Case Study – Dubai Police Department

| Communication Barriers in DUBAI Police Department| Case Study| | | | | Contents CASE STUDY3 Introduction5 Summary6 Key Issues Highlighted7 Key Issues Analysis8 Steps Taken to Resolve the Problem10 Benefits & Drawbacks10 Conclusion10 Recommendations11 References12 CASE STUDY: Communication Barriers in DUBAI Police Department Dubai Police Department is an integral part of the Dubai Police Force. Dubai Police Department was established on 1st June 1956. There are more than fifteen thousand employees working under the Dubai Police Force across Dubai City. The General Department of Administrative Affairs is one of the most appreciated and admired security establishments under the Dubai Police Department. The GDAA is a link between the Dubai Police Headquarters, General Departments, and Police Stations on one hand, and the Federal Ministers; Government Departments and the private sectors on the other hand. The Department offers legal consultations; preparation of statistical and cognitive studies, data collection and analysis, preparation of annual reports, and managing medical and travel services record of Dubai Police Force Employees. One day Mr. Kabir came to work and became furious when he was rebuked by his senior Mr. Abdul for the reason that the receptionist, Miss Ann who is responsible for the centralized communication in the department has miss communicated some information to Mr. Kabir. Mr. Abdul is the General of the GDAA (The General Department of Administrative Affairs) organization under the Dubai Police Department. Mr. Kabir is a 32 year old Deputy in The General Department of Administrative Affairs. He is responsible for supervising and managing all the activities in the department. Kabir tries his best to keep up with the administrative issues in the police department. The present communication system prevailing in the Department is the verbal communication system which takes over the phone. The message is conveyed from the receptionist to the receiver by telephone. If the receiver is not available to attend the calls, the receptionist is responsible for making a note of the information and surpassing the information to the concerned receiver of the calls. Kabir got frustrated and got notion to put in the modern digital system for effective communication across the department. He acquired all the officers’ acceptance for the program. The system was responsible for facilitating the services like electronic transfer of calls, calls recovery, messages recovery, auto answering options etc. Miss Ann was trained and made responsible to supervise and manage the efficient functioning of the digital communication system in the department. In the month – end meeting of the officers of the department, Ann declared that the efficiency of the department had increased due to the increase in accessibility of the information hub which was made possible with the help of the technological integration in the department. The personnel no longer felt the need to depend on the receptionist to access the information required. Moreover the communication between people also improved and the updates could be gathered faster. (Call Express Case Study) Introduction The public administration of any country or region is responsible for the effectiveness in the overall functioning of the governmental departments and agencies. Department of Police (About US) is designated so as to practice the laws and by making legitimized use of force. The Police Services are defined in a legal area of responsibility. The Dubai Police Department is a ell established and admired body within the public administration of the country and is chaired by the ruler – Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum. Bearing this in mind, one of the key public administration departments pertains to the maintenance of law and order and ensuring implementation of the law in the region. The General Department of Administrative Affairs (Organi zational Chart) is a department under the Department of Police is responsible for the connection with the Police Headquarters and other Police High Authority Departments encompasses Federal Ministers, Government Departments, and other private sector bodies. The department carries different operational activities such as legal consultations, preparation of statistical studies, data collection and analysis, preparation of reports and other management and administrative tasks. The case pertains to The General Department of the Administrative Affairs of the Dubai Police Department and highlights the problems in the communication channels which existed in the department. The key issue was with the retrieval and access to the messages which had to be accessed through a receptionist. This study will aim at analyzing the issue and the outcome of this issue on the department. The case is focused on the existence of improper channels in the Department which was affecting the effectiveness of the department’s administration. Communication assumes utmost importance in this regard as live updates and information need to be conveyed to the various personnel involved in the department’s activities. Summary: The rationale of the case study is to exemplify the communication system in The General Department of Administrative Affairs of the Dubai Police Department. The case throws light up on the troubles faced by the officers owing to the old and traditional verbal communication system prevailing in the department. The information and messages flow is inappropriate disturbing the operational and administrative flow in the department. The verbal communication system is centralized, one receptionist looking after all the calls and messages flows to the respective receivers in the department. This made the Deputy to think for changing and implementing the new and contemporary digital system in the department. The installation of this digital system ensures the effective and efficient communication by conquering the problems and challenges arising with the Department of Police, Dubai. The new program of communication system resulted in the operational effectiveness along with the improvement in the operational efficiency. Besides, there were many other drawbacks that came into picture by the communication officer Ann, who was the former receptionist in the police department during the review of the communication system, was done by the office associates under the supervision of Mr. Abdul, the General of the department. In the next part of the case study analysis of the Dubai Police Department, the key points will be highlighted together with the examination of its consequences and the action steps taken by the company to conquer the problems. Key Issues Highlighted: This case is focused upon the key issues related to the communication channel existing in the department with respect to the retrieval of information available with the receptionist and dependency on the receptionist for accessing the information that is present with her. The issues pertain to the information which is collected by the receptionist. This information is provided by the people and could either be a complaint or a call for help or intimation about any emergency situations. It could also include personal calls or messages for the people in the department. This information could be accessed only when the receptionist was present and the conveyance of the information over the telephone line meant that the line was kept busy and this was responsible for the callers to deter from providing information which could prove useful for the department. Moreover the personnel often wanted to access the information after their duty hours were over, but this was not made possible as the absence of the receptionist meant that data could not be retrieved until such time till the receptionist returned. These issues pertaining to communication within the department are highlighted in this case study – * Communication channel which existed in the department. * Various flaws associated in the existing communication channel. * Effect of the inefficient communication channel on the administration of the department. Identifying the reasons for the problems which are evident in the communication channel. Key Issues Analysis: 1. Communication Channel – The Communication Channel prevailing in The General Department of Administrative Affairs of the Department of Police is the combination of â€Å"verbal† and â€Å"non verbal† communication system. The communication system is the system which includes the interaction bet ween the people. The communication is established between the sender and the receiver by making use of the sound and language to convey the message to the receiver. The communication is used to express the ideas, desires, concepts and requirements. The verbal communication is therefore significant for the exchange of expressions and gestures between two or more persons. The verbal communication system is an old and traditional system for communication in public administrative organization where one single receptionist is responsible for the transferring of calls and messages along with the retrieval of information. The system is not spirited enough to cope up with the demands of the modern scenario of the public administrations, especially the Police Department where the number of workforce is increasing day by day, thus resulting in the increase of the administration activities. Today, the communication systems widespread in the administrations are faster and easier and are modern and technical systems mostly referred as the non verbal communication system. (Hanes, 2010) 2. Failure of the Communication System – There are various flaws associated with the current communication system or channel prevailing in the department resulting in the failure of the system and giving birth to number of problems in the department when the messages and calls are transferred from the receptionist to the concerned officer in the department. They are – * Misunderstandings. Different Perceptions of the People * Ineffective Communication Techniques * Language Barriers * Subjective Opinions of the Persons (Hanes, Problems in Communication , 2010) 3. Effect of the Communication System – The communication system prevailing in The General Department of Administrative Affairs fails to clinch the success as the system or the channel is centralized and outmoded. T he communication system moves around one single receptionist who is responsible to transfer the calls and messages to the officers in their respective departments. She was also made responsible to retrieve the messages in the absence of any receiver. This is an old and slow process of communication giving room for number of mistakes. This resulted in the miscommunication of the data and information and therefore resulting in the misappropriation of tasks and responsibilities. At times, this fallout in the scolding and admonishments to the officers from the Deputy General of the department. 4. Reasons for the flaws in Communication Channel – There can be many reasons that affect the communication system in the organization. With reference to the case study of the public administration’s Dubai Police Department, there is a centralized communication system. The department makes use of both the verbal as well as the non verbal communication system. They made use of the internet, fax machines, printers, telephones, e-mails as the mode of communication in the department. The working of the centralized communication system revolves around the receptionist of the department who is made responsible for the transfer of calls, messages to the receiver. This is the major fault in the department. Depending on a single receptionist for carrying out the communication system will undoubtedly give room for the mistakes and human errors. The errors and defects would have generated in the communication system certainly. Steps Taken to Resolve the Problem The Deputy of The General Department of Administrative Affairs came to the action plan to resolve the problem of communication system or channel in the department. The Deputy had taken step of installing the new and contemporary digital system for communication in the department. The step was taken by the Deputy as the Department was grappling around the problems of communication. The new digital system was installed in the department with the aim to eradicate all the problems associated with the prevailing communication channel. The receptionist was made the communication officer of the department and was assigned the responsibility of managing the new communication system. The communication officer who was the former receptionist of the department was also accountable to the higher uthorities to provide them the feedback of the new system by keeping the review on the system. The new system installed ensured the faster and effective communication across the department of the administrative affairs under the police department of Dubai. Benefits & Drawbacks Eventually, the new digital system was installed in the department. This resulted in the eradication of the problems due to the different benefits associated with it and they are – (a) New and modern system (b) Communication is possible in a large workforce c) Easy to use (d) Fast and prompt to use (e) Offers indifferent unique add on. Besides this, there are also some drawbacks associated with the Digital System and that pertains to the Information Richness which is passed between the receiver and the sender or any and they are as follows – (a) Lengthy Conversations are difficult with the new system. (b) The Particulars of the messages are missed. (c) Lot of Repetitions is required. (d) Less influential and cannot be used everywhere in all the functions of the department. e) Not everybody in the organization prefers to communicate via digital system of communication. (f) Cannot create impression upon the people or the listeners involved in the communication. Conclusion This case study helped to highlight and evaluate an important administrative tool, i. e. communication. Communication is a crucial aspect of public administration and the evaluation of the case of the Dub ai Police Department in its Department of Administrative Affairs and proved useful in the examination of this aspect of administration and its implications in real time scenarios. The discussions in the case study has proved that how much a proper and systematic communication channel is required in any of the organization to perform various functions in the department. The Case had also focused upon how much is the operational effectiveness of any organization is affecting due to the improper functioning of only one of the system in the organization. Indeed, the Case Study aimed to identify the significance of the proper and friendly communication channels entails in any of the public administration. Recommendations: With reference to the case study, I would like to give my personal recommendations for the improvement of the communication channels and programs in the organization. Several Steps can be taken by the Public Administration Authorities to improve the communication systems in the department. The Recommendations pertaining to the Department of Police are as follows – * An Organized System for Communication should be followed which should be completely formal system. This will provide a solution for the structural and operational problems with respect to the operational concerns. All the elements of the Communication mix should be properly managed during the implementation of the programs and systems. A certain problem is recognized which is referred as the Time Wasting Potential. This should be eradicated by making use of SOP Program used for the development of the overall communication systems and programs in the organization. (Kuhne, 2004) In addition to the above recommendatio ns, I would like to suggest the communication officer of the Dubai Police Department to switch to the upgraded versions of the digital systems of the communication system once the department gets used to it. This will ensure more upgraded and advanced services to carry out the communication services across the department. It provides unique services like – (a) VOIP telephone systems (b) Consultation of the Factory Certified Technicians (c) Loud Speaker Paging System (d) Remote Teleworker Set up (e) Relocation Services (f) Adds, moves and changes Other departments in the Public Administration of Dubai can also make use of such modes of systems of communication within their departments. References 1. About US. (n. d. . Retrieved November 1, 2011, from www. dubaipolice. gov. ae: http://www. dubaipolice. gov. ae/dp/jsps/content/flat-content. do? contentCode=69908 2. Call Express Case Study. (n. d. ). Retrieved November 1, 2011, from www. avst. com: http://www. avst. com/case_study/Dubai_Police_Promote_Community_Outreach_with_AVST_CallXpress .asp 3. Hanes, T. (2010). Problems in Communication . Retrieved November 1, 2011, from www. livestrong. com: http://www. livestrong. com/article/1 58524-problems-in-verbal-communication/ 4. Hanes, T. (2010). What is Verbal Communication. Retrieved November 1, 2011, from www. livestrong. com: http://www. livestrong. com/article/150573-what-is-verbal-communication/ 5. Kuhne, M. (2004). Communication Channels. Retrieved November 1, 2011, from www. ibisassoc. co. uk: www. ibisassoc. co. uk/articles/Article16. doc 6. Organizational Chart. (n. d. ). Retrieved November 1, 2011, from www. dubaipolice. gov. ae: http://www. dubaipolice. gov. ae/dp/jsps/content/flat-content. do? contentCode=orgn13