Security and counter-terrorism have become important issues for national governments. To protect national security, governments have made substantial investments, legal frameworks have been enlarged, and police organizations and the military have been strengthened.
Although terrorist organizations and their tactics have been studied to a great extent, the quality of police organizations' readiness to cope with terrorism has not been widely researched or compared. The covert nature of counter-terrorism policies and procedures has curtailed the quality of law enforcement agencies' readiness for terrorism.
This study sought to learn how and to what degree police organizations improve their internal organizational systems of response to counter-terrorism, and how police organizations develop new policies and procedures to meet rising demands imposed by terrorism. A comparative study of the culture of the Dutch and the UK police agencies' organizational responses to terrorism was conducted. Focused police organizations' learning, change and policy initiatives in counter-terrorism were explored through interviewing with experts and gathering documentary evidence from both police organizations. The narrative interview data and documentary evidence were analyzed through a qualitative embedded comparative (multiple) case study approach.
The research discovered universal processes that are characteristic of Organizational Culture, such as organizational learning and organizational memory, and particularized adaptations to terrorism made by police agencies.
The research found that terrorist acts cause sudden organizational change. Although responses may not result in precisely similar changes, police organizations adapt to the socio-economic and political conditions of their societies. The Netherlands adapted through a unique approach of national coordination. The UK adapted differently by working toward achieving an institutional memory accompanied by grand effort in organizational learning, which required wide scale structural and operational change. Both the Netherlands and the UK adjusted well and in a manner consistent with this study's theoretical logic model. Both police organizations responded as a learning culture, which led to increased knowledge about terrorism, internal processes and structural transformation within police bureaucracy, and policy initiatives intended to investigate, prevent, intervene on, and suppress terrorists and terrorism.
The study produced the Preparedness Model of Counter-terrorism (PMCT) which is a management style. Preparedness was defined as a state of development in organizational management whose outcome concentrates organizational resources on the readiness for and the ability to act against terrorism. The Preparedness Model proposes that police organizations adequately address and respond to terrorism only if particular criteria are satisfied.