Analysis of Employees' Professional Development in a Forensic Science Laboratory as a Route towards Organizational Competitiveness

摘要

This study was conducted to analyze the competitiveness of a Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) based on employees' professional development and diversification into different professions. The FSL is the sole Government Laboratory in Tanzania which serves the police force, judiciary system and the public prosecution. A sample of 88 current employees of different professions (53 chemists, 26 technologists and 9 accountants) was used. The data was collected from the year 2000 to 2015. Mathematical expressions were developed to quantify stagnation and total service time at specific development levels based on which new indices (professional development index, PDI, leadership competency index, LCI; and succession index, SI) were developed. The number of employees for support cadres was observed to increase faster in the last 5 years from 34.3% in 2009/2010 to 57.1% in 2014/2015, compared to chemists and technologists. The staff-to-line ratio (SLR) has been increasing since 2000, reaching above 0.8 from 2013 to 2015 indicating that the FSL was undergoing diversification and division of labor. The FSL workforce comprised of mainly semi-skilled employees. Promotions have played a big role in employees' professional development. In some cases employees were promoted to higher level before 3 years stipulated by public service regulations, regarded as breach of procedures. However, high stagnation of employees at specific ranks was observed (up to 9 -10 years) which causes frustrations, lost morale and engagement. Results indicated that most of the service years are served in ranks A and B. Indices developed in this study form a baseline data for strategic analysis of FSL competitiveness in the future and allow for proper human resource planning. Highest values of LCIand PDI were observed for chemists. Technologists in the FSL show higher succession index compared to chemists and accountants. Employee diversification in the FSL has been increasing from 2003 to 2015. It was concluded that the FSL competitive advantage is continuously increasing.