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As unremarkable as the air they breathe? Reforming police management in South Africa

As unremarkable as the air they breathe? Reforming police management in South Africa
As unremarkable as the air they breathe? Reforming police management in South Africa
With the transition to democratic governance in South Africa in 1994, the public service was identified as the key sector requiring transformation. This involved refashioning the types of delivery offered to the public and a complete renovation of labour relations practices and institutions within public service organizations. The police were expected to dramatically change their labour relations framework and practices to allow for increased ‘worker’ participation in decision-making processes and enhanced performance management. This article examines attempts at transforming police labour relations in one unit of the South African Police Service. Existing legacies of authoritarianism and police disciplinary customs and a lack of directive leadership from management have seriously limited this attempt at transforming police labour relations. This, in turn, has hampered the unit’s transition towards operating in accordance with the community policing framework that is supposed to guide the practice of the ‘new’ South African Police Service.
0011-3921
784-808
Marks, M.
82dd5383-e086-4f6d-8511-983a38a89e4d
Fleming, Jenny
61449384-ccab-40b3-b494-0852c956ca19
Marks, M.
82dd5383-e086-4f6d-8511-983a38a89e4d
Fleming, Jenny
61449384-ccab-40b3-b494-0852c956ca19

Marks, M. and Fleming, Jenny (2004) As unremarkable as the air they breathe? Reforming police management in South Africa. Current Sociology, 52 (5), 784-808. (doi:10.1177/0011392104045370).

Record type: Article

Abstract

With the transition to democratic governance in South Africa in 1994, the public service was identified as the key sector requiring transformation. This involved refashioning the types of delivery offered to the public and a complete renovation of labour relations practices and institutions within public service organizations. The police were expected to dramatically change their labour relations framework and practices to allow for increased ‘worker’ participation in decision-making processes and enhanced performance management. This article examines attempts at transforming police labour relations in one unit of the South African Police Service. Existing legacies of authoritarianism and police disciplinary customs and a lack of directive leadership from management have seriously limited this attempt at transforming police labour relations. This, in turn, has hampered the unit’s transition towards operating in accordance with the community policing framework that is supposed to guide the practice of the ‘new’ South African Police Service.

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More information

Published date: 2004
Organisations: Faculty of Social, Human and Mathematical Sciences

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 345292
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/345292
ISSN: 0011-3921
PURE UUID: 04b931a0-7fb4-46b5-9d0c-f696dc192da9
ORCID for Jenny Fleming: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-7913-3345

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Date deposited: 15 Nov 2012 15:47
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:41

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Contributors

Author: M. Marks
Author: Jenny Fleming ORCID iD

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