Edinburgh Napier University

  This study is about managing change within a police organization in the Caribbean. The study identifies the key human resource practices that influence the organizational climate. The study then validates the components of the organizational climate during periods of change and investigates the organizational leaders’ experiences and perception in fostering an organizational climate conducive to change. The result of the study is a conceptual model that illustrates and identifies the generative and causal mechanisms that influence the organizational climate under which change occurs within police organizations.
The researcher’s underlying philosophical stance is that of a critical realist. The researcher used a mixed method approach complemented by a sequential explanatory design. A psychometric instrument developed by Bouckenooghe Broeck & Devos (2009) was used to evaluate the organizational climate under which change occurs within the organization and the SPSS Factor Analysis was utilized to analyse the data. Analysis of the climate influencing change within the organization under study identifies the following four components: Politicking (POL), General Support by Supervisors (GSS), Trust in Leadership (TIP) and Participatory Management (PM). The researcher explored these climatic components through semi-structured interviews with senior leaders within the police organization to identify the generative and causal mechanisms that regulate and/or influence the overall organizational climate.
The research identifies organizational culture as the generative mechanism and the factors influencing the organizational climate under which change occurs in a police organization, as the causal mechanisms. The relationship between the two is that the generative mechanism (organizational culture), influences and regulates the causal mechanisms during a period of change. The components/factors identified by the study that influences the organization’s climate during a period of change are Cultural Autonomy, Fair Play, Effective Communication and Self-Management. Leaders’ attitude and effective communication were also identified as important contributing factors during a period of change. The resultant synthesis of the study is a proposed conceptual model for managing the organizational climate during the period of change in a police organization. The proposed conceptual model borrows from the humanistic management approach, which place employees at the centre of the change process through dialogue, involvement in decisions and interaction.