Phase Two: Implementation, Symbolic Modification and Resistance

Abstract

Up to this point, our focus has been largely on the police’s response to external events and political activity. This was necessary because of the extreme and highly unusual political storm that engulfed the force, and the effect of these external ‘political’ developments on the organisation’s strategy. Now this focus shifts to an internal perspective. This phase looks directly at the heart of the change, and opens a window on the concealed processes at work within the organisation. Four main activities of change emerge in this phase: the need to structurally reform into 29 command units; the push towards cultural change in perspective and attitude with regard to the primacy of community policing and the centrality of human rights; the restructuring of personnel, with the use of voluntary severance, promotion and recruitment as change levers, and, the last and most controversial — the change of the name and symbols, a change which tore at the heart of its identity. While all of these areas are significant, this chapter will address symbolic change principally as the most contentious, the most anticipated and the most difficult challenge faced by the leadership.