Quarterly Summary - March 2009

Key Achievements

In accordance with the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry into Police Conduct (COI), the State Services Commission has almost completed the second phase of review. This second review builds on an initial review of change management effectiveness and human resources performance frameworks which was undertaken in 2007.

At this point, the draft report confirms that effecting lasting cultural shift in NZ Police must rate as one of the most difficult types of organisational changes to achieve, given deeply rooted behavioural traditions and norms.  The international literature has much to say on the inherent difficulty of this type of change. Not only are Police organisations typically very large and diverse, but they are required to engage with a huge array of stakeholders (including internal stakeholders, such as union leaders), and face extraordinarily high public and political expectations. Given this, it is suggested that effective change implementation will require relentless effort by Police over the ensuing three to five years.

The key high-level findings that have been identified by means of the review are as follows:

• the Police change programme is consistent with state sector good practice
• excellent progress has been made in triaging and project managing key change initiatives to the extent that an excellent foundation for organisational culture change has now been laid
• the next phase of change must be tightly focussed on implementation and management issues, particularly at Non Commissioned Officer (‘NCO’ or Sergeant/Senior Sergeant) level and below
• the many current change initiatives should now be simplified and reprioritised, with as much as possible driven through business as usual line management rather than as special initiatives.  Change positioning moving forward should reflect the notion that changes are not  “projects”; rather they are “how Police do business”
• as Police now build on the progress in cultural shift made to date, the organisation continues to face other major challenges.  Current resource utilisation and value for money pressures actively reinforce the need for a streamlining and normalisation of change
• although the attitudes of those interviewed were largely positive, Police success in embedding changes into line management or business as usual cannot be taken for granted at this time. There is a need to remain diligent and to keep the rationale for change fresh, urgent and relevant, at all levels in the organisation
• the monitoring regime by SSC should now move to a results-based approach.

The draft report also notes that Police leadership have made enormous progress to date in successfully implementing COI-related changes, while concurrently managing a number of other major operational and strategic challenges.  Top leadership have owned and led these changes with energy, passion and unremitting effort.  The draft report notes that it is now time to move from an ‘outside-in’, bolt-on and top-down approach to culture change, to an embedded, simplified set of management initiatives, driven through-the-line and focussed in particular on first-line and NCO management of sworn staff.

From here the State Services Commission and Police will finalise the draft report, and agree a programme of action.  Once a programme is agreed officials will expect to provide a fuller report to stakeholder Ministers.

The Office of the Auditor General is conducting their audit pursuant to Recommendation 60 . This included one on one interviews with the Commissioner, Deputy Commissioners, General and National Managers, site visits and the provision of supporting documentation. The first report is due at the end of June 2009.