From the bottom‐up: sharing leadership in a police agency

Challenges for Police Leadership: Identity, Experience, Legitimacy and Direct Entry

“…Questions need to be raised about the future of police leadership and how it can address this identity dilemma. This paper suggests that police leaders (DE, FT and existing) need to convince officers that they understand, represent, and can advance the interests of the police and has identified potential ways in which this might be achieved from previous research (Anderson et al 2002;Toch 2008;Sklansky and Marks 2008;Steinheider and Wuestewald 2008;Wood et al 2008;Haake et al 2015). If they can achieve this, then evidence from social and organizational psychology suggests that they will be regarded as more trustworthy, fair, and charismatic and therefore more able to influence and lead junior officers and make decisions that would otherwise be unpopular (Haslam et al 2001;Reicher et al 2005).…”

“…What the analysis suggests therefore is that DE and FT officers need to find ways in which they can convince followers that they are representative of them before they can lead them . Previous research such as Steinheider and Wuestewald (2008) suggests that creating a model for shared leadership might be one such way of enabling senior officers to understand junior officer perspectives and create an inclusive vision of policing and how it can best be achieved which is seen as representative.…”

“…This vision, if seen to be inclusive of and developed from rank-and-file officers as well as police leaders could help stimulate followership and lead the service through the challenges and changes it is facing (Toch 2008;Sklansky and Marks 2008;Steinheider and Wuestewald 2008;Wood et al 2008). Where followers perceive that the leader is acting for the group rather than themselves, because they are attuned to what matters to the group, and are believed to be committed to advancing their cause, then followers will embrace the leader's vision as their own .…”

“…For example, by creating organizational contexts that seek to unify officers (Haake et al 2015), giving officers an outlet for their voices to be heard, listened to, and utilized in decision-making processes (Steinheider and Wuestewald 2008) or through demonstrating increased social support from within the organization, developing open consultative communication strategies, and demonstrating trust in junior officers (Finn 1997;Anderson et al 2002). However, to fully embrace and embed such developments, there is also a requirement to recognize the need to make changes to police leadership training to move away from a solely trait-based leader centric focus.…”

“…This suggests that efforts will therefore need to be made to bridge what Rowe (2006) calls the credibility gap between frontline officers and these new police leaders. Research has identified a range of strategies that could be adopted to address these credibility issues including making junior officers feel more involved and valued in decision-making processes (Steinheider and Wuestewald 2008) or leaders actively creating organizational contexts that prevent an internal us versus them mentality developing between top management and other tiers within the police (Haake et al 2015;Schaveling et al 2017). …”