Criminology

Profound change is rarely aimed for in the police and law enforcement field. Most of the time what happens is that traditional, conventional practices are passed on from one generation to the next.  Sometimes too, hopes for real, big change to improve community-based policing and professional standards, to strengthen community relationships, and to boost police morale, among many other aspirations fall as mere lip service.  It obviously pays that leaders has a full grasp of his role in leading.  For change to happen, ambition and execution must be coupled with leadership.

For anyone leading, there are big and small challenges to contend with. The highly unpredictable and tumultuous environment is one such challenge. Also, employees who vent their resentments and dejection on the organizational system and their leaders are continuously a major leadership dilemma.  These two concerns generally test the skills of anyone leading.  Apart from all these, leaders have to grapple with the constant challenge of balancing competing concerns and priorities due to expectations to meet more with fewer resources.  Leading then requires that challenges are determined first before one can begin work.  If change is called for amidst challenge, there are certain ingredients that must be met.    

Leader As Driver of Change
As a driver of change, the role played by the leader is very central in leading an organization to reach its goals and ultimately see its vision come to fruition.  As one afforded the authority in a team or organization such as a police force, the Chief of Police as leader will have to set the stage on which superb member performance within a team context will play out.  To do so, he will always be within police rank constantly, physically, spiritually, emotionally and intellectually.

In Managing Behavior in Organization, Jerald Greenberg (1999) defines leadership as a process of influencing people to achieve a set of goals or objectives that an organization set.  The said definition appears to need some elaboration, making it open for interpretations.  Leadership Texas HoldEm Style authors Andrew Harvey and Raymond Foster (2007) provides a more detailed elaboration, referring to leadership more as an art than science in the way leaders must demonstrate to members the way to follow in directions and places they might not ordinarily be inclined to go.

Leadership must go beyond mere title or role given to one leading. To be effective, the one leading must be capable and willing to coach, to mentor, to support through gently guiding his followers (Foster and Harvey 2007).  It is also expected that the leader constantly guide, criticize, nourish, reject, test and educate his subordinates and make them understand all these are part of the process.  To this end, the leader strives hard to push the team members far beyond what they ever individually thought they could achieve.    

Experts consider leadership a very complex process that involves social relationships that is constantly affected by coalescing factors.  Transformational changes occur as a result of the many attempts at comprehending leadership in a multitude of perspectives.  These factors include the leaders attributes, important tasks, relationship with subordinates, and several others.  Given these discourses, it would be amiss to be contented with arguments that leaders are born and they possess personal qualities that qualifies him to lead (Pierce  Newstrom 2003).

As the definition further evolves, personality of the leader it is said must be looked at in determining the leader.  Stogdill (1948) shows what these personality factors are which are associated with leadership  1) intelligence, 2) dependability, 3) persistence, 4) self-confidence, 5) adaptability, and many others.  Later leadership studies looked into the influence of behavior on the followers performance and satisfaction (Bowers  Seashore 1996).  There are two major behavioral classes identified by experts involved here, namely  1) consideration (e.g., behavior that reflects friendship, warmth, trust), and 2) initiating structure (behavior defining roles and responsibilities, providing directions, instructions) (Bowers  Seashore, 1966).

Effective leadership requires the basic know-how of determining future visions (Stanley, 2004).  In such group or organization, the leader develops a vision the team will cling to.  He must be a powerful conduit of ideas and source of great visions.  He shares the vision with his team to own and he pushes his powerful vision into the fabric of his organization or team.  He also makes sure such vision is energizing and compelling enough to inspire the individual members to take part and find a way together with the team to make it a reality.  The purpose of the vision is to act as the glue that will unite together the team together as much for what it means for them individually as for what it means for team as a collective whole.  As such, leaders must be good at making the ambiguous situations clear, Smircich and Gareth echo that such attribute helps foster positive relationship between the leader and members (Smircich  Morgan, 1982).

What the leader must do is to allow his leadership traits to fit in within the requirements of the situations.  Stogdill (1948) explained that followers own set of characteristics and goals are what made up the other part of situations.  Few more studies suggest that certain factors contribute in influencing the leaders effectiveness in performing ones role.  These conditions include time, urgency of work to be done, nature of the work, degree of autonomy, hierarchy of management personnel, and more (Pierce  Newstrom, 2003).

Individual members are consciously emulating the vision espoused by their leaders because, if they trust their leaders, they believe this will help the group reach its goals.  Malphurs (2004) explains that the leaders values reflect the organization one is affiliated, and it is logical to assume that members make meaning out of these visions and shape their outlook for the benefit of the organization.  Leadership then is the function of the whole situation and not one that resides only in one person.  Hence, the leader empowers people and gives them the chance to use and express their talent, reach their potential and also achieve success.

Several well-established theories and approaches that emerged are continuously evolving to truly meet what makes for effective leadership.  In the past, insights and knowledge about the industry and trends, persuasiveness and strategic thinking, are already thought of as pertinent qualities that will make for an effective leader.  Hence, new approaches to leadership styles and processes are revolutionizing the old school thinking.  Today, the leaders success hinges on sound leadership styles with the internal and external environments ever-changing nature.

Skills of an Effective Leader
In most traditional police enforcement setting, the leader derive his ideas mostly from traditional sources.  The leader rarely has a conscious sense where he gets his ideas from that is why it is mostly hit or miss.  In contrast with an organization who embraces change, the leader is one who is obsessed with new ideas and is always eager to listen for the next big thing.

The leader who bids for big change are fully aware that if he has a team comprised of the best people obtainable the likelihood is high to get great idea.  As one who is dedicated to the advancement and personal learning within his field of expertise, the leader makes sure he is able to influence the members to do the same.  Hence, the leader makes sure he constantly broaden his appreciation for a wide range of interests in order to build better insights into his field of expertise.      

As one who plays central role in the all aspects of the teams activities, the leader then must take an active interest in the work of others.  He avoids whats commonly practiced in the police force whereby traditional leaders are narrowly focused on his own work and sparing time to be interested in the work of others is rarely done.  He also shows that learning must be encouraged so he makes sure an environment where everybody is always learning is created.
The leader must also not just able to attract great individual talent, he must also build team around the talents promise. Unlike what others do, the leader who embrace change must not consider talent as only subordinate to the teams objectives.  

The Most Important Tasks of Leader
To propel change in the organization, ambition and sound leadership are two factors that must go hand in hand.  In the law enforcement field, risks and confusions in carrying out duties or performing tasks sometimes occur that in the leaders graceful guidance subordinates fully understand and learn what to do or how to behave.  Thus, there are important tasks that the leader must carry out to cultivate a place for talent within the organization to facilitate the creation of several teams, field by field, who are committed to fulfill the vision of the organization.

The leader must also be concerned with his members.  It must be his prerogative to know the individual members strengths and weaknesses.  Once determined, the leader can design an approach to cultivate the members potentials or talents and to introduce programs or trainings to tweak weaknesses discovered along the way.  The leader likewise must be ready as well to know about his own strengths and weaknesses, identifying which to improve and harness.

In theory, the Path-Goal Theory argues that leaders play great role in achieving the goals by helping their members.  The individual members do their best when they feel the leader support them achieve the goals set.  When the leader is accessible, the member can personally clarify issues that need to be addressed, which in turn will benefit the organization since members are empowered to support the leaders all the way to the top.  The task of the leader is to constantly motivate the members that their dedication and commitment will benefit them as well because rewards and recognition are given.

Moreover, achieving organizational change entails that the leader be able to drive the organizational culture, vision and action within the group.  As one of the most important aspects in leading, the leader then over-stretch the group to achieve the set goals. He pushes the individual members far beyond what they ever individually thought could achieve.  He also recruits the very best talent and never settle for what is available.

To best understand this, we look into Fred Fiedler-developed Contingency Leadership model which argues the best way that the leader may demonstrate among individual members of his team his concerns production or people.  The assumption of the theory is that the leader plays great role in the superb performance of his members under two contingent factors  the motivational style of the leader and the situation  that in turn render the leader with maximum power and influence (Fiedler, 1972).

From here, we discuss what influences the leadership style because such is necessary in the way that the leader will perform his tasks.  Shaw and and Lau (2000) define leadership as patterns of philosophy, beliefs, attitudes, feelings and assumptions that affect ones individual behavior.  Using this definition, it shows that the leaders position and behavior in dealing with members can obviously impact leadership style.  When the right leadership style is employed, leaders may become effective.  The Situational Leadership model suggests that such may be depended with the followers maturity, which may be affected by the degree of knowledge or skills that the member possesses, and the degree of the members willingness to follow.  Under this theory, the leader must be able to  1) diagnose the situations, 2) identify appropriate behavioral style, and 3) implement appropriate response.

In order to develop ways that will ensure that theories and practice help in the honing leaders for the police enforcement field, the conduct of review and integration need to be addressed, apart from an examination of various theories and definitions to determine which ones best suit the requirements of the situation.

Leadership Practiced This Way Means Change

When a police force is led this way, the organization and the community it is serving can expect dramatic change to unfold, at the back of the balance that will happen between freedom and direction that characterizes the way the group or organization work. In such setting, the members are not left out of the governance process when the leader give out direction.    

Southern Californian Police Department, known among many small city police units for its progressive style of police enforcement, is not immune to problems commonly encountered in the field.  Among these issues that must be addressed  meeting demands for competent police force, administrative decision, among others  require leadership style that embrace change and high regard for the individual members talent and contributions.

There are other issues  maintaining impartiality and independence  that emerge as two of the ways that make much of the problems in the law enforcement unique to its environment.  Minus an approved set of scheme that the leader espouses or approved, police enforcers in the rank may not be able to perform their roles effectively.  The same dilemma may be encountered by the leader themselves in the same situation.

The leader or the Chief of Police in this regard must be technically and conceptually proficient, as well as humanistically equipped in leading and carrying out the organizational roles in the community.  With Theoretical proficiency, this means the leader has the ability to sense and execute tasks even by the individual members. Secondly, the human skills meanwhile may be defined as the ability by the leader to handle people by showing the right attitude, sensitivity, self-awareness, and flexibility.  Lastly with conceptual skills, the leader may be expected to possess a wide ability to see the whole picture or scenario in any given situation, needed to develop the solution to a particular problem.  

Conclusion
Leading a police enforcement force may not have to be difficult and stoic with the conventional or risk-aversed practices of old.  The leading may sometimes have to cross boundaries and adopt practices that will best meet the organizations vision for change to happen.  Change is about ambition and leadership and the path to adoption of the best leadership style may not at first be easy but when thoroughly understood, can prove helpful for the organization, the team leader and the individual members.

When the Southern Californian Police Department, whose operating principles lie in its commitment to helping its people excel, and the enrichment of the security of the community where it serve, will adopt the proposed major tasks for leaders, the people will see the dawn of old-timer wisdom about leading and instead improve the leadership standards for the organization.

The success of such endeavor is likely given in the way the organization embrace appropriate leadership principles. Such may manifest in the way it handles training and mobilizing of the individual member.  Hence, to make effective leadership practice to prosper, understanding must be arrived at to achieve correct and logical understanding of the roles or functions a leader must possess, together with the awareness that this work calls one to adhere to the highest ethical standards.