Managing marginal workers: find out how some workers get by without working and what management might do to improve their performance.(Leading Edge)

Sam, a police officer in a large metropolitan force, was assigned with several other officers to a high-crime area. Whenever there was an "all-units" call to some location, one of Sam's fellow officers would never arrive until the altercation was over. This officer would always immediately respond by radio that he was having difficulties with his vehicle, was completing a report, or was at the opposite end of the area and thus would be delayed by distance. Sam considered his colleague's actions questionable, and he told the watch supervisor his concerns. The result was that the officer was taken off the midnight to 8:00 a.m. shift and placed on a 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. shift in the office compiling crime statistics. Sam felt that this essentially rewarded the officer for his lack of participation. This real-life example was just one of many given in a recent survey in which survey participants described employees and coworkers with marginal performance, discussing how they interacted with others and affected the organization. While specifically geared toward police officers, the study is relevant to security officers, either in a contract or proprietary organization, because security operations tend to be organized along a hierarchy similar to that of law enforcement. …