Use of the transformational leadership model in police management

Abstract

The law enforcement system, like other governmental structures, is a very conservative mechanism showing no tendency towards swift changes in the style, methods and techniques of their work, as well as leadership and management style. Despite the fact that the police reform in Russia has already been going for more than four years since its launch, the Russian law enforcement services and their work still remain the object of incessant critique both from policing practitioners and theorists. In this study, we provide a review and description of the 'cooperative' system of police leadership and management which has been adopted in Germany and some other EU countries. Not always perceived unanimously, this model allows an organisation to keep off authoritarian tendencies in leadership when both the responsibility for and performance of a function/role falls entirely on the same person who is a boss or executive of some level. Based on a review of recent policing studies in Europe, we have attempted to bring out both negative and positive aspects of the different models of leadership and management in the law enforcement. The goal of our description is to outline - for the Russian reader - leadership practices adopted in the German police, along with offering a critical enquiry into the styles and methods of police management in today's context. Today, both in Europe and Russia, prevailing is the traditional authoritarian system of management and leadership in police forces, which in our view does not fit well with the current requirements and needs of our ever changing and globalizing society; at the same time, policing research offer practically no international studies and only exhibit very segmentary, incomplete works on this issue. At the same time, we have evidence (and offer it below) that police leadership practitioners are beginning to think more favourably of transformational, transactional and cooperative methods of directing their organisations, which definitely goes beyond any traditional perceptions of what the authoritarian leadership model in police should be. We believe that the present study will be of use for practical leaders (managers) in the police forces of Russia and, possibly, other CIS or post-Soviet states where the tradition of 'soviet' leadership style has not been fully overcome yet