Topic: Diversity
Publication: Human Resource Management
Article:
Making public organizations more inclusive: A case
study of the Victoria Police Force.
Blogger: Rob Stilson
In this study, the authors address change strategies
implemented in the Victoria Police Force (VPF) of Australia to move the VFP
from being somewhat of a good ole’ boys club to being more inclusive of women
and minorities. The VPF had what
is known as a male hegemonic culture, which research has shown to have be a
barrier to inclusiveness (unless you can chug the beer, put your head on the
bat, spin around, and make it to first base without tripping). And the fact
that the VPF is a public rather than private sector organization made the
change that much more of a challenge since change can be harder to implement in
these organizations unless there is significant pressure from outside forces
like the public as was the case with this change.
So, the way this organizational change went down is that the
former Chief Commissioner retired in 2001 and the government appointed a woman
to the position for the first time in history. Christine Nixon hit the ground
running and included everyone in the change process. The main goals for the VPF
included attracting more women and minorities. Up to this point she has been
successful in doing so with the percentage of women going from 14% to 16% and a
goal of 25% by the end of 2007 (I don’t have that data). Statistics were not
given for the percentage of minorities currently in the police force.
Lessons learned from this case study include:
·
Change
the culture of the organization first with an emphasis on behavioral
change.
o Modified vision statements
o Clearly and simply stated how things were
going to be done from now on with 6 core values (see article)
·
Combine
top-down and bottom-up approaches to change. This allows simultaneous input
from all levels. However, to pull this off you need to have a really strong and
clear vision and not just fly by the seat of your pants.
·
Using an
incremental change strategy allowed changes later in the process to build upon
changes that had already been implemented.
As the authors point out, these lessons learned are
associated with what you think of for a traditional change model, however, the
way the changes were introduced was not found in the literature. The big take
home message is that the only way these drastic changes were possible was due
to support at the top. Without support from the higher ups, the organizational
change is doomed to fail.
Metz, I., and Kulik, C. T., (2008) Making public organizations more
inclusive: A case study of the Victoria Police Force. Human Resource Management, 47(2), 369-387.
