On the importance of a procedurally fair organizational climate for openness to change in law enforcement.

Abstract

Drawing on recent work in policing and organizational psychology, we examined factors related to openness to organizational change and to adopting evidence-based interview techniques among law enforcement investigators. Hypotheses We hypothesized that a procedurally fair organizational climate would predict outcomes tied to organizational change, mediated by organizational identification and perceived legitimacy. We also predicted that procedural justice factors would be stronger predictors than outcome-oriented factors (i.e., rewards and sanctions). Methods Study 1 surveyed law enforcement investigators (N = 711) about their attitudes towards and behaviors within their organization (i.e., perceived procedural fairness of one's organization, identification, legitimacy, compliance, empowerment, and extra-role behavior). Study 2 conceptually extended this survey to interviewers (N = 71) trained in a new, evidence-based interviewing approach adding likelihood of future use of the novel interviewing approach as an outcome. Results In Study 1, the more investigators thought their organization had a procedurally fair climate, the more they identified with the organization and perceived it as legitimate. Framing compliance, empowerment and extra-role behavior as associated with openness to change, we found that legitimacy predicted compliance and tendency toward extra-role behavior (i.e., going "above and beyond"), while level of identification predicted feelings of empowerment and extra-role behavior. Study 2, partially replicated findings from Study 1, and found that motivation to attend the training also predicted likelihood of future use. Conclusions These studies highlight the value of a procedurally just organizational climate framework in understanding law enforcement interrogators' propensity towards implementing new evidence-based interrogation techniques.

Community-based participatory research with police: Development of a tech-enhanced structured suicide risk assessment and communication smartphone application.

“…The present study describes a collaborative CBPR (e.g., Hacker, 2013) effort to (a) define and understand the underlying problems in police diversion of individuals with suicide risk to treatment instead of incarceration and (b) identify key elements to consider when leveraging digital technology and culturally responsive assessments to enhance that diversion. The results from our focus groups underscored the importance of this approach, in that they highlighted mutual gaps in knowledge and expertise among both the mental health and police contributors, and supported the notion that this process enhances critical factors, such as perceived respect and fairness, that may impact police officer adoption (Brimbal et al, 2020, 2021). The identification of the underlying problem and the formative implications of the feedback for app development, discussed in detail below, each emphasize the critical nature of our collaboration.…”

“…Much is made in the CBPR literature about the importance of perceived co-ownership in any potential change to practice. Indeed, asking officers to help in initial development of the current smartphone app may have contributed to officers’ sense of dignity and respect, contributors to the larger concept of procedural fairness that has been directly linked to law enforcement investigators’ openness to adopt evidence-based interviewing techniques (Brimbal et al, 2020), similar to the suicide risk assessment request made here, and ultimately resulting in positive change (Brimbal et al, 2021).…”

(Re)Organizing legitimacy theory

“…Taken together, this body of work suggests that organizational support has an important influence on how the police do their job, potentially through how officers think about their own ability. Most obviously, officers who are better trained often feel more able to effectively navigate their authority (Davidson, 2014), but this proposition goes a step further to generally argue that officers in 'better'and, especially, more fairorganizational contexts feel more supported in structuring their assertions of power (Brimbal, Bradford, Jackson, Hartwig, & Joseph, 2020). We therefore present the second theoretical proposition of legitimacy as follows:…”

The moderating effect of communication on congruence and incongruence of openness to change: is communication always beneficial for learning organization culture and knowledge sharing?

“…The following variables can be included in future research to elaborate the results of this study: transformational leadership (Yue et al , 2019; Jeong et al , 2016), work engagement (Chai et al , 2020; Jeong et al , 2016) and fair organizational climate (Brimbal et al , 2020). Transformational leadership is the most influential factor on individual attitudes (openness to change) and behaviors (knowledge sharing), as well as organizational culture and system (learning organization) in the process of organizational change.…”