Shaping Police Officer Mindsets and Behaviors: Experimental Evidence of Procedural Justice Training
Management Science · 2025 · Rodrigo Canales、Juan Francisco Santini、Marina González Magaña、Alexis Cherem
中文摘要
关于组织公正的研究表明,内部和外部行为主体对公正的感知是关键组织结果的可靠预测指标。但我们如何能促使组织内拥有决策权者践行公正行为?对于那些依赖频繁客户互动、需要个体裁量权来做出影响重大的决策、且“必要之恶”难以回避的组织而言,这一点尤为重要。很少有组织像警察部门那样如此严峻地面临这一挑战:街头官僚的不当行为和错误决策可能带来巨大的负面后果。本文分析能否通过培训使警察在与公民的互动中有效运用程序正义原则。我们与墨西哥城警方合作,对1,854名警察实施了一项随机对照试验,以测量程序正义培训是否改变了他们对警务的认知及其在实地工作中的实际行为。我们发现,该培训在程序正义模型的所有测量指标上均产生了统计显著的正向效应。我们的研究为组织培训项目中需考虑的关键要素提供了洞见,包括管理层与培训目标的契合,以及对员工所感知的他人对其工作的理解程度予以考量。
Abstract
Research on organizational justice shows that perceptions of justice by internal and external agents are reliable predictors of key organizational outcomes. But how can we promote the enactment of fair behavior by those with decision-making authority within organizations? This is particularly important for organizations that depend on frequent client interactions, in which individual discretion is required to make consequential decisions, and where necessary evils are unavoidable. Few organizations face this challenge as intensely as police forces, in which misconduct and bad decisions by their street-level bureaucrats can have large negative consequences. This paper analyzes whether police officers can be trained to effectively incorporate the principles of procedural justice in their interactions with citizens. In collaboration with the Mexico City police, we implemented a randomized controlled trial with 1,854 officers to measure whether procedural justice training changed their perceptions of policing and actual behavior on the field. We find significant and positive effects of the training across all measures of the procedural justice model. Our research yields insights into critical elements to consider in organizational training programs, including managerial alignment with the objectives of the training and a consideration of employees’ perceptions of the extent to which their work is understood by others.