High rates of absenteeism and a public mistrust of riot-control measures are two of the areas targeted by the North's Policing Board in its new three-year plan.
The board also brokered a compromise in the dispute over the role to be played at the first graduation of PSNI recruits by the Garda Commissioner by clarifying that Mr Byrne would be an "honoured guest" and not a reviewing officer.
At the moment each police officer is sick for an average of 23 days a year, with the figure for civilian staff at 16.5 days.
Almost all the police sick days, however, are taken by a hard core of only 40 per cent of officers.
Announcing its first three-year strategic plan yesterday, the policing board's chairman, Prof Desmond Rea, said it wanted to see the average number of sick days lost per officer reduced by more than 20 per cent next year to 18.5 days.
"We do not think that 18.5 days is acceptable, but we need to address the problem from where we come to it," he said.
The PSNI Deputy Chief Constable, Mr Colin Cramphorn, who takes over as acting chief constable from April 1st, said morale, at a time of huge change for officers, was only part of the problem and studies were being done on the issue at the moment.
"We need to look at it in great detail so that we really understand what is going on here because we can't afford to make assumptions." The board also set a target of achieving a 51 per cent level of public confidence in the police service's handling of public order situations.
Prof Rea said it would have set a higher target, but recent surveys had shown that levels of only 42 per cent were currently being achieved so that 52 per cent at this stage would be an achievement.
Other targets set included the reduction of domestic burglaries by 3 per cent, vehicle thefts by 2 per cent and thefts from vehicles by 2 per cent.
The board also called for an increase in the value of illicit drugs seized in Northern Ireland.
Prof Rea said the targets were only for one year.
Mr Ian Paisley jnr, one of the board's members, said the targets would not be met if the British government did not make up the £15 million shortfall between the police service's budget and its expenditure for next year.