Injabulo Manganyi
Student no 13688065
Pol 3702 assignment 2
Unique code 652313
The Maas fox model for innovation is a framework that highlights the importance or
organization culture in driving innovation. According to this model an organization’s
culture is composed of seven characteristics that either support or hinder innovation.
The characteristics are:
Vision
1.1
A clear and compelling vision that aligns with the organization’s goals and inspires
innovation support
Support
Adequate support from leadership and management to foster a culture of innovation
Rewards
Recognition and rewards for innovative ideas and efforts, encouraging employees to
contribute to innovation
Resources
Sufficient
1.2 resources, including time, funding and technology to support innovative
initiatives
Risk taking
Encouragement of calculated risk taking and tolerance for failure as part of the
innovation process
Collaboration
Emphasis on Collaboration and cross functional team work to generate and implement
innovative ideas
Learning
A culture that values continous learning and improvement, allowing for the adaptation
of new ideas and technologies
Innovative policing is the creative and innovativ utilization of police resources to
police efficiency and responsiveness to achieve the common goal of maintaining public
order and security
Challenges for innovative policing
2.1
Resistance to change
Law enforcement agencies may have entrenched traditional practices leading to
resistance to adopting innovative approaches
Resources constraints
Limited budget and resources can hinder the implementation of innovative technology
and strategies
Poor staff placemen strategy
Qualified members find that they are not placed according to their appropriate training
field
Lack of cooperatio and ccoordination
There is no cooperation and coordination between certain branches or units of the
police service because of seniority and specialisation
Autocratic leardership
Policing organsational are notorious for breeding, self centered, rule oriented managers
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1.1 question 1you had to discuss the Maas and Fox’s model for innovation which are:
Step 1: Identify ideas
This step demands that all police officials keep abreast of developments in the various communities they police so
that they can identify the various criminal trends.There are two types of sources from which innovative police
officials can generate their intelligence information:
• External (outside the police organisation): This is done through liaison with external partners and networks.
Networking, consultation and market research are very important here.
• Internal (within the police organisation): This is done through collating raw data, converting it into intelligence
information and storing it where it can be accessed by intelligence officers (e.g. the crime trends).
Suppose the Johannesburg Central Police Station has implemented the Maas and Fox model to apply creative and
innovative policing. In step 1 they hold a meeting and pose the following question to identify ideas: “What are the
main areas we should focus on this week to maximise police efficiency and responsiveness in our community?”
Through brainstorming, the participants may then come up with the following ideas:
• Monitor crime problems in the area.
• Enhance community participation.
• Discourage labour turnover.
• Continue eliminating discrimination in the area and the workplace.
• Become involved in the work of non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
• Empower youth to discourage drug use.
• Enhance media involvement in crime prevention.
• Conduct more research.
• Do benchmarking with neighbouring areas.
Step 2: Test ideas
They collate and weigh up the various ideas, and select the more viable ones The most important ones, with the
key success factors, are thus determined. These ideas are then tested using reasoning and arguments, roleplay
and case studies.
Step 3: Determine viability
Viability entails whether any chosen idea is possible and can be implemented and applied. Some ideas are not
practicable because they become too abstract and divorced from reality. The two ideas selected in step 2 are
placed on the agenda to consider their internal and external implications.
Internally:
• How many resources are required?
• What impact will there be on the annual strategic plan?
• Who will take responsibility, and who are partners?
Externally:
• What will the impact be on the community?
• What will the reactions of criminals be?
• What are the potential success factors?
A team is selected to reconsider the identified ideas and work out an implementation plan. This team may choose to
pilot the ideas over a day or week to see how viable they are in relation to the anticipated outcomes. A team from
the working groups of the Johannesburg Central Police Station is thus selected to formulate an implementation plan
for the ideas chosen in step 2 of the Maas and Fox model. This team designs a tentative implementation plan and
compares it with several anticipated outcomes, as shown below:
Goals
To minimise the crime problems in the area and gain the support and cooperation of NGOs and other community
organisations in dealing with the crime problems facing the area.
Activities
• To design a daily prevention strategy for every crime committed
• To close all escape routes through the use of security officers
• To design a crime intelligence database through crime profiles
• To train NGOs and community-based organisations (CBOs) in crime prevention
• To recruit the media to participate in crime prevention by informing them of all executed crime-prevention
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activities
• To engage all community organisations in crime prevention through training
Responsibility
All station members selected through the project plan
Resources
• Training banners
• Training to be provided by district training office from its budget Community police forum (CPF) funding to be
requested (total = approximately R20 000)
Performance
• Decrease of 15% in the station’s weekly crime rate
• Increase in reported rapes and other dark figure crimes
• More trust from the community
• A more informed community
• Media support and participation
• Increased developmental crime prevention
Time frame
• From the beginning of the week (7 to 13 February 2022)
• Entire plan to be revisited and refined before final execution
Step 4: Implement the plan
The tentative implementation plan in step 3 is refined to incorporate other aspects such as the following:
• Linkage to the station strategy and vision
• Marketing plan for selling the strategy internally (within the organisation) and externally (to the community)
• Financial plan detailing the financial implications
• Organisational plan detailing personnel implications
• Monitoring and control plan
After the tentative implementation plan is developed, tested and confirmed, it becomes a final plan ready for
implementation and is referred to either as a plan, monthly plan, quarterly plan or annual plan. E.g The SAPS
Johannesburg Central Police Station develops a strategic monthly plan based on the tentative implementation plan
designed in step 3. The working group develops, tests and confirms the tentative implementation plan before
developing the final plan.
Step 5: Evaluate and adjust the plan
While implementing the plan, team members conduct an ongoing evaluation and adjustment process in terms of
which they identify deviations and adjust the initial arrangements. All reported non-compliance with the set
standards is adjusted accordingly, and any problem experienced is reported to the relevant party and station
management for prompt reaction.
1.2 question 2 you had to discuss the seven primary characteristics that capture the essence of an organisation’s
culture which are:
• Innovation and risk taking
In one company, a criterion for evaluating employees’ cultural performance was their willingness to try something
that did not work at all. Can you link
this with innovation and creativity?
• People orientation
This is the degree to which management decisions consider the effect of outcomes on people within the
organisation. One of the effective ways of ensuring people orientation is inspirational leadership.
Robbins (1998:595) describes the following example:
People orientation is a key characteristic that captures the essence of Birkenstock Footwear’s organisational
culture. Birkenstock’s management supports employees’ desires to participate in causes they believe in. When
employees wanted to heighten the company’s environmental consciousness, management responded by allowing
them to spend an hour each week working on environmental projects and gave them the resources to develop an in-
house environmental library, compile a guide to non-toxic resources, and organise monthly meetings with other
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businesses to share ideas on conservation products and issues.
• Outcome orientation
This is the degree to which management focuses on outcomes or results rather than on the processes pursued to
reach them. Most government departments emphasise the processes rather than outcomes. Do you agree?
• Team orientation
This is the degree to which work activities are organised around teams rather than individuals.
• Aggressiveness
This is the degree to which people are aggressive and competitive rather than easy going.
• Stability
This is the degree to which organisational activities emphasise maintaining
the status quo rather than encouraging growth.
2.1 ensure all these points are covered:
Challenges For Innovative Policing
• Lack of trained staff
It is well known that in innovative organisations all staff are experts in their various fields, and the organisation
spends a lot of its money on training and developing its staff for whom promotions and salary increases provide
further incentives. However, most members of the police have been trained in a bureaucratic way, and it is hard for
them to adapt to the new innovative way of doing things. Reynecke (1997:13) concurs with Schwella that the failure
to change is caused mainly by clinging to the status quo. The greatest obstacle to applying innovation in the police
service is that previous training is connected with resistance to change.
• Resistance to change
People in innovative organisations regard change as inevitable. They therefore open themselves up to change as a
way of dealing with the situation. Instead of obstructing change, they allow the prospect of inevitable change to
challenge them to find creative ways of adapting. It is the responsibility of every public manager, including police
managers, to stimulate and enhance change to bring about the required adaptations. Such an approach allows a
creative alternative to be found to the style of paramilitary
bureaucracy that is inherent in traditional police training. It also enables innovative practices to be more readily
adopted by top, middle and lower levels of management in the police organisation.
• Poor staff placement strategy
The police organisation, unlike the innovative organisation, has a very poor placement strategy, which results in
staff being placed according to the wishes of management and not according to the skills, knowledge or experience
of staff members. Qualified members find that they are not placed according to their appropriate training field. For
instance, a former training officer of a bank (who subsequently joined the police) was posted to patrol certain areas.
The SAPS placement strategy is supposed to be based on skills and competence, utilising the existing skills and
competencies of its members in related jobs and tasks, but as the above example shows, this does not always
happen.
• Lack of empowerment
Although police officials are given operational, or line discretion, this is limited, for example to the power of arrest
rather than decision making, which is given to the person with higher authority. Another example is the lack of
decentralisation and devolved policing powers (like devolved budgetary responsibility to the various accounting
offices), which leads to a lack of empowerment and failure to resolve matters at the correct time. For instance, a
decision on purchasing cars at a cheap rate during a limited offer could require head office approval, which may not
be obtained before the offer ends and the rate goes up again. Another example: A police station establishes a
partnership with the business community to upgrade the trauma rooms, and the community is prepared to donate
R100 000 to upgrade the trauma rooms into a trauma centre. However, the station commander of the police station
may first have to obtain permission from the National Commissioner’s office before accepting the donation from the
business community.
• Paramilitary bureaucracy (rigid rules, red tape)
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Paramilitarism and the inherent bureaucratic orientation of police organisations are obstacles to innovation in that
there is always some rule or outdated policy that forbids
or discourages innovative thinking or ideas. For example, before the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa,
1996 came into effect, the SAPS was using the 1958 Police Act and its regulations.
• Lack of participative management
Members of police organisations in South Africa do not participate in decision- making and problem-solving
processes because of a top-down approach to management. This is not the case in innovative organisations. To
change this, the leadership must first believe in the ability of the organisation’s members. This culture should then
be cascaded downwards to the lowest levels of the organisation, ensuring that each employee is valued, not only
managers and commissioners.
• Autocratic leadership
Policing organisations are notorious for breeding self-centred, rule-oriented managers. These people are placed in
managerial positions because of their ability to command, not because of their ability to manage. Such autocratic
leaders and commanders inhibit innovation and creativity. Their decisions are based on personal style and
preferences rather than on facts and good reasons. This, in turn, has an impact on the innovative strategies being
applied, because most decisions are made by only one person (the commander/commissioner).
• Lack of cooperation and coordination
There is no cooperation and coordination between certain branches or units of the police service because of
seniority and specialisation. Seniority implies that other members who are subordinate in rank do not have their
ideas entertained in decision making and debates, even though they may render the same or related functions
within the organisation. Similarly, instead of working towards the same goal, every branch or office may have its
own goal, which is not shared with other branches or offices.
• Managerial attitude to transformation
Top management may not be committed to current transformation projects and may relinquish their responsibility to
commit to such projects, thereby shifting this responsibility to others. Members should learn to commit themselves
to the organisation, irrespective of the current situation.
• Lack of incentives for innovative thinking
The lack of an incentive system influences how the organisation operates. If a person thinks of an intrinsically
different way of dealing with a particular issue, the absence of a reward for doing so may discourage this person
from proposing the new idea. In contrast, within innovative organisations, the development of innovative ideas by
staff results in greater profit, and the organisation may thank the staff member with a reward. Such a reward may
simply be a token of appreciation, such as a modest trophy, rather than something of great monetary value.
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