Wipro BPO, India: Organisational Behaviour Case Study

Wipro BPO, India: Organisational Behaviour Case Study Scope- This assignment talks about the various concepts and ideas in organizational behavior and how they can be used to improve the working style of todays organizations. This assignment focuses on the WIPRO BPO India Limited and discuss about how the study of organizational behavior can be applied to the organizational operations of WIPRO BPO. This report will focus on the various concepts in organizational behavior such as motivation and management and their application in WIPRO BPO. LIMITATIONS- This assignment does not cover all the key concepts in the study of organizational behavior and also while using some of the key concepts for WIPRO BPO; we have made some assumptions in the analysis. FINDINGS- The Wipro BPO is a brand name in market and is a reputable company. Through its innovations and various other plans and measures it is able to improve its organizations working environment, style and performance over the years. Wipro BPO has made use of technology and innovation along with leadership and motivation in order to produce better results in business. Wipro has always tried to work hard to provide good infrastructure, working environment, growth opportunities and decentralized communication between the upper and the lower staff in order to provide a better, comfortable and happy working environment where its employees can grow, innovate and excel. We can see this effort of Wipro in its various training programs, quality of life that it provides and its focus on providing support for wealth, health and family issues of its employees. INTRODUCTION- Business process outsourcing business is one of the most successful and fastest growing field in the information technology service industry of India. As the name suggests in business process outsourcing the business or some part of the business such as accounting, pay roll, customer service etc is outsourced or being hand over to other company which have the expertise to perform that particular task more efficiently and at competitive prices. BPO is becoming very popular in todays business world as it helps to decrease the work load on a company at the same time helps the company to get that task done more efficiently in turn increasing the performance of the business. There are several reasons for the popularity and increase in the use of business process outsourcing worldwide. Primarily the companies focus on how to increase the performance of the different sections of the business which needs to be looked upon in order to improve the overall performance of the company rather then just outsourcing the business for cost cutting or load reduction . The other reason for why companies opt for outsourcing is that in this competitive business environment as companies grow the requirement of resources and expertise also increases in order to cope up with growth and to carry on the performance and further improve it. The lack of skillful people to perform a task can also be a reason for the outsourcing. Lastly the improvements and developments in the telecommunication and IT industry has made it possible to outsource the business in this globalized business world. the benefits of outsoucing are as follows:- increase the efficiency reduction in duties and load by outsourcing the non-core setions of business saves time,money ,manpower and operating expenditures. Reduce risks Improved quality od skilfull labour and services Gives time to emphasise on core functions of the business Some of the most common outsourced functions of a business are- Technical support Data entry/data processing Payroll Accounting Customer service telemarketing india is the fastest growing country in field of bpo industry as it has the plus point of skilfull labour,good infrastructure and the time difference with respect to the developed countries like USA AND UK due to which Indian companies can work in night for these countries. major players in BPO industry in India are WIPRO,DAKSH,CONVERGYS etc.. Wipro was started in 1945 and got in IT business in 1980. Wipro is listed in Mumbai stock exchange National stock exchange Newyork stock exchange Wipro bpo is a fast growing company which matches innovation with robust performance in providing IT enabled services to other countries Wipro has a workforce of tenthousand associates of more then seventy different nationalities and has more than 72 global branches in over 55 countries catering the business needs of other companies. Wipro has a stong RD department .it is first in the world which has the certification of SEI CMM of Level 5.With the help of resources and expertise wipro has immerged as a giant in innovating technology with around one hundered thirty six patents registered on its name. Wipro understand the importance of retained customers in doing a successful business and withits hardwork and focus towards its customer it is able to achieve a mark of around 95 percent of its total earnings from its retained customers. It provides service in different countries such as: USA EUROPE CHINA Wipro bpo provides different services:- Customer service Back end office service for transactions MOTIVATION AND ITS BACKGROUND The researchers have made use of variety of concepts/theories/ideas/models to study this vast field of motivation with respect to the organizational behavior in companies.motivatin can be defined as to excite the people to focus and apply their eeforts to their best in order achieve a particular goal.today in this fast growing world of competition and globalization there is an important need for managers to have a knowledge of various theories and knowledge og organizational behavior and how to make use of them in order to improve the performance of organization.the performance of an organization majorly depends on the workforce.no organization can excel without a skillfull labor though it has other resources available such as a good infastructuer and technology etc because at the end of the day tits being used by the workforce who are actually going to produce the output.thus there is a great need for the workforce to be motivated so that they dont loose their focus and apply best o f their effort in order to produce better result and enhace the performance of an organization.few of the most coomonly used motivational theories comes from the need theories which discuss and sheds light on the needs of the people and the conditions and the way in which they want the needs to be fulfilled. The need theory comprises of the Maslows hierarchy of needs theory and it explains the five types of needs in a pyramid format with the basic needs at the lower end and then it moves upwards covering the more complicated needs of people such as social,security,esteem and sef actualization needs. So basically if a persons different needs will be fulfilled then the person will be more satisfied and feel secure and happy and will be able to focus his mind more on the work because he will be free from these basic problems and thus the worker will be able to perform efficiently and optimally.the lower end of the maslows needs hierarchy model basically discusses and focus on the physiological needs of people such as food,shelter and clothing.once these needs are fulfilled then people want that they should achieve respect and recognization in the society. Maslows theory thinks that the fulfillment of the basic needs of peope has the highest motivating potential to drive the people to perfor m and achieve them. There is another researcher alderfers who proposed ERG theory.this theory does not disuss the five needs to define the motivation but instead has a thre stage model covering the following needs:- Existence needs-these are the needs which satisfy a particular condition for an individual. Growth needs-these are the needs which give satisfaction to an individual by participation,association and contribution. Relatedness needs-these needs satisfy the people by communication. In the maslows hierarchy the basic needs are most important and most desired and must be fulfilled for the satisfaction of the people but as we move upwars in the hierarchy there are other needs which if fulfilled will be greatly appreciated by the people. Expectany theory Another motivation theory is known as expectancy theory where we define expectations for the events to occur.this is done to create an interest in minds of people and to attract them.this work as a driving force for the people in order to reach to some decided goal and in order to create some change, which will act a s motivator to perform in order to achieve it in real..ÂÂ   Motivation here can be defined as comprised of- VALENCE-it can be defined as making people understand what is the outcome or the value they are going to get EXPECTANCY-This is to make people feel that they are capable of performing a task. INSTRUMENTALITY-This is to make people feel that if people will perform the task in a desired way they will be able to get the outcome. Goal theory In this theory we set certain goals for an individual which act as a challenge for them and act as driving force to push them to workhard and achieve them. These can be of two types- 1 directional goal-here the individual is motivated to perform by telling them reason and the way to perform. 2 accuracy goal-here the individual is motivated to perform in most accurate way and this is used when stake of inaccuracy is high. SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT S AND ITS BACKGROUND TAYLOR(1856-1915) Scientific management was invented by taylor.he introduced the use of incentives which can be used as driving and motivating force.he saw that if people are given rewards or incentives for performing their task then they take more interest and give their best efforts to fulfill the task. His study was comprised of the managing skills blended with his personal experience of working in the organizations.he emphasized on use of scientific approach to solve he problems encountered in practically managing the organization.his study was focused on the incentive as a stimulus to drive people to put effort in performing the task. Managers now a days still follow the studies carried by tailor and think that his techniques of measuring task and incentive has a positive impact on the work culture.taylor thought that people not able to perform efficiently is a common thing and it happens a lot but unnecessary usage of time and unplanned use of resources resulting in no output is inexcusable. Around 20 century taylor proposed the concept of scientific management.taylor gave it the name scientific management due to the following reasons- Taylor thought that all the different steps to be performed for the production task should be carefully examined and any redundant and avoidable actions in the process should be excluded.we should check and note the improvement in the production process. We should checkout how long the tasks left will take to get completed. After the outcomes should be checked in order to know how long each task has taken to get processed and as per these findings we should renumerate and punish the quicker and slower staff correspondingly. We should adopt and apply such practices in order to improve the performance of the staff and the production process. The study was applied in different production companies and it was noted that their was considerable improvement in the production process. NEO-HUMAN RELATIONS AND ITS BACKGROUND In the concept of Neo-human relation managers try to establish a persona touch with the staff in order to motivate then to perform well and achieve the desired goal. Contrary to the scientific management approach where there is no personal touch and the stimulus is if u perform well you will be recognized and rewarded but if you fail to perform the task and achieve the desired goal then you will be penalized.Neo-human relations approach is one of the most widely used approach now a days by the managers to improve the organization behavior.in this approach managers try to focus on fulfilling the needs of their employees in order to make them satisfied and happy,so that they can focus on the main objective of the company and perform at their best to achieve that goal.this approach focus on fulfilling all the necessary needs of the people like physiological, financial needs etc.the human relation also emphasized on the arguments,thinking and attitudes of the work group. McGregor proposed the theory X and Y, Maslow theory of needs and motivation theory proposed by Herzberg.who emphasized on the higeine factors are some of the theories that addup to the research and study of the concept of neo-human relations in organizational behavior. McGregor theory X and Y has the following assumptions Theory X assumed- People who are average dont like work People are lazy They try to stay away from work They need to be supervised. Theory y assumed- people are innovative people want accountability people can guide themselves if they are led free to perform they can use their potential and show their capability and worth. Maslow theory divides the needs of a person into five categories which are the physiological,social,safety and security,self esteem and self actualization.he believed that if these needs will be fulfilled then the worker will feel satisfied and inturn will perform to achieve these needs. Herzberg proposed the two factors theory.he carried an experiment to examine the attitudes,thinking and behavior of people when they were asked about how they feel at work and the reason for their behavior. From this experiment whe concluded a two factor theory 1 hygiene factors This includes- working environment supervisors policies of the company pay and wages 2 Motivation factor This incudes- rewards opportunities to grow the work itself responsibilities recognization the neo-relations along with the scientific management approach has given a new way of improving the organizational behavior and inturn the performance of the organization Scientific management and Wipro BPO- The scientific management approach regards that every worker can be motivated by rewards and penalities depending on their performance.wipro bpo has also followed this approach and taken different steps,plans and measures in order to apply this approach to improve the performance and also to create a fair deal for the workers that if they perform well then its their benefit because they will receive promotions,rewards and recognition in the company and if they will underperform or do not perform then they should be penalized and the severity of the penality depends on the level they have underperformed.it also benefits the company because the good performers will help the company to perform well and achieve its objectives and the underperformers will get punishments such as they have to undergo special training or special supervision or have to work for extra time in order to pay for their falt or in some cases will have to resign and leave the company.This will help the underperform ers to improve them and become better performers and contribute to achieve the objective of the company and increase its performance and in case they are unable to improve them after the efforts and the special attention given to them then in that case the companies will throw these underperformers and will get rid of then.so the rewards and penalties will act as a stimulus to motivate people to focus on their job objective and to perform well. Wipro bpo has also added certain plans which are benefitial for the employer as well as for the company.the company has introduced various types of rewards and certain guidelines which the employer have to follow and have to fulfill those conditions in order to achieve them. Some of these incentives which are added to the organizational plan of the wipro bpo are mentioned below:- 1 Attendence incentive- Wipro bpo has introduced a unique and an effective scheme of attendance incentive which will reward the worker as per their punctuality and regularity in the work.since we know that the regularity of the worker is very important for the company to get the tasks done and thus by this measure Wipro Bpo is able to achieve the consistency of regularity of its workers.here the stimulus which motivate the workers to come regularly is the attendance incentive or the extra pay that they can earn.once they start coming regularly by the motivation and driving force they have recieved through this plan of attendance incentive,it will become a habit for them to become regular and punctual in their work.this will help wipro to improve its work culture. 2 processed based performance pay- Wipro has adopted another plan of processed based incentive pay wherein it provides a fair chance to the working staff to perform well and become eligible for this processed based performance pay.here the stimulus which drive the workers to perform well is the extra salary they are going to receive if they will perform well.here the company also keeps in mind that it gives the basic salary to the workers in case they are not able to perform well or underperform.this will fulfill the basic needs of the workers but at the same time when the other workers will get the reward of this extra salary for their good performance then it will create an environment of competition between the various workers and therefor to achieve the PBPP and in urge of competing with the other employees the worker will try to give his best in order to perform well and this will inturn improve the performance of the company. 3 Productivity linked incentive-This is another incentive plan where in the worker recives the reward in the form of extra pay if he will perform which proves to be productive i.e his performance will earn profit for the company.here also the stimulus or the motivating factor is to achieve this incentive by performing well which will inturn increase the productivity of the company. The other measures taken by the Wipro bpo is special training to the underperformers.for example-if you are a telecaller associate and you are unable to perform well in taking your call then wipro bpo will have a supervision on you and your team leader will pay attention to you and will also inform you that your performance is going down and will guide you and give you time to improve and prove yourself.in case you are unable to improve and consistentaly keep on underperforming then you will be placed off calls either partially like for few hours of your whole shift or fully based on the level of your underperformance and then will be given special training to improve yourself where you are lagging.incase you are unable to perforam after so much efforts from the company then you are pur on probation period for three months and if there will be extra requirement in the other processes of the company and if company thinks that you are suitable to work in that process then the company w ill take you in,otherwise you have to leave the company at the end of the mentioned probation period. The other steps taken by the company includes the promotions and to be eligible to get promoted you have to perform to a certain required level.thus the promotion act as a driving force to motivate the workers to perform well to reach their desired position and to get the recognition they always wanted.this also helps the workers to fulfill their higher level needs such as self esteem,self actualization. Thus we can see that here the wipro has used the system of rewards and penalities and has followed the taylors scientific approach of management in order to improve its performance. MOTIVATION AND WIPRO BPO- Wipro bpo has also followed different theories of motivation in order to motivate the workers to perform well.this can be seen in its thinking which it call as the spirit of wipro and also the quality of life, career and growth opportunities and the attention it gives regarding the issues related to the health and family of it employees.we have studied different theories of motivation and now we will find how wipro has made use of them to increase the performance and efficiency of its organization. Wipro gives a good salary and a working environment as well as security of job to its emloyess.as discussed earlier there are several incentives based on the way you perform within the organization.the company also has introduced various rewards and recognition within the organization which are also achievable if you perform well within the organization.thus wipro is able to fufill the lowerlevel as well as the higher level needs of its employees.According to the maslows theory of motivation he has categorized the various needs of the workers into the higher and lower level needs.the lower level needs includes phsycological needs(food,shelterand clothing),safety needs and security needs.wipro is able to fulfill these need as dicussed above by providing salary.incentives and job security to its employees.the higher level needs are self esteem and self actualization and for this purpose wipro offers various rewards,recognization and growth opportunities wherein one can perform and prov e his worth and abilities.according to maslow once these needs are fulfilled,workers feels satisfied and to achive them they perform at their best..thus this will act as a driving force or stimulus which will led the workers perform well.In this way wipro has followed the maslows hierarchy of needs to imrove the organizational behavior and the performance of the organization. According to Herzberg two factor theory which has been discussed earlier in this assignment,he has divided the theory in two parts- 1 hygiene factors 2 motivation factors Now the wipro bpo has also taken certain steps and measures to fufill these factors.wipro bpo provides a good infrastructure,facilities and working environment to its employees which includes- 24 hour cafeteria,gym,pickup and drop facilities.concierge desk,online HR help,recreation facilities etc.wipro bpo is a brand name ,a big global company which has a good business reputation,thus it provides a sence of job security to its employees.companies do business globally all over world and to maintain its standards the company has some strict policies and quality administration.company also focus on providing health facilities such as dr max onsite(an onsite service by the doctors),mediclaim and accident insurance.company also provides knowledgable and experienced supervisors and trainers who help the employees to improve their performance.thus by giving all these provisions wipro is able to focus on the fulfillment of the hygiene factors of the Herzberg two factor theory of motivation.w ipro also focus on providing good and handsome salaries to its employees along with rewards and recognition based on the way the employee performs.wipro provides multiple growth opportunities through its various programs like STEP,wings within and career mosaic.it also has a provision of inhouse education initiative through its program called seed.wipro has introduced performance management system and employee engagement program wherein one gets an opportunity of advancement and feeling of responsibility.wipro also provides different trainings(from new hire training to development training).with all these plans and provision wipro is able to fufill the motivation factors of the Herzberg two factor theory.in this way Wipro BPO has applied the herzbergs two factor theory to inprove the organizational behavior and its performance. CONCLUSION- We have discussed various concepts of organizational behavior and how these studies can be applied to improve the performance of an organization.toaday inthis modern world of business most of the companies make use on these concepts of organizational behavior to improve their efficiency and output.We have dicussed the three main concepts in detail which are motivation , scientific management approach and the noe-relations approach.we have find that this concepts contribute in their own way to the betterment of the organizations behavior and performance,which has been discussed in detail above.we have also seen that one of a veru successful company and big brand name in the business process outsourcing industry,Wipro BPO has been successful in making use of these concepts and theories and able to get benefit out of it.thus it is proved that to run the organizations successfully and to become a successful manager one should have deep knowledge and understanding of the different concept s and studies carried in the field of organizational behavior and how to apply them to improve the performance and efficiency of the organization. The Media: Reporting Of Crime The Media: Reporting Of Crime If crime has fallen to such an extent why is it that media reporting of crime levels indicate that the opposite is the case and what impact does that have on public perceptions of community safety The Home Office has been publishing statistics on crime for over 150 years. Until the 1980s it was largely reliant on police figures and in many other countries this is still the case. Statistics come from police records are a measure of police activity and are often used to gain an understanding of the performance of the police to target the use of resources, it does not mean that they are not necessarily a good measure of crime. Since the early 1980s police statistics have been supplemented by data from the British Crime Survey, which asks a representative sample of the household population about their experiences of crime over the year prior to interview. As with any victimisation survey, the BCS also has its limitations, but it is generally accepted as a more reliable measure of trends in the common types of crime against individuals or households. The need for two sources of crime statistics is undoubtedly one factor that contributes to distrust, as was acknowledged by interview ees inside and outside the Home Office. For statisticians and criminologists, the two types of data complement one another: the absence of either source would lead to huge gaps in our knowledge about crime. For the media, the public and many politicians, however, the two sources often seem to compete for attention. How easy it is for the impression of cherry-picking to take hold. This is a particular problem when the two sources of data show contradictory trends, A drop in crime, while good news, is not as newsworthy as an increase. Within an overall reduction there is likely to be a mixed picture, with some crimes going up and others down. The existence of the two data sources, which can show contradictory trends, makes it even easier either to cherry pick for something that has gone up, Well the thing is theyve got two figures that they measure crime by and ones the British Crime Survey and ones the, I think its the actual figures that are recorded by the police. And they keep changing which one theyre highlighting depending on which ones the best and so the police one is actually a much lower figure than the British Crime Survey, although the British Crime Surveys gone down a lot so theyre highlighting that. (Participant in MORI focus group). Violent crime in itself is one of those that have gone up, there were over a million violent offences recorded in 2008-2009. Violent crime has increased from 615,985 offences in 1998-9 to 1034,972, an increase of 68 percent. Gun crime (excluding air weapons) are down by 17 percent in 2008-9 but still 58 per cent higher than in 1998-9. ( Home Office, Crime in England and Wales 2008-9, 22 October 2009, Revised Table 2.04) . this goes to show how easy it is to manipulate the figures, figures could have gone down from the previous year but my still be higher than previous years, this is done to try and gain points by the government and the police. Using the example of violent crime show the strengths and weaknesses of police recorded crime figures. According to the Home Office Police statistics provide a good measure of trends in well reported crimes, are an important indicator of police workload, and can be used for local crime pattern analysis (Home Office 2004). Violent crime has always been an issue of concern for both the government and the public. One issue that remains is how reliable these statistics are, are they creating an atmosphere of panic and tension within the general public Violent crime is an issue of considerable public concern. These may include the volume and violent crimes that include; sexual offences, gun and knife crime, domestic violence, race and other hate crime. In particular, it is expected for the partners to pay close attention to the levels of domestic violence that are ongoing, as this information about crime is unlikely to be recovered through the recorded crime figures. We expect partnership s to consider how best to uphold the emphasis on tackling domestic burglary, vehicle crime and robbery. Reducing harms caused by illegal drugs is a good way to reduce it, considering how they progress and following it up by aiding them to get out of the crime world. Treatment centers and availability to enter these places for those in the Criminal Justice System and they should also set challenges and targets for vulnerable young people. Following the publication of the Governments 2004 spending review and the Home Offices new five year Strategic Plan, the Home Office will have seven new Public Service Agreement targets (PSAs) for the period March 2005 to 2007/08. It is through these targets that they will try and achieve the objectives that have been set out in the Home Office Strategic Plan. Partnership activities will influence and support delivery of all the Home Office PSAs, but their work will be especially influential in the delivery of: PSA1 (to reduce crime by 15%, and more in high crime areas, by 2007/08). PSA2 (to reassure the public, reducing the fear of crime and anti-social behaviour, and building confidence in the Criminal Justice System (CJS) without compromising fairness). PSA3 (to bring 1.25 million offences to justice in 2007/08). PSA4 (reduce the harm caused by illegal drugs including substantially increasing the number of drug misusing offenders entering treatment through the CJS). PSA6 (increase voluntary and community engagement, especially amongst those at risk of social exclusion). Partnerships will be expected to set challenging targets locally in order to reduce crime, disorder and drug related incident in their communities. Government Offices will help and support partnerships to achieve the required outcomes. Partnerships are currently ranked on rates of recorded crime per head of population but only for vehicle crime, burglary and robbery. Using the new measure produces a different list of partnerships in the top 40. The recorded crime British Crime Survey is the provider of statistics that the police record that cover the crime types that are most similar to those obtained by the BCS. As part of the delivery of PSA1 at a regional and local level, the Home Office has clear expectations of the level of performance required from each region and each partnership within it. The Regional performance indicator is the level of reduction needed regionally to support delivery of the PSA at a national level. The Home Office will use this as a regional performance in dicator to monitor the contribution, at a regional level, to the delivery of PSA1. The Home Office expects partnerships to set challenging targets to support delivery of all PSAs, as appropriate, especially PSAs 1, 2 and 4. The nature of PSA1 means that there are particular expectations of partnership performance and targets to support the 15% and more reduction. The processing of media information on crime is based on a short-term, fast-paced and surface level research, which can limit the types of information circulating, and disregard crucial issues. Often news reports of crime read information on the offender, place of crime, and victim, with little devoted to the context of how offending or victimization occurs. In addition, the medias rapid analysis and assessment of crime trends and outcomes of the implementation of public policies at the local level can hinder effective and successful prevention. Crime prevention practitioners emphasize the importance of prevention strategies which are characterized by long-term action, and based on a solid diagnosis that takes into account the complexity of the causes of crime and their interactions. Therefore, news reporting of crime is not favourable to these approaches. The way the news media represents crime often includes newsworthy stories that act on emotion more than on fact, and focus on neg ative images of crime in communities. The fact that the public rely on the media to inform us allows them to manipulate the way we feel about crime. In addition Chiricos et al (2000) finds that local and national news are related to fear of crime. The effect of local news on fear of crime is stronger for residents in high crime areas and those who experienced victimization. In terms of audience effects, fear of victimization will depend on who is viewing the crime stories. Research indicates that residents in high crime urban areas who watch a large amount of television are more likely to be afraid of crime (Doob and MacDonald, 1979; Gerbner et al, 1980). Another important factor is whether audience members have direct victim experience or share characteristics that make them crime vulnerable. Research indicates that media sources will be more meaningful when direct experience is lacking (Gunter, 1987; Liska and Baccaglini, 1990; Skogan and Maxfield, 1981). For example, Liska and Baccaglini (1990) find that media influence was strongest for females, whites and the elderly, which are segments of the population least likely to be victimized. In another study, Chiricos et al (1997) find that the frequency of watching television news and listening to the news on the radio is significantly related to fear. Their research indicates that television news consumption is significantly related to fear only for white females between the ages of 30 and 44. This is similar to other findings that suggest that watching crime on television has a greater effect for women and whites, who have low victim risk compared to males and non whites (Gerbner et al., 1980). New Labour once had a slogan: Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime. That meant: it treated criminals more harshly, but also tried harder to tackle the causes of crime. One of New Labours most remarkable political achievements, during its first term of office, was to have forged a `Third Way law and order position that has successfully challenged the idea that social democratic political parties are by definition `soft on crime'. This outlined key strategies reinforcing New Labours core governmental project of `modernization through managerialization in criminal justice. There was a focus on crime reduction and youth justice. It was pivotal to realizing New Labours long-term objective of commanding the centre ground of law and order politics in the UK. We argue that an institutionalization and normalization of managerialism is taking place to resolve the contradictions, tensions and disconnections generated by the Conservatives incomplete public sector reform project and to cr eate the basis for achieving the long held ideal of a cost-effective, efficient, seamless criminal justice system. There are controversial opinions as to whether crime has fallen due to the criminal justice policy instigated by New Labour. The idea that crime has fallen has emerged from examples from statistical evidence. However, if you were to look into these sources, together with the idea that certain aspects of crime are not considered in certain surveys, provokes inevitable controversy. This analysis explores the arguments both supporting and contradicting this statement. According to these statistics there was a rise in crime from 1981 to 1995 followed by a decrease. In 1995 the BCS figures indicated there were almost 20 million incidents, but this had decreased to just under 11 million by 2005 (Garside, 2006). New Labour came to power in 1997 and over the years has extensively increased expenditure in the criminal justice system in an effort to reduce crime by increasing the number of police officers and the number of prison places available. They introduced anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs), founded the Serious Organised Crime Agency and increased spending in the probation service, crown courts and Crown Prosecution Service (Eades, et al 2007, p.19). Since 1995 the BCS has shown that wounding has decreased by 40% and common assault by 49% and also that Labour has met its targets to reduce vehicle crime and domestic burglaries (Home Office, 2006, p.65). Combining data from ten sweeps of the British Crime Survey, it suggests that public confidence is based less on instrumental concerns about crime and more on expressive concerns about neighbourhood stability. Therefore, confidence may be driven not by fear of crime but by concerns about disorder, consistency and informal social control. Members of the public look to the police as representatives of community safety and guards as they address everyday problems and strengthen social order. To increase public confidence and decrease the fear of crime, the police need to interact more with the public and take an active part of the community and represent and defend community values, norms and morals. A very important factor when examining the impact of fear of crime, is determining whether or not the fear is proportionate to the actual incidence of crime. When the fear of crime is proportionate, people are aware of the risks associated with various personal violence offences. This level of fear or concern can encourage good personal safety habits and increased home and property security, therefore minimising the risks of becoming a victim themselves. When the fear of crime becomes disproportionate to the reality, it now becomes a negative effect on a persons lifestyle and quality of life. These effects can include: people avoiding situations and limit thier movements, sometimes to the extent that they become reluctant to leave their own home. not only do they limit where they may go but they may also refrain from doing activites that they enjoyed due to this disproportionate overwhelming fear. Police precense will make people feel more at ease and safe around their area. Educating the society about crime and crime prevention could be another way to tackle this. Getting the society involved in both crime prevention through social development and in community based justice programs such as Youth Justice Committees, supervision of youth doing Community Service work. D irect citizen involvement in justice leads to a better informed citizenry, who then are more understanding of what impacts crime and how to change it. (www.policereform.gov.uk) http://www.crimereduction.gov.uk/aud00.htm http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/assessment/monitoring-reports/index.html