Introduction
Criminal justice organizations are complex and consist of the police, prosecutors and the courts. They are associations of people brought together for a common purpose, which in this case is to ascertain justice. Stojkovic, Kalinich and Klofas, (2014) define management as the ongoing process that ensures the accomplishment of an organization’s objectives by integrating and coordinating its resources for efficient utilization. Leadership, on the other hand, is the process of mobilizing a group of people and their ideas. In this sense, criminal justice organizations are more or less like other organizations with the need to fulfill their goals. However, these criminal justice bodies rely on communication, motivation and conflict resolution, unlike most organizations. Additionally, they differ from most organizations in that they possess open-system structures as opposed to many other organizations with closed system structures.
Open system theory
A closed system is one that is unaffected by its environment or can be said to be “unresponsive to their environments,” (Stojkovic, Kalinich & Klofas, 2014). As a result, the environmental factors remain constant. Many organizations of this nature are in control of their environmental factors. In other words, these organizations understand and control these factors. Such a view originates from the systems theory where complex structures consist of interrelated parts and as such, communication follows a hierarchy. Despite this, criminal justice organizations are not closed systems for it is considered simplistic. In the criminal justice world, events are not just caused by internal factors alone but are influenced by environmental ones too. Therefore, criminal justice organizations are observed as open system bodies that are influenced by their environments. An example would be the changes in the economy impacting the number of qualified persons taken for correction and police jobs.
Communication
Criminal justice organizations are dependent on multiple networks to achieve the whole communication process. The individual entities of the networks are members of the overall chain of command like any other organization. Other organizations use the hierarchy to dispatch the messages and information to the rest of the entities. Stojkovic, Kalinich and Klofas, (2014) suggest that organizations usually have the upward and downward communication. The former involves the movement of information from the management to the lowest levels of the hierarchy, contrary to the latter method. This kind of structure is variant to the framework depicted by the criminal justice organizations of any kind. The frameworks formed are in networks, and there can be many in a single justice organization. This allows for the flexibility and speed in the flow of information.
Motivation
Unlike most of the organizations that we see around, motivation is more than a necessity in criminal justice organizations. They are in the public sector, and it is recognizable that employees in this sector do not receive many benefits as opposed to the private sector (Stojkovic, Kalinich & Klofas, 2014). Nonetheless, their duties are many, and the public administration and management should ensure that their employees are motivated. Additionally, the employees in the public sector are in the field, not because of the money, considering that it is not much but because they would like a better society. In this perspective, they are more or less different than the other organizations concerning administration and management.
Conclusion
Many organizations depict similar structure, but this is not the case with the criminal justice organizations. As many organizations depict a closed system, these justice bodies depict an open system. Additionally, their communication strategy is not dependent on the hierarchy just like other organizations following the chain of command (Stojkovic, Kalinich & Klofas, 2014). Finally, they are reliant on the motivation of their employees to ensure the fulfillment of their duties and responsibilities. In a nutshell, criminal justice organizations are extensively different from the host of other organizations.
Reference
Stojkovic, S., Kalinich, D. B., & Klofas, J. (2014). Criminal justice organizations: Administration and management.
