49

The below chart has been calculated following the analysis of all data from Birmingham

north OSD. The researcher compiled the data which provided a list of who had and who had

not completed their monthly dip samples, this was broken down into months. This data

effectively provided compliance rates per month for both ASB and Crime, per rank. This

was over a twelve month period from June 2014 to May 2015.

Table 26: QMP Compliance rates of Birmingham North LPU supervisors/managers.

The overall compliance of Birmingham north supervision/management/senior management

over the last twelve months for quality of service dip samples is 40.6%. This means that the

vast majority of dip samples allocated are not completed.

The researcher then wanted to see if there was any disparity between compliance for Crime

dip samples and ASB dip samples.

The overall compliance rate for Crime is 40.7% and the overall compliance rate for ASB is

37.3%.

The researcher then broke the compliance rate down to the ranks of supervisor (Acting

Sergeant and Sergeant), manager (Inspector) and senior manager (Chief Inspector,

Superintendent and Chief Superintendent)

The overall compliance rate for supervisors was 33.5%

The overall compliance rates for managers was 33.3%

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

Co

mp

lian

ce R

ate

s

Crime

ASB

Overall

50

The overall compliance rates for senior managers was 15%

The researcher also asked Birmingham north LPU OSD a series of questions; these were

sent electronically and below are a summary of the responses:

“Have you had any feedback from the dip samples?”

“Have you noticed an improvement in those completing them?”

“Are the Command team driving this and holding staff to account?”

“Does Birmingham north conduct their dip samples differently to other LPUs?”

CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION

The purpose of this document is ‘exploring the impact that management scrutiny on quality

of service has on organisational culture and performance.’

Specifically it explores the introduction of locally based quality management practices

(QMPs) on local policing units (LPUs) and seeks to identify any correlation or disparity

between the work of established authors such as; Saraph et al. (1989), Powell (1995) and

Filiatrault et al. (1996). The qualitative findings of the combined research of the web based

“They are time consuming and it can be difficult to get hold of the service user (the researcher suggests that this

could be down to ‘Management Cops’ mainly working office hours similar to the majority of service users.) The

online dip sampling tool is not fit for purpose as you have to fill in a variety of questions before you call the

service user and if they are subsequently not in there is no facility to save what you have inputted so you have

to start over every time you try to call. It appears that some supervisors were asking PCs to conduct the dip

samples for them - this is not what it was meant for”

“There is an improvement every time we send emails out saying the Command team are looking at who is

filling them in, this then it drops off until more emails are sent. But now with Police Crime Commissioner

(PCC) Plan focussing so much on satisfaction there is a real drive to ensure compliance. “

“They have at Performance meetings when asked for their support in holding people to account but, there

has been no real action taken to date. However as satisfaction now forms such a large part of our Police

Crime Commissioner (PCC) deliverables there is a real drive and accountability so this should improve”

“It appears that there is little corporacy around how the dip samples are done and it is very much down to

local interpretation. Certain LPU’s give dip samples out to the PCs for peer reviews. As you may imagine

there are mixed feelings about this and most believe it does not give a true reflection”

51

survey, together with the quantitative statistical analysis of organisational data and the

compliance data of those conducting QMPs within West Midlands Police was utilised to

triangulate findings.

The author was keen to ensure that invitations to partake in the web-based survey were

tailored to those delivering locally based, front line services. This would retain context for

respondents whilst maintaining validity in terms of achieving the objectives of this document.

This also ensured that respondents were suitable as a sample of the population for the

purposes of this study (Ellis and Levy 2009)

The introduction of any new QMP is likely to impact on the attitudes or behaviours of

employees whilst at work. (Steare 2014) The results from the web-based survey has

captured these attitudes and behaviours, and should provide clarity on whether the impact

was positive or negative. The data from Force systems coupled with the data secured from

organisational service development (OSD) will provide a basis for analysis to ascertain the

impact that QMPs have had on performance and compliance of those conducting the

checks.

The first objective of this document was to establish if management scrutiny is having a

positive or negative impact on organisational performance. Quality of service QMPs were

introduced by West Midlands Police in April 2007 for Crime and in January 2008 for anti-

social behaviour (ASB). Locally based QMPs were introduced in December 2012.

Signal from Noise (SFN) shows a positive step change in Force performance between April

2008 and April 2010 in relation to customer satisfaction with service - Crime and a positive

step change in performance between January 2011 and June 2014 for customer satisfaction

with service – ASB.

A tighter geographical analysis shows nothing more than natural variance in relation to

customer satisfaction with service – Crime on Birmingham north LPU but there is a step

change in performance in February 2012 for customer satisfaction with service – ASB.

None of these time periods correlate with the introduction of QMPs on LPU. It is therefore

impossible without further research to infer that the introduction of QMPs had made an

impact on performance (in the context of satisfaction with service – Crime or ASB)

52

Table 27: Forcewide Customer Satisfaction with service – Crime

Table 28: Forcewide Customer Satisfaction with service – ASB.

53

The previous two SPC charts do show a generalised trend across the organisation since the

introduction of Contact Counts in 2007; customer satisfaction with service – crime, has fallen

whilst customer satisfaction with service – ASB has risen. This could be for a variety of

reasons and it is difficult to evidence any specific causation.

Whilst this attempt to quantify the impact of locally based QMPs on performance akin to

literature by Saraph et al. (1989) and Powell (1995) has proven inconclusive, the author is

mindful of Dowler and Zawilski’s (2007), suggestion that the “majority of public knowledge

about crime and justice is derived from media consumption.” This could have an

immeasurable impact upon satisfaction with service even amongst service users.

The author does believe however that the tragic Pilkington case in Leicestershire in 2007

and the subsequent Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) report in 2009

brought wholesale changes to the way in which the Police deal with ASB. This broad impact

would have had a positive impact on victims of ASB and their satisfaction with service.

The second objective was to explore whether QMPs has influenced the organisational sub

culture or positively or negatively impacted on service delivery. Schein (2009, p.79) raises

concerns over the subjectiveness of surveys, he believes that culture cannot be measured

by these means alone as it may only measure the ‘superficial characteristics of the culture’.

The qualitative results from the web-based survey revealed that:

When asked if they believed QMP dip samples impact on satisfaction 31.1% of respondents

either agreed or strongly agreed. The majority of respondents (21%) said that providing a

good service was their main priority. 36% of respondents said that the thing which was most

important to them whilst at work was “doing the best that I can” and when asked what

respondents thought of the organisational pursuit of satisfaction, the majority of respondents

(27%) thought that it was great and the way forward for the organisation

37% of respondents had been ten and fifteen years service which equates to the ‘aggressive

cynicism’ according to Niederhoffer’s (1967) model. The experienced officers may not be

aware of their behaviours or cynicism (Champoux 2010) and the impact it has on others.

25.5% of respondents said that quality of service checks did not impact on satisfaction and

were a waste of time.

The majority of respondents (28%) thought that victims/callers would be happy and

reassured that quality of service is being taken seriously

22% of respondents said that they had never heard of the quality of service dip samples, this

goes someway to show that there has been a lack of communication over the QMP dip

54

samples and may explain some of the negative perceptions. This lack of communication is

supported by research by Hillcroft House who found that 72% of employees (in 2012) felt

they were not being communicated to effectively by their direct line manager until their

annual review; this was up on 58% in 2008.

12% of respondents thoughts that victims/callers would believe that those conducting the

checks were checking up on staff similar to the research of Gonzalez (2011) 7% of

respondents suggest the dip samples are unethical in their methods, this was mainly down

to the task being delegated down to PC level which meant that those completing the surveys

were effectively doing peer reviews which made them feel uncomfortable. 11% of

respondents feel that it is only being done to hit a target:

Over two thirds of respondents (67.6%) either disagreed or strongly disagreed with the

statement suggesting that they deal with victims of ASB differently from victims of Crime.

This corroborates the work of Skogan 2009, Innes and Innes 2011 who suggest how the

Police response to low level disorder is a key factor to satisfaction.

21% of respondents said that providing a good service was their main priority, 18% said that

the public or the community was their main priority. What is seen as the core

responsibilities of; responding to 999 calls, bringing offenders to justice, investigating crime

and protecting vulnerability was the main priority for (a combined) 38% of respondents.

This corroborates Loftus (2010) views that modern day Police officers view their role solely

as crime fighters and view the public as complainants or offenders, not consumers of police

services.

The overwhelming majority of respondents (83.6%) either disagreed or strongly disagreed

that knowing that a supervisor/manager/senior manager may be contacting their victim/caller

changes the way in which they deal with them and over two thirds (69.8%) either disagreed

or strongly disagreed more likely to adhere to policy as a result of the QMP.

43.9% of respondents said that they hadn’t had feedback from a supervisor/manager as a

result of a dip sample and 22% of those who did said that it was a negative experience as

the feedback was not constructive, 20% of those who received feedback said that it made

them feel like they’d done a good job

It would appear that the feedback is important, as Bock (2015) suggests, employees need to

give their work meaning and “even a small connection to the people who benefit from your

work not only improves productivity, it makes people happier” this could also help bridge the

disconnect between front line staff and the community (Twersky-Glasner, 2005 and Loader

& Mulcahy (2003)

55

As expected from a pyramid hierarchy the percentages of respondents was representative of

the establishment levels across the ranks with the majority of surveys being completed by

the lower ranks. What was interesting was the proportion of people who were invited to take

part in the survey against those who actually completed it, when broken down by rank.

Almost a third (29.8%) of Command team members completed the survey, 15.6% of

Inspectors, 12.7% of Sergeants and then 4.6% and 4.5% respectively for Police Constables

and PCSOs. This could suggest that the higher echelons place more value on research

and learning about how to improve service delivery which tends to confirm Buch and Rivers

(2002) viewpoint that the pursuit of quality of service is a top management commitment.

Alternatively these results could show that top management have more time on their hands

to complete such surveys or it could be an indication of survey saturation amongst front line

staff.

Whilst the percentages of higher ranks who completed the survey was encouraging and in

line with existing literature the compliance rates of those completing the QMP dip samples

painted a different picture. The overall compliance rate for; supervisors was 33.5%,

managers was 33.3% and senior managers was 15%.

Whilst commitment of senior management was identified as a key factor in achieving quality

of service (Ahire, 1996; Saraph et al., 1989; Pun, 2001.) it appears that compliance rates for

senior managers completing the QMP dip samples is less than half that of the lower

echelons.

Interestingly, whilst the results of web-based survey evidence that over two thirds of

respondents do not deal with victims of crime or ASB differently the compliance rates of

QMP dip sampling shows that the overall compliance rate for Crime is 40.7% and the overall

compliance rate for ASB is 37.3%. This does go some way to suggest that supervisors,

managers and senior managers treat the seriousness of crime and ASB quality of service

differently.

This could be further reinforcement of the contrasting differences between Reuss-Ianni and

Ianni’s (1983) Management Cop vs. Street Cop cultures and as Edel (2012) suggests the

‘hovering managers’, whether they are checking or not, could be seen by some as displaying

organisational insecurities and even undermining the organisations vision and values.

Whilst the qualitative survey questions are subjective and some are almost a self evaluation,

the results indicate that the majority of ‘street cops’ feel that they treat all victims equally and

do the best that they can. In contrast the QMP compliance rate suggests that those

conducting them; do treat victims of ASB and crime differently.

56

Whilst the government has abolished all effective performance measures for the Police the

performance culture is still engrained in certain sections of the Police. These tend to be

more experienced officers who fall within the aggressive or resigned cynics in Niederhoffer’s

(1967) model and as Champoux (2010) observed they may not be consciously aware of their

behaviours. This could result in the emphasis still, albeit subconsciously, being placed on

the old performance indicators which were around Crime and not ASB or satisfaction.

There has been a correlation or sorts between the adopted mixed methods style of research.

The statistical data from the SPC charts and compliance data has provided the quantitative

element and the web-based survey has provided the qualitative context, combined strengths

have outweighed individual weaknesses in the methods (Creswell 2003).

Overall the results have a degree of consistency with the findings of the literature review;

divergences have allowed inferences to be drawn and have provided opportunities for further

studies. Commonality in the literacy review coupled with the methods applied give the

results reliability and by meeting the original objectives of the research means they have

validity (Ellis and Levy 2012)

CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

6.1 Introductions

This section summarises the key outcomes of the studies and provides context for the

research. It also includes the authors recommendations based upon identified areas for

development to those who may have an interest.

The recommendations are primarily based on the authors’ interpretations of the research

and the main themes which have arisen from it.

Lastly the author has made suggestions for future research to build on this document and

explore areas which have been identified as having potential for further exploration.

At the time of writing all UK public sector organisations are being subjected to a

comprehensive spending review by the government. This has led to significant reductions in

public sector budgets and the West Midlands Police has had a reduction of £126 million over

four years (Jones 2013). The establishment has reduced by almost 1,500 Police Officers

and there have been wholesale changes to pay, pensions and even the terms and

conditions of employment. The abolishment of performance targets in 2010 also had a

dramatic impact on the Police, the aftermath of which is still being felt.

57

Police culture has been cited as an organizational influence which impedes reform (Loftus,

2010) which can seem peculiar and intimidating to public sector employees who are

accustomed to working in a particular way (Franco et al 2002)

6.2 Findings from the study

The introduction of locally based QMPs, in the form of quality of service dip samples, has

without doubt had an impact on organisational sub-culture and the relationship between

Reuss-Ianni and Ianni’s (1983) ‘Street Cop’s’ and ‘Management Cop’s’.

The purpose of this study was to understand the cultural impact of QMPs and how they

affected organisational performance.

Key findings from this study included;

Management scrutiny, in whatever format can create an atmosphere of ‘hovering

managers’ checking up on staff. Employees may perceive that this shows a level of

mistrust and without a transparent and comprehensive explanation of the rationale

behind this scrutiny it could cause negative undertones and if left unresolved it could

potentially undermine the organisational mission and values (Appendix One)

The web-based survey corroborated Edel (2012) & Gonzalez (2011) and 26% of

survey respondents said that QMPs were a complete waste of time, they were

suspicious of the rationale behind them and felt un-trusted by those conducting the

checks.

Lack of communication also appears to be prevalent when it comes to feeding back

results of the dip samples from ‘Management Cop’s’ to ‘Street Cop’s’ (Reuss-Ianni

and Ianni’s 1983) The majority of survey respondents (43.9%) have never received

feedback as a result of a QMP dip sample. Whist the Police are historically good at

providing negative feeback they are not known for their positive feedback and of

those who received feedback 22% said that it was a negative experience as it was

not constructive, 20% said that it made them feel like they’d done a good job.

Research suggests that when performance discrepencies are identified individuals

prefer positive feedback indicators that portray them in a positive light and confirm

their own self-preceptions (Aronson et al 2007; Nease et al 2009; Kitaeff 2011) and

feedback providers should balance negative and positive feedback in order to reduce

percieved performance overestimations as much as possible and by bridging the gap

between actual perfromance and perceived performance is the key to gaining

feedback acceptance of those in receipt of it.

58

There appears to be a disparity between the way in which ‘Street Cops’ believe they

deal with victims of ASB and the way in which ‘Management Cops’ deal with victims

of ASB, when compared with victims of Crime. When asked if they treated victims of

ASB differently to victims of crime over two thirds of survey respondents (67.6%)

disagreed. When the rates of those eligible to conduct the dip samples were

compared against those that were actually conducted them it was revealed that the

compliance rate for Crime was 40.7% whilst the compliance rate for ASB was 37.3%.

Whilst the survey was completed by both ‘Street Cops’ and ‘Management Cops’ 60%

of respondents were frontline officers (PC’s or PCSO’s) so this does go some way to

show the value that supervision and management place on the dip sampling of ASB

against Crime. This disparity only increases the division between the two cultures,

and only fuels the “do as I say, not as I do” or “they don’t know what it’s like”

mentality and adversely impacts on their feeling of being valued (Metcalfe and Dick

2000)

There appears to be a real cultural barrier about the way in which officers think about

and interact with their publics (Loftus, 2010) some of the qualitative open comments

from the survey revealed interesting insights which mirrored Loader and Mulcahy’s

(2003) observations around isolation from the community. Some of the West

Midlands Police organisational values are “We put the public first in everything we

do”, “We listen, learn and strive to improve” but the majority of respondents see no

value in gaining feedback from service users and feel it is “a waste of time.” The

survey also corroborates Loftus’ (2010) suggestion that modern day Police officers

view their role solely as crime fighters and view the public as complainants or

offenders, not consumers of police services. Peel (1829) reminds that “the ability of

the police to perform their duties is dependent upon public approval…” and they must

“seek and preserve public favour” The Peelian principles outline the ideas that Sir

Robert Peel developed to define an ethical police force. This begs the question, how

much deviation from the Peelian principles would it take for the Police to become

unethical?

Chief Constable Chris Simms spoke, in his inaugural speech in 2009, of “changing

the performance culture” and “trusting the judgement of our people”. Whilst there

have been organisational changes in performance, which followed governmental

changes in the setting of targets, ‘Management Cops’ still have a legacy of managing

performance and not people. If the Chief Constable doesn't live out the principles

59

advocated, then the organisation shouldn't be surprised by the cynicism which results

from those in stages three and four of Niederhoffer’s (1967) model of police cynicism.

If the advice of Ballinger and Schoorman (2007) is taken and less intrusive QMPs are

introduced and staff are trusted in line with the organisational vision and values there

may be more empowerment for ‘Street Cops; which could increase trust and job

satisfaction and may see the return of true discretion which is the essence that

underpins policing by consent.

The quantitative performance data from SFN reveals no conclusive evidence that the

introduction of locally based QMPs has had any impact on satisfaction. It is

important to note however that performance is calculated by the Quality of Service

team from the cumulative results of the Force led Contacts Counts survey together

with all of the locally based dip samples. Whilst the data set is small and even a

small deviation can impact on the outcome, the results are effectively self generated

and driven in house, this could explain the consistency of Contacts Counts

performance over time (as the organisation is keen to attain improvements)

especially when it is compared to the externally conducted Feeling the Difference

(FTD) survey. Whilst FTD is conducted on non-service users and prone to

subjectivity and influence by the media (Dowler and Zawilski 2007) it does provide a

more impartial measure and is effectively a community perception barometer.

Expectancy disconfirmation, as explained by Reisig and Stroshine Chandek (2001)

could be a real issue and could potentially undermine trust and confidence. A recent

survey by Bain & Co. of 362 companies across a variety of industries, and their

clients, found that 80% of the senior managers interviewed said that they provided a

superior customer experience, but just 8% of their clients agreed (Coffman and Stotz

2007).

The literature review shows that the commitment of senior managers to QMPs plays

a vital role in the improvement of performance (Ahire, 1996; Saraph et al., 1989; Pun,

2001; Wombwell 2014) the return rates of senior managers completing the surveys

was also much higher than any other rank at 30%. This goes someway to show that

senior managers place greater value in improving performance or the understanding

of how to improve performance. The compliance rates of senior managers

conducting the dip samples however painted a different picture, it was less than half

that of more junior ranks. This suggests that whilst senior managers are keen to

promote quality of service they do not appear willing to play an active part. There is

60

also no real accountability for failing to complete the dip samples and no one has

been spoken to for not doing them on the Birmingham north LPU, the author believes

it would be hypocritical of senior managers to hold people to account when they are

not doing them either! As there is neither carrot nor stick (Marciano 2010) there is no

incentive for people to conduct the surveys. In a climate of budget and demand

reductions the survey shows us that most think this is a waste of time. One of the

survey respondents captures the essence of the QMP - “It is only meaningful if it is

visibly supported by senior leaders ...”

6.3 Recommendations

The following recommendations are intended as guidance for the main stakeholders

involved in the governance of locally based QMP dip sampling to improve customer

satisfaction with service within the West Midlands Police.

Front line staff should be educated on the purpose and motives for the management dip

samples. This should be in the form of a bespoke communication strategy clearly outlining

the rationale behind the dip samples, what the content of the conversations will be with

service users, how the results will be utilised and the impact for front line staff. The author

believes that this should be transparent and frontline staff should even be able to see which

dip samples (including reference numbers) have been allocated to which

supervisor/manager. This will help prevent dissent, loss of motivation and will also ensure

staff are aligned to the organisations vision, values and objectives.

Constructive feedback is essential and this should be as important as the dip samples

themselves. Studies have shown that public sector employees place larger emphasis on

non-financial recognition for their actions which can be particularly important in a challenging

fiscal climate (Bhatnagar 2013; Giauque et al 2013). Xu and Thomas (2010) suggest that

staff react positively to supervisors/managers who acknowledge team/individual successes

and give regular constructive feedback. Feedback could also be utilised to link in reward

and recognition schemes and as part of the individuals continuing professional development

(CPD) through existing systems such as annual electronic development reviews (eDR).

The way in which satisfaction is defined and measured needs careful consideration. There

is a difference between a service user who is unsatisfied with the outcome or service they

have received and the Police delivering a poor service. The author does not believe that a

self evaluation of service users provides a balanced measure of organisational performance

61

in terms of satisfaction with service. It also appears that each LPU has slight variations on

how the dip samples are conducted. Historically Police performance statistics have focused

on evidencing organisational effectiveness, normally in the form of linear crime reduction and

detection figures, whilst other components of performance are measured these tend to be

the main focus and their publication is usually for the benefit of external stakeholders

(Sanders 2007; Soeparman et al 2012). To ensure the validity of satisfaction statistics

there needs to be corporacy around how the data is collected and compartmentalised to

negate any subjectivity. Ideally this should be done by an external company to ensure

impartiality.

To provide a more holistic measure of satisfaction the organisation could allow service users

to directly input their feedback online like popular web-based companies; eBay, Expedia,

Trip Advisor & Amazon. This would give a direct correlation between service user and

performance in real time and, as Moore and Braga (2003) suggest if the positive results are

visible and published this will affect employee behaviour and performance. The facility to

self serve would allow service users to complete satisfaction surveys at a time convenient to

them with no pressure of an unexpected phone call placing them ‘on the spot’, if it was easily

accessible and content was optimised for mobile devices this could lead to “a 60% increase

in customer satisfaction” (BearingPoint survey and Forrester interview, July 2011) This

would also be less resource intensive and allow their more effective use elsewhere. Oracle

suggests “companies that invest in ….. web self-service tools achieve higher customer

retention and save millions on support costs.” Whilst self serving has benefits it would

potentially undermine any benefits already explored on the cultural impact on front line staff.

West Midlands Police prides itself as a learning organisation. There is a centralised

Learning and Development (L&D) department which is “committed to supporting force values

by equipping all staff with the skills required to deliver a professional service for the public”

however there is no bespoke satisfaction training, customer service nor quality of service

training. At the time of writing there is nothing in place to allow for the development of staff

where areas for improvement have been identified, through the dip samples. If West

Midlands Police are serious about improving quality of service then staff should be

supported and by promoting the development of staff will lead to positive behaviours which

can also be effective in increasing commitment of employees to the organisation (Maurer &

Lippstreu 2006; López-Andreu & Verd 2013). This could be a mandatory course for all staff

which would show commitment by the organisation to external stakeholders that they are

taking customer and quality of service seriously. This may also help negate any defences, in

the form of ‘I’ve never had any training’ for underperforming staff or those who are subjected

of complaints.

62

Quality of service dip samples should have bilateral accountability. In line with the

recommended expectations on feedback and the transparency of the dip samples the

organisation should consider enabling dialogue between those conducting dip samples and

those subjected to them. If front line staff were empowered and felt responsible (King 2009;

Ballinger and Schoorman, 2007) for doing ‘the right thing and deliver a service that our

friends and family would be proud of’ then maybe employees values wouldn’t change when

they came to work (Steare 2014) If the list of allocated dip samples were published for all to

see it would be valuable if the person subjected to the dip sample were able to contact the

person who performed the dip sample and seek feedback if it is not offered. This would

almost hold supervisors/managers to account for the development of staff and also provide

officers the opportunity for service recovery if they feel that they could have done a better job

at the time. This would drive the feedback loop from both sides whilst improving standards

and performance.

The organisation should consider membership of a professional body such as the Institute of

Customer Service (ICS), this would give access to established best practice and they would

join the array of existing member organisations which include most UK councils, several

NHS Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) and a substantial number of private sector, third sector

and voluntary organisations. This would allow employees to received bespoke training

through the ICS and demonstrate the organisations commitment to improving customer and

quality of service.

6.4 Recommendations for Future Research

This piece of research has contributed to the existing literature exploring QMPs and their

impact on performance and culture by confirming that QMPs does impact upon

organisational sub cultures within a Policing context.

It has confirmed the similarities in perceptions, attitudes and beliefs of Police employees with

those of other industries and organisations thereby validating the earlier research. It has also

identified disparity between the organisational mission and values and those held by

employees.

Based on the results of the document and the identified limitations of the research, the

author makes the following recommendations for further research:

1) In order to gain a broader understanding of the impact that QMPs has on

performance and culture in a Policing context, a larger study of other Police Forces,

and similar organisations with a more diverse demographic would be beneficial.

63

2) To gain a greater understanding of the advantages that web-based self service could

bring to satisfaction and quality of service within the Police, research should be

conducted to identify best practice across other sectors.

3) Based upon the limitations of this research and the subjective nature of culture, it

may be appropriate to conduct a more holistic and thorough qualitative study to link

with existing literature and gain a fuller understanding of organisational sub-cultures

and the impact on performance within the Police.

4) If West Midlands Police adopt any of the recommendations from this research there

is an opportunity to evaluate the impact that the introduction may have had. The

learning could be shared to provide a better quality of service to our communities.

Word Count 16,324 (minus references, indexes etc)

64

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APPENDICES:

Appendix One

West Midlands Police vision statement is:

‘Serving our communities, protecting them from harm’

West Midlands Police values are:

We put the public first in everything we do

We act with integrity, fairness and humanity

We are one team working together

We listen, learn and strive to improve

We do the right thing and deliver a service that our friends and family would be proud of.

Appendix Two