Organizational Development in a Law Enforcement Environment
By BARBARA FRENCH, Ph.D., and JERRY STEWART, Ed.D.

Today’s law enforcement organizations engage new organizational practices that Tfocus on empowerment, teamwork, and participative management.1 Experts agree that implementation of these designs in law enforcement environments proves challenging.2 Like many American organizations, law enforcement predominantly still uses old models of bureaucratic design, with power centered at the top, resulting in modest change efforts. The savvy implementation for organizational change remains a primary issue for law enforcement.

Law enforcement organizations that have accepted the challenge of organizational change are prime learning examples for other practitioners. Because learning often is a process of trial and error, the shared experiences of kindred organizations remain extraordinarily powerful learning vehicles. However, police managers must test organizational change models in the context of real organizational experience and practice. This intersection of a theoretical approach and applied practice proves valuable to law enforcement managers by enabling them to take both effective direction and action in their organizational improvement.

THE CHALLENGE

The journey of the Florida Department of Insurance, Treasury and Fire Marshal’s Division of Fraud (DIF) into organizational development implementation serves as a learning ground and model for law enforcement agencies. With its headquarters in Tallahassee and field offices throughout Florida,