Four I's Of Police Leadership

The case study of Four I’s of Police Leadership: A Case Study of Heuristics instantly starts off as an article that is neatly organized and goal orientated. It is presented in a manner that is admitting of its own mistakes but attempts to overcome them by careful planning and organization. Throughout the paper the organization presented shows the well thought out nature of the article and its focus to determine the makeup and context of police leadership. Gaining access to police agencies is often difficult because of the paramilitary structure they often make up. Those in the police agency often times have such strong bonds with one another that they need to be cautious all the time of outsiders. They also deal with the 6% of society that
are criminals on a daily basis.
The data collected for this case study revolved around the interviews of 28 Royal Canadian Mounted Police. This detachment of police officers was interviewed in a way that designated them both as leaders and followers. The importance of this was to gauge the understanding of the different spectrums of leadership. Because the police agency is based off a rank structure similar to that of the military is leadership between the ranks. A constable is showing leadership at the forefront of a situation while the corporal, sergeants, and staff sergeants are leading them. This chain of command requires leadership capabilities throughout the entire organization. The impact of this way of study is to identify and understand that all of those who were interviewed have knowledge of and opinions about being both leaders and followers.
The focus of this case study implements the theory of transformational leadership.
Transformational leadership theory is based on the fact that leaders attempt to enhance motivation, morale, and job performance through a multitude of tactics. Along with the transformational approach associated with follower’s reverence. This is achieved through a sense of collective identity which is that the organization as a whole is more important in some cases than any one man. Along with this sense of unity comes the structure that is formed around a common goal. The values of an organization and the belief that these values are worth protecting are an important influence on both the leadership and followers of the
RCMP.
Leadership in the RCMP is characterized by living and behaving in both the personal and professional aspect of the organization by the core values that it represents.
The leaders must demonstrate respect for these values and hold themselves and those around them responsible. The method that the researchers used to focus upon these values and identifying these leadership traits consisted of what they called the four I’s of police leadership. These four I’s include individualized consideration, idealized influence, inspiration motivation, and intellectual stimulation. Idealized influence in a police setting refers to leaders that serve as role models for the rest of the detachment. These leaders have the trust and respect of the followers beneath them and have been shown to make proper decisions for the organization. Inspiration motivation is used to describe leaders in a police setting that have the charismatic ability to motivate their fellow officers. Motivation is key in police settings because a lack of motivation in a job that can have a severe impact on the lives affected by their actions can result in negative consequences. Intellectual stimulation has to do with leaders in a police organization that encourage other officers to think outside the box. This is important because it is used to increase problem solving and critical thinking skills which can result in better outcomes for the many situations that the officers come across. Individual consideration involves
leaders that advice and act as role models individual officers. Because of the many stressors that the job puts on the individual it is important for leaders to keep the focus of the organization as a whole as a priority while simultaneously providing for the needs of the followers.
The methods that were used to organize and identify the researchers focus were through a series of interviews that allowed for follow-up questions. These interviews generally lasted around an hour. During these interviews the individuals were asked to tell stories and give examples to identify different leadership experiences. Some of what was hoped to be gained by these interviews included; “people’s feelings, beliefs, and values, their daily reality, routines, roles, and responsibilities, along with key events, behaviors, and outcome from the past, they also focus on their future hopes, goals, and expections (Murphy 4). To that end the resulting interviews attempt to capture the essense of what is reffered to as the human experience in their particular situation. The interviews of the 28 police personaell using the open ended questions allowed for the individual officers to feel comfortable. The goal of the open ended questions was to allow for the officers to feel open and free to express their opinions without any backlash. This was done by allowing the officers to review the transcripts and correct anything that may have been said. In some ways this can be described as putting the power back in their hands so that they did not have to rely on trusting the researchers outright.
Once the data was collected and analyzed by the researchers a conclusion was formed. The conclusion of this research ran off of the basis that transformational leaders are adequately applied to this organization because of their abilities to elevate the levels of commitment, work satisfaction, and motivation (Murphy 1). The leaders and leadership scenarios identified in this case study give way to the idea that those who demonstrate their community values, ethics, and caring attitude often find themselves taking a more dominate role in the police agency.
Some of the streangths taken by the researchers were their ability to identify the trouble spots. The first trouble area of their research was as stated previously their ability to communicate in an effective manner with the officers. Building a repore with the officers so that they can communicate in a freeing and comfortable atmosphere allowed the researchers to gain access to difficult information. The researchers accomplished this by the allowance of open ended questions along with constant communication. They also instilled a sense of trust in the officers by providing them with the raw transcripts from the interviews and allowed them to edit any details. The researchers also informed each of the interviewees that the information collected was completely confidential and would not be linked to them in any way (Murphy 4). Each and every step was completely transparent so that the researchers could maximize trust. The second strength was the fact that the data that they collected was thour analyzed using different patterns and themes which allowed for the identification of constant trends that were shared throughout the organization.
Some of the weaknesses implemented by this research were that the implementation of their practices was used only on a single police station. In order for one to accurately gauge the information given, interviewing and collecting different data from a variety of different departments would be useful. This would allow for results that could be calculated for different areas and give a better standard that could be understood by a broader base of people. Another weakness to this case study is that the researcher’s bias seems to want to confirm its own preconceived notions of what they will find. However, they do a good job at understanding their own faults and compensating for them in a way that attempts to avoid affecting the outcome.