INSIGHTS FROM THE INTERVIEW DATA: THE MAKING OF PROBATION OFFICERS

"People behave the way they do in organisations because the job environment in which they work affects their sense of efficacy...their outcome expectations ... the value they place on the various outcomes which might result... The key issue for understanding why people do what they do is in conceptualising the work setting, that is, determining the important dimensions of the social and physical environment in which people work."

Porras (1987) p.157 This is the first of three chapters which specifically considers the early interview data in order to provide a picture of the South division wherein the issues of media­ tion development and organisational change can be set. After a three month period as a consultant available for consultation and general discussion, I began my initial taped interviews in March 1987. One of the aims of these unstructured interviews was to promote a discussion with each worker about their changing ideals, considering their personal view of their own work and that of the Service. The guideline questionnaire used (see Appendix 4) led each worker through their background of interest, experience and training in probation and recorded the year they qualified, their job variations, the ideals they started with and those they have maintained. It was hoped to highlight the divergence that may occur between each workers theoretical basis of work and the practical reality (as identified by them), and to identify changes in practice that may have occurred. Future changes (hoped

for, feared or planned) were discussed, and each person was asked whether this may include the development of mediation practice. Change is also looked at more gener­ ally with the consideration of how new ideas or directions can be promoted and developed within the Probation Serv­ ice. Questions were rarely specifically asked as the various issues followed more the form of discussion or 'story telling' by each interviewee. This necessarily included additional matters not specifically needed for my analysis, yet they aided understanding and the creation of a picture or 'document' for each person as well as for the central South division as a whole. In the words of Plummer (1983) the interviews are 'topical life documents' having the task of 'throwing light on a highly focused area of life', (Plummer Ch. 5), i.e. the work arena.

From the taped and transcribed interviews some interesting patterns and generalisations appear. At this stage though, it must be noted that the identification of patterns or groupings is purely a neat and convenient way of looking at the data and does not represent a fixed analysis. The interviews are from one (of two) Sheffield Divisions so cannot be said to be representative of all service views, although they provide a flavour of attitudes, ideals and developments, and the individual "stories" when taken together provide a picture of the makeup of half the Sheffield Service. The transcripts have been edited, but only to exclude redundant words and phrases. Some general representativeness could be assumed

though as the patterns that stand out do broadly fit the literature and fit with wider policy and theoretical debate about Service development. See for example research by Parry-Khan (1988) who in an MA thesis explores the apparent high level of conflict and disturbance within the service when faced with the introduction of the Home Office Statement of National Objecives and Priorities (1984); to explain widespread dissatisfactions she considers the fabric of the organisation as a crucial factor. Research by Coker (1988) examines the development of the probation service and that of Criminal Justice Policy over the past twenty-five years and changes that have affected developments and the attitudes of all in­ volved. Davies and Wright (1989) have recently published three research studies carried out during 1987-89 where they attempted to identify the skills, knowledge and qualities of probation officers. Their interviews provide information about probation officers background and atti­ tudes and a picture of the service; even though their overall aim was to produce material useful for developing training, practice and management, they have achieved some insight into how the background of the service affects its development and that of individuals. The following quote from a manager in my interviewing sample expresses how the history of the Service affects service culture, and why alternative ideas, such as the many suggestions for community-based work, remain as "talk" and are not de­ veloped:

"The history of the Probation Service is individual offender-based and therefore, people come into the job not always believing that spending half a day wandering around the community trying to find fairly critical places of influence and people of influence is part of their job - and that goes back to their original motivation for coming into the Service and also the way training is handled. Also there is a belief around that engaging with the local community requires skills which probation officers don't have...it is also a political arena which some managers believe we should avoid...but it should be an essential arena for our work. . .11

As well as suggesting the influence the history of the Service has on workers perceptions, this quote also suggests that training can play an influential part in forming workers perceptions and expectations about the Service, thus affecting their perceptions of appropriate tasks and their own skills in complying with them; this is another feature noted in the research by Wright and Davies (1989). It is also recognised in organisational litera­ ture where it is expressed as the socialisation of new members or even their 7indoctrination' into the organisa­ tional culture, as Schein (1984) explains:

"It would not serve its function if every generation of new members could introduce new perceptions, language, thinking patterns, and rules of interaction. For culture to serve its function...it automatically follows that it must be taught to newcomers."

p. 10 Training

Initial training occurs outside the job but incorporates practice placements; once qualified there are opportuni­ ties for internal and external training, both compulsory and voluntary. A consideration of the training background of my sample shows the growth of cultural affinity with the service, and a generally informed choice of job loca-

tion with probation rather than social work.

In the South Division, every one of the twenty workers including the range of grades up to the Deputy Chief, had been through some form of college training course. All but four of these courses were post-graduate University courses, and the others were three non-graduate mature student courses and one four-year degree course. This, in itself, shows the increasing emphasis on professional training as discussed earlier, - it is now essential to have a CQSW (Certificate of Qualification in Social Work); all courses provided individuals with a choice of social work agency after qualification. This suggests, and is confirmed by most officers comments, that they made a conscious decision to enter social work before training, and specifically the Probation Service. Only one person describing the various influences and experiences that conspired to point him in the direction of the Probation Service said that he became interested by chance...

"I think I'd put it down to drift rather more than anything else."

But others all felt they made a considered decision. In my discussions with probation officers about training, no-one made any comment about a victim component in their course or previous practice, and they all talked about their client group as being offenders. Several men­ tioned the community in a generalised but idealised way suggesting that if the resources were available it would be more appropriate to work in a community or neighbour-

hood setting. Four officers had had experience (two still practising) in a community-based project, all were time-limited and took up a proportion of the workers free time outside 'normal' working hours. Only one probation officer (two including myself), cited conciliation or the negotiation of conflicts as one of her initial ideals in terms of working methods and future hopes. During my second set of interviews a year later, three others spoke of conciliation and mediation as a growing ideal, but this will be considered in another chapter. The content of training courses was not dealt with in any detail, and the influence of courses was assessed using workers own per­ ceptions. This will become more evident as training is referred to by the interviewees in relation to the follow­ ing sections. As already mentioned, recent studies of consumer views of probation training have been conducted at the University of East Anglia (1987-89) and provide detailed information,(Davies and Wright 1989 and Wright and Davies 1989).

The Socialisation of Probation Officers

Social work training and practice placements, are geared towards the Probation Service to the extent that the number of places allocated on Home Office sponsored train­ ing courses are similar to the expected potential growth rate of the Service. The process of socialisation into the culture of the Service is begun even before people begin full-time work. The difference that this makes can be seen in particular in the South Division with one

individual who joined the Service from Social Services in exceptional circumstances; the officer was taken on without having previously completed a probation placement. This unusual step was partly due to the Service desire to enrol a black worker, but mainly due to the worker's high level of competence. Shortly after the officer joined she felt very disillusioned about the Service, having expected it to be very different particularly in terms of her definition of professionalism. She felt disillusioned due to the amount of underlying racism and the Service's inability to confront this. I quote from one of our many discussions:

"It made me stop and think that I hadn't realised the reality of my situation and the reality of the organi­ sation, and that people that make up the organisation are not all professional and are not all going to behave in a professional way at all times, and that sometimes some people will be less than professional i.e. racist. Not only does this affect me but more importantly how does it affect clients; what service are they offering to clients and not only black clients but white clients."

She had seen the Probation Service as a professional organisation and had assumed that as such, the values and practice ideals of individuals would be worked out and would be explicit, open and versatile. This is her vision of what it means to be professional; for her the term 'professionalism' is a symbol of the ethos of the Proba­ tion Service in the sense expressed by Becker when he says:

"This symbol... consists of a set of ideas about the kind of work done...its relations with members of other professions, the internal relations of its own members, its relations with clients and the general public, the character of its own members' motivations, and the kind of recruitment and training necessary..."

This officer has persisted in her work with clients and avoided the temptation (which would be isolating) to work with or confront officers. To an extent she eventually settled down, and feels that the culture of the organisa­ tion could fairly quickly absorb her so she would lose the strength of some of her ideals. This is necessary for her to feel settled and a part of the organisation. A theoretical explanation of socialisation is provided by Arnold and Feldman (1986) ch.19. As they point out:

'Newcomers actually undergo a "multiple socialisation process" in which they simultaneously develop new work skills, new friends, new values, and new behaviour patterns. ... this is achieved over a period of weeks and months... Usually ... in three stages... "Getting in"..."Breaking in"... "settling in".'

pp 552-3 Once in the job, probation officers views and practice are also influenced by their background and the accumulation of their experiences over time.

The effects of Probation Officers background

Within the Division, the length of work experience ranges from eighteen months to twenty-seven years, with most officers having varied their jobs by moving areas or districts. The average length of service is eleven years with just less than half (nine) having worked in other areas. Eight of the officers moved straight from college to working in the Probation Service. A rough classifica­ tion emerges from the interviewing data fitting officers into three groups depending on their length of service. The groupings roughly correspond to officers attitudes to the job and also to their interest in the concept and

development of mediation. In this respect the groupings are very loose and would not be a way of pre-judging the likely take-up of new ideas. With such a small sample there are too many variables and it is too complex an area to make 'safe' generalisations. Of the six officers who volunteered for the follow-up work - one was a long-serv­ ing officer (over 17 years), one had worked for ten years, and the others for under seven years. Practical media­ tion work was mostly undertaken by this last group, where­ as the most active verbal support came from a few of these but mainly from the longest serving group. The middle group played the smallest part (so long as I do not count myself as part of the group!)

Officers with an overly treatment orientation

Officers who have been in post for over fifteen years trained for the job through choice, but based on limited or no practical experience of social work. Since starting work all but one have moved probation areas. They seem to have entered social work training from the desire to find a career working with people and wanting to help those in need. The choice to work in the Probation Service rather than Social Services was sometimes the influence of a good placement, from knowing others in the probation field, or more often due to a wish to narrow down the field of work; offenders are seen as a defined group and social work in general is seen as too wide and amorphous an area of concern. This group, on entering the Service, had strong ideals and ideas about helping others

and being able to effect some change in the circumstances of peoples lives, by working with their personal, emotion­ al and relationship problems. They all spoke of their courses influencing their thoughts and practical work, and most have worked in a 'specialism' at some time. The visions of these workers have, in general, faded and a gradual change has occurred so they work with more practi­ cal issues, with less hope of really effecting change. Their interest in mediation appeared more theoretical than practical, and supportive in a 'paternalistic' way. This group of officers seems to become either very disillu­ sioned and cynical about what they are doing and what the Service is doing, or they rationalise their failure to meet ideals by such comments as :

"...if only we had more time." or

"...if only management would back us up."

I quote from three officers who have been working for the Probation Service for almost twenty years; here they are describing their reasons for wishing to work in the service, and their ideals tempered by reality:

"It was the fact that there is a defined group in probation really that one could help, and also I wanted to work with people. Initially I came into the Service with the idea of helping the individual, and most of my training was geared to individual pathology, but because I found that that doesn't always work I have become much more aware of all the other issues which could in fact bring them round to the situation where they commit a crime."

"Looking back, I think I had some fairly unrealistic ideals, the courses influenced me and they had a very psycho-counselling approach considering that the prob­ lems of behaviour were due to relationship difficul­ ties and that when working with people you could pick the key relationship problems out and then by working with them could somehow move the client on a groove. It took a few years to discover that that was not how life was!"

"I don't think my ideas were clearly formed, I mean there was this desire to help people, to be helpful, there was something about serving. I mean there is a religious background to that as well so it was more tied up with me and what I thought my life was for. One of the things that the Probation Service was for was to be the bit of the system that actually tried to change and improve things for people, concentrating on offenders as a group of people who would be inevitably unpopular and wouldn't attract services...but now I am more and more conscious of being on the defensive...the concept of us helping people has gone a long way out of the picture. ...there has been this tension all along in my time within probation between help and control... I think that we need to go back and think about that again."

These quotes all indicate treatment orientations towards working with clients as discussed in chapter five, and

found in Hardiker's research (1977); see also Curnock & Hardiker (1979). Such an approach dominated the training and ideologies of these officers and their subsequent disillusionment. This group included all the managers in the division, and whilst they acknowledged their role, they still spoke of working with clients and their aims of effecting change with individuals, even though two out of the four have virtually no direct client contact. But their background, beliefs and experience determine how they supervise others and manage the service, so their influence on the culture of the service is crucial. The views of management and longstanding officers shed light on how the service has developed and how many traditions are maintained. As noted by Schein (1985):

'Since culture perpetuates itself through the recruitment of people who fit into it, an ongoing culture can be hard to change.'

p. 235 Its transmission can be an unconscious process, and thus even harder to change. There are many mechanisms by which managers are able to embed their own assumptions in the