The Art of ‘Flexing’: Translating a New Vision of Police Leadership from the Top

Women police leaders in Europe: A tale of prejudice and patronage

“…As police organizations across the world face new internal and external challenges, the police leader has assumed an increasingly prominent place in both academic and policy discourses (College of Policing, 2015; Davis and Silvestri, 2020; Ramshaw et al, 2019). Tasked with the responsibility of responding to and navigating complex and challenging environments, there is growing concern and criticism over the composition and quality of police leadership.…”

Exploring strategic perspectives on the Special Constabulary

“…[10C]The literature on police leadership reflects the huge breadth and depth of challenges faced by police leaders and shaping future leadership models in policing (cf. Ramshaw and Simpson, 2019). The findings in this study reflect associated difficulties for police leaders to bring to the leadership of Special Constabularies the expertise, training and attention required, in the light of the many wider competing demands on modern police leadership.…”

“…As Ramshaw and Simpson (2019: 65) argue ‘leadership style at the top is key to driving structural and operational change’; a negative or constraining culture ‘at the top’ in respect of police leadership of the Special Constabulary will reflect on cultural engagement, volunteer support and development, and upon deployment and impact, but in particular it will also shape the growth and innovation of models of the Special Constable role in the future. Sitting alongside these challenges, the senior leaders additionally reflected that Special Constables are a relatively neglected, low-salience issue for their senior leadership teams, with only very limited space for strategic consideration.…”

“…Reflecting these strategic contexts there is increased interest and emphasis across the police leadership literature in a shift from ‘command and control’, transactional models towards leadership styles that are more participatory, shared, transformational and inclusive (Cockcroft, 2020; Masal, 2014; Silvestri, 2007). Such changes in models of leadership are identified as encompassing more ‘innovative’ styles (Davis and Bailey, 2018), viewed as important in the achievement of longer-term change and doing things differently (Cockcroft, 2014; Ramshaw and Simpson, 2019).…”

“…While the expanding literature on police leadership has involved little or no direct consideration of the Special Constabulary, the broader discourse on police leadership raises some interesting questions for the strategic leadership and direction of Special Constabularies. There is recognition of how leadership in policing needs to ‘change to better meet the needs of modernisation and reform agendas’ and to reflect ‘a multiplicity of demands’ (Ramshaw and Simpson, 2019: 48), recognising the complex and contradictory strategic pressures on policing (Davis and Bailey, 2018), and the challenges of achieving organisational (Hoggett et al ., 2018) and evidence-based (Huey et al ., 2018) reforms.…”