Pushing Paper Can Be Fun

A) Performance Problems:

In the case study the police captain is having difficulty getting the police officers to perform required tasks accurately. Task performance is crucial since it refers to goal-directed activated that are under the individual's control.

The main issue is the behaviour and the result. The behaviour includes police officers not doing detailed and unambiguous paperwork. Since most the police officers are young they enjoy more out in the field and lack motivation in the office. The result is that due to incompetent paperwork the police department is dealing with legal cases in court inadequately. The officers lack motivation and perceive filling out reports as boring.

B) MARS Model:

How can the Police Captain ensure that all his officers fulfill their other work obligations? To answer this question, we must examine the MARS model of the individual performance. The MARS model identifies four interrelated elements that have an effect on employee performance: Motivation, Ability, Role Perception and Situational Factors.

The MARS model demonstrates that these four factors have a combined effect on individual behaviour. If any factor weakens, employee performance will decrease. For example, highly qualified employees who understand their job duties and have sufficient resources will not perform their jobs as well if they are not motivated.

In this case study, the captain is aware of motivation and slightly of role perception. The other two factors are lacking in the work environment therefore performing one of the duties, paperwork, seem to be an issue.

The reason why motivation towards paperwork is feeble because police officers are aware that this task is not the only means towards promotion and they know they won't be highly rewarded. The reasons why role perception is weak because officers are not properly trained to complete all of the tasks needed in their role. Performance on the street and field seem more crucial for the officers hence an outstanding job out on the field, And since role perception is lacking, paperwork seemed to be always put off or done inefficiently.

The police caption needs to thoroughly understand and implement the four factors of the MARS model in order to correct the individual behavior:

1. Employee Motivation:

 represents the internal forces of a person that affect their direction, intensity and persistence of voluntary behaviour

a. Direction: motivation is goal-oriented, not random.

b. Intensity: amount of effort allocated to a goal

c. Persistence: continuing the effort for a certain amount of time

The police officers are lacking of motivation to do proper paper work because there is no financial reward.

2. Employee Ability:

 both the natural aptitudes and learned capabilities required to successfully complete a task

a. Aptitudes: inherent or acquired ability that will help employees learn specific tasks more quickly and perform them better

b. Learned Capabilities: already acquired the skills and knowledge

 employee competencies: that distinguishes outstanding performers across the organization or broad job groups therefore the captain needs to recruit people who enjoy both field and paperwork.

 Person-job matching: redesign job to fit person's existing abilities

a. select applicants whose existing competencies