In a criminal justice organization, the individual and group behavior SWOT analysis evaluates the internal and external opportunities for the organization to help develop an action plan for new initiatives depending on the attributes of the workforce. Individual behavior involves a person’s response to internal and external stimuli while group behavior entails the course of action a team takes toward an objective. This paper examines the individual and group behaviors in a law enforcement organization.
Key Finds from SWOT Analyses
The strengths of group behaviors as indicated by the SWOT analysis include making decisions with more complete knowledge and information, consideration of diverse viewpoints, and a wider acceptance of solutions. With individual behaviors, time is saved, especially when making decisions. An officer can base their decisions on gut feeling. Threats to group behaviors include groupthink and social loafing. Social loafing involves putting less effort to a task when in a group compared to if one worked alone. In groupthink, the team reaches a consensus without critical analysis (Özilhan Özbey, & Kapusuz, 2020). A weakness of group behaviors is the formation of out-groups and in-groups. The formation of these groups may adversely impact the behaviors of the workers in the law enforcement. Opportunities available for individual and group behaviors involve boost of morale and effectiveness as people choose the behaviors they are suited in. People who are great team players can exercise group behaviors with ease.
Impact of Individual and Group Behaviors
Individual and group behaviors help pinpoint and promote positive behaviors in a criminal justice organization setting. Leaders in the law enforcement organization can use individual and group behaviors to reward and promote such positive behaviors. The behaviors can help identify employees’ response before the organization can initiate change following the predictive capabilities provided by the individual and group behaviors (Luthans, & Doh, 2018). They can also help spur partnerships across criminal justice agencies to manage complexities when delivering local justice. The individual and group behaviors are critical for promoting change and innovation to improve outcomes for the public.
Strategies to Support Individual and Group Ethical Decision Making
Leaders in the criminal justice system can support individual and group ethical decision making by encouraging members to challenge any opposite views when as a team or individually. This could involve discussing the adverse implications of the decisions before they could engage in their positive aspects. It would be important for every member to question their own and others’ judgment due to the problems that law enforcement officers face when making ethical decisions. Another strategy would involve analyzing personal motivations and biases to justify actions and question the abilities to make ethical decisions (Luthans, & Doh, 2018).
Leveraging Individual and Group Behaviors
Leveraging individual and group behaviors would entail pairing important skills to solve issues in the criminal justice system. Members bring their own specialized skills to spur interdependence and synergy to ensure effectiveness at work. Leaders in the criminal justice system can utilize individual and group behaviors to motivate subordinates, predict and control workers’ behaviors, and understand the effects of behavior in the workplace (Cole et al., 2018). The behaviors could be helpful in creating a positive workplace culture, as well as, assessing officers’ responses before any organizational change could be instituted. It is through the individual and group behaviors that leaders in the criminal justice system could understand the impact of a worker’s physical abilities, self-awareness abilities, and intellectual abilities.
Conclusion
An individual and group behavior analysis in a criminal justice organization helps assess how well workers can handle different processes to meet effectiveness targets. A SWOT analysis can help highlight issues about working as a team and working alone in the organization and, thus, ascertain how to allocate duties to officers depending on their capabilities.
References
Cole, G. F., Smith, C. E., & DeJong, C. (2018). The American system of criminal justice. Cengage Learning.
Luthans, F., & Doh, J. P. (2018). International management: Culture, strategy, and behavior. McGraw-Hill.
Özilhan Özbey, D. E., & Kapusuz, A. (2020). Do the strategic innovative organizations reduce social loafing behaviors? Independent Journal of Management & Production, 11(6).
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