The Case for the Brain Metaphor

Organizational Theory and Change

Seth Morten

June 18, 2018

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Organizations operate with different views and theories. Their leaders, membership and

purpose influence how they are structured and how they adapt to their environment; if at all.

Law enforcement organizations are structured as a paramilitary agency with rigid structure,

specific roles of responsibility and a chain of command. This theory is required to establish

goals and have employees dedicated to reaching those goals. For example, traffic officer’s goals

are to enforce traffic laws and write tickets. Gang officers are tasked with gang enforcement,

documentation, surveillance and courtroom expert testimony.

The rigid structure creates a strong foundation for police agencies to grow and

incorporate other organizational theories. Law enforcement must learn to change with its

environment and societal demands. The ecological theory for organization structure must occur

to gain citizen acceptance and support. Police agencies must adapt to change in laws and

policies, alter past practices and work with a new public demand. Much like an ecology system

that must adapt to survive, a police department must do the same. Much of this example is

occurring in today’s society with the incorporation of body worn cameras due to public demand,

transparency related to officer’s use of force and release of information and training officers on

critical incident deescalation techniques.

Police organizations are able to adapt and learn about their constantly changing

environment by utilizing the brain metaphor approach to survive. The brain metaphor is the

single most important learning theory departments must use to continue with citizen support,

decrease any chances of negative views on the agency and most of all, keep its employees safe. A
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societal accepted police department with good community relations is safer for its employees in

terms of physical safety and career safety and in turn, incubates community safety.

Gareth Morgan suggested that agencies must “develop(ing) an ability to scan the

environment, set objectives, and monitor the general performance of the system in relations to

these objectives” (Morgan, 2006). Using the brain metaphor theory, a law enforcement agency

needs to research its environment to identify issues. For instance, a police agency might have a

high number of gang-related homicides over the past few years. That agency must recognize and

accept they have a gang problem within their community. Secondly, the agency must set realistic

objectives in dealing with their community problem. Eliminating gang-related homicides sounds

like a great idea but is not a realistic approach. Something more manageable might be to target

gang members and their associates, remove firearms off the streets and proactively seek to arrest

them. This objective will more than likely lead to a decrease of gang-related homicides and is a

more realistic obtainable goal.

The last part of Morgan’s suggestion is to monitor the performance in relations to the

objectives. A police agency must continuously evaluate its effectiveness in reaching its objective

and make adjustments along the way. Looking at the previous example I listed above, a police

department should accept feedback from its employees on every level, including steak holders

within the community to evaluate how effective the department is at lowering gang-related

homicides. The agency might want to obtain feedback from after school programs aimed at

keeping children off the streets and away from gangs and gather intel from informants about the

conversations taking place within the gangs. The constant learning, adapting and changing needs

to happen in order to reach a goal.

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The constant learning, adapting and changing also took place in the 20011 movie Battle

Los Angeles. This fictional movie demonstrated how a mechanically structured organization

such as the United States Marine Corp was forced to utilize the brain learning metaphor and

adapt to an alien invasion that almost wiped out the human race. Ssgt. Michael Nantz, played by

actor Aaron Eckhart, and his team performed a very quick and uneducated autopsy in the battle

field to determine how to kill the alien invaders. The team also discovered the alien’s “central

control center” that controlled their unmanned drones. Ssgt. Nantz’s team monitored their

performance and realized they were not winning the fight and the aliens were soon going to take

over earth. They monitored their performance and were able to adjust their fight after

discovering ways to kill the invaders and save earth.

The brain learning metaphor was also discussed by retired Carlsbad Chief of Police Gary

Morrison. Chief Morrison discussed how his successful career was created by utilizing a double-

loop learning practice composed of reevaluating his performance. He had an opportunity to

become diversified in his profession through holding different positions throughout his career

while obtaining formal education to polish his academic background. He also spoke on the push

for excellence in his early career at the Long Beach Police Department where his fellow

coworkers challenged each other for positions while supporting each other at the same time.

This double-loop process allowed Chief Morrison to accomplish necessary goals to reach his

position while allowing him to constantly evaluate the process he was taking to get there.
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Reference

Liebesman, M. (Director). (2011, March 11). Battle: Los Angeles [Video file]. Retrieved June 18,

2018, from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1217613/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ql_1

Morgan, G. (2006). Images Of Organizations. Thousands Oak, California: Sage Publications.

University of San Diego. Law Enforcement and Public Safety Leadership. Organizational

Theory and Change. Interview with retired Carlsbad Police of Chief Gary Morrison.