As an administrator in your probation office, you have long been supportive of y
ID: 397296 • Letter: A
Question
As an administrator in your probation office, you have long been supportive of your subordinates and appreciate their hard work. Lately, however, the effects of budget cutbacks have taken a serious toll on your organization, with no new hiring occurring and positions being frozen when someone retires or resigns. Your officers have sent you a letter stating that they are very upset with the work environment now that there are too fewer employees, resulting in their having to be on-call for prolonged amounts of time, caseloads being extremely high, their paperwork being excessive, and their home visits with clients now seemingly more dangerous---particularly when someone's probation is revoked and he or she must be arrested and taken to jail. Clearly they perceive that the workplace is unsafe and their morale is low. How will you attempt to address their concerns?
Explanation / Answer
Management of staff and manpower within a probation office is no different from human resource management with any other Global organisations which constantly face minimal staffing with excessive workload due to introduction of lean practices. The essence of probation is to ensure that the professional is moving towards a more productive life of a better quality which facilitates improved decision making with the ability to implement ethical values within decisions and actions. Until and unless every individual involved within the task of probation has the required qualities and abilities for accomplishing this goal the entire process can be sabotaged. Considering that probation officers work under the extreme stress of huge case loads, Limited budgets, insufficient time along with having to maintain a balance with their personal lives, it is all the more important that an environment be created for them to perform the duties optimally achieving the major goal of bringing about the required positive change in the probationers. This requires motivation of the individuals involved with probation facilitating and environment which is positive and providing required training to all staff to ensure optimal performance with achievement of required goals, along with introduction of efficient and effective management through adoption of latest technologies and available management tools to reduce workload through more effective management. The large amount of bureaucratic work in such an organisation can greatly be reduced by adopting Technology for processing of all necessary forms and filings which accounts for a major part of the work. Phone Appointments with probationers can be planned and plotted in a well defined pre-planned timetable, to make sure the jobs are streamlined with each person being provided a clear delegation of work on a weekly basis so as to enable them to better manage their time. Ensuring that the staff and officers dealing with probationers are stress-free, motivated, compassionate and empathetic individuals is essential to obtain desired results.
Provision of training for management of probationers as well as educating them on the specific methods which may be utilised for optimal results through application of motivation and empathy needs to be ensured. Successfully bringing about change within an individual through improvement in their lives is in itself a great motivational factor for probation officers. Therefore, it becomes very important to provide training which improves the success rate as it can have a cascading effect due to the confidence and self worth it provides not only at a professional level but also personal and ethical level as having contributed in a major manner to improvement of society and lives. When the available input resource even if it is staff is minimal it is essential to maximize output in all possible ways. in the given scenario it becomes important to focus on and encourage the entire staff to operate as a team which is cooperative, cohesive and cross-functional. this requires extensive coordination and collaboration along with free flow of communication. Therefore, it is essential that the leadership be dynamic rather than autocratic with adequate room for enabling decision making combined with responsibility and accountability at every level. This results in the staff feeling more important and more responsible towards their duties, as they feel they are important to the department and their contribution matters along with their opinions. This also provides assurance to the staff that in case of their personal safety being threatened they have adquate authority to take all necessary measures to protect themselves without having to provide extensive explanations and ontain permissions in critical situations. An individual with excellent self-worth is able to reflect and replicate the same within others thereby possessing the ability to bring about greater reforms within probationers. An able leader who is enthusiastic and motivated tends to motivate the entire department through exemplary action, by exhibiting all the same qualities which are required within the staff along with implementation of proven, evidence-based practices for the good of the whole department as well as the probationers.
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