Police Culture and the Learning Organisation: A Relationship?

Abstract

Both police culture and learning organisations are amorphous concepts. This paper examines the basic elements of police culture and the learning organisation and looks at their relationship in the context of the South Australia Police. The question is raised, does the culture of SAPOL affect its ability to evolve into a learning organisation? If there is a relationship between the two, is police culture an impediment or advantage to the evolutionary process. Briefly, my methodology consisted of a quantitative survey of 10% of the organisation, stratified across rank, gender and location. The return rate for this survey was 55%. The results of this quantitative survey were analysed with the use of the SPSS program. Results that showed statistical significance and significance in their description of SAPOL's culture and learning were then further analysed in order to determine if they showed any common cultural themes. I then conducted 12 in depth interviews which lasted for an average of about 1 hour, in order to further explore the quantitative results that had undergone my subjective analysis. In order to simplify my analysis, I have broken down both the police culture and the learning organisation literature into useable elements so that any links may be easier to both establish and box. My model of the learning organisation is described in this paper, as are what I consider to be the most important generic elements of police culture. Analysis of the results of this research is not yet complete and this paper serves as the foundation upon which my thesis, exploring police culture and its influence on SAPOL as a learning organisation, is based.

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