Theme 1: Police Cultures

To understand the effect of the police cultures on the front-line service employees’ service recovery performance within the DTP, the researcher has thus far attempted to understand and interpret the different actions and statements given by participants—both practice participants and observers.

During the analysis of the interview to the double, the researcher noticed that some practice participants instructed the double to solve the problem with the dissatisfied customer, even if the problem with the customer was caused by a colleague, as evidenced through the following instruction to the double:

You should welcome and apologise to the client for the errors and try to help and solve the problem. (participant 5:practice participants)

I deal with the situation as if I was mistaken and apologize and ask forgiveness and try to absorb his anger. I explain the reasons for the mistake and repeat my apology. (participant 6:practice participants)

I am with my colleague in the good and bad, all are one, my colleague’s fault is my fault and I take responsibility. (participant 19:practice participants)

To determine the reasons behind the initiative of the front-line service employees to solve the problem, even when caused by a colleague, the researcher asked practice observers to comment on Statement 3 (from the interview to the double analysis). Through this, the researcher found that the police culture of DTP front-line service employees guides them not to get a colleague in trouble, as evidenced by the following statements:

This is due to the spirit of working as a team, because of the environment of unity, all try to correct their colleague, and all intend to serve the customer. (participant 29: observer)

That's true and it happens a lot. We are complementary to each other, and here we have in the police departments a majority of staff working on the shift system. Where if we have a client and he wants to finish his request I have to do so and not argue with the absence of the person responsible for the mistake. (participant 27: observer)

On the other hand, the researcher noticed that when the practice participants instructed the double to solve the problem with the dissatisfied customer, even when the customer problem was caused by a colleague, they also asked the double to report the problem to the officer in charge, as evidenced through the following instruction to the double:

If a number of problems arise from my colleague, I would tell the officer in charge to work in addressing the problems with him better. (participant 16: practice participants).

Also, you should work on correcting the error based on the powers granted to you, in case of the absence of authority you should inform the office in charge about the mistake with the customer and get approval to take corrective action. (participant 6: practice participants)

To determine the reasons for reporting a problem caused by a colleague to the officer in charge, the researcher asked practice observers to comment on Statement 4 (from the interview to the double analysis). Through this, the researcher confirmed that as part of the DTP police cultures, some officers in charge asked to be informed about everything occurring while they were on duty, as noted in the following statements from practice observers:

There are some officers in charge who want to know everything. (participant 30: observer)

Because there are instructions stating that employees should tell the officer in charge about all the events that have occurred with you or your colleague, because this may cause embarrassment to the officer in charge if they heard about it from those who are higher than him. (participant 41: observer)

Moreover, other practice observers commented that the blaming characteristic of the police culture within the DTP forces front-line service employees led them to inform the officer in charge so they are not blamed, which is revealed by the following statement from the practice observer:

In this case, the employee is afraid to solve problems and chooses to tell the official to avoid any problems they may be exposed to. (participant 41: observer)

Interpreting what has been said above about the above police cultures, the researcher noticed that front-line service employees changed their habitus (police cultures) by focusing either on the positive characteristics of police cultures, such as not getting colleagues in trouble, or on adopting new attitudes, such as “the customer is always right”, which leads to better front-line service employees’ service recovery performance. On the other hand, the researcher noticed that officers in charge did not change their habitus (police cultures) much; they still wanted to be informed about everything occurring during their shift, which had a negative effect on the front-line service employees’ service recovery performance. As interpreted from the thematic analysis, this could be related to the effect of the social structure of the field (which will be further discussed in the next sub-section).

Moreover, the researcher was able to identify a relationship between the police cultures and leadership style (Theme 3); employee empowerment (Theme 4); service strategy (Theme 5); and the nature of service (Theme 6), which will be further discussed in the corresponding sub-sections.