Reference no: EM133181312

Step 1:

The two most prominent transformational factors in Bratton's approach as the drivers to change are leadership and mission and strategy. Bratton position as police commissioner of New York city completely transformed the town, with felony crime falling by 39%, murder by 50%, and theft by 35%. Bratton's leadership style aligned the police department with the community. Through his leadership, Bratton was able to break through the cognitive hurdle, sidestep the resource hurdle, jump the motivational hurdle, and knock over the political burden. These are the four steps to the Tipping Point that resulted in Bratton's success in taking over multiple large-scale organizations. The article states that the theory of tipping points works because "....once the beliefs and energies of a critical mass of people are engaged, conversion to a new idea will spread like an epidemic, bringing about fundamental change very quickly" (Kim & Mauborgne, year, p.80). Bratton was not afraid to challenge the status quo and restructured the organization successfully. Part of Bratton's leadership strategy was to align the organization's leaders with its mission and strategy. When he joined the team, it did not make sense that most officers claimed that narcotics were attributed to most of the crime in the city, yet only 5% of NYPD's workforce was dedicated to this. In addition, the narcotics team worked Monday- Friday when most of the crimes related to narcotics were executed on the weekends. By pointing out these flaws in the process, Bratton was able to show the organization it's clear mission and strategy.

Step 2

Two transactional factors present in Bratton's approach to change are motivation and structure. Bratton faced an issue with crime on the Subway because the proposed plan was to place police officers on all subway lines, entrances, and exits. This required a lot of workforce and stretched the department too thin. Therefore, Bratton suggested concentrating the resources in the areas that needed the most change - this resulted in a 27% decrease in crime. Bratton was able to pinpoint the main issues and delegate the human resources appropriately, which relieved the department of being overworked therefore reinvigorating their motivation to address the problems correctly. On top of this, Bratton saved the department from overspending its budget. For these reasons, this organizational change was well welcomed by everyone involved.

Bratton dug deep to understand why crime rates were so high in Boston's Police District 4 when they were confident that they had been doing a great job clearing 911 calls and tracking criminals. Bratton organized a community meeting to solve this issue and found that the citizens were more concerned with petty crimes such as prostitutes, panhandlers, and abandoned cars. With this, Bratton was able to break through mental hurdles to show the organization where they could improve, which gave the process a more impactful structure of responding to crime in the community. This change was significant as it shows the disconnect between the police department and the community they serve. Having open town meetings gave structure to the city as a whole as it kept communication and expectations clear for the police department and the citizens of the town.

In response to this post, I need to express which skills I believe are the most important for being an effective leader in a situation like the tipping point leadership described.

In this post, I need to constructively critique the use of one transformational and one transactional factor.