CJASR4
Administration and Management in Criminal Justice
Chapter 7: Leadership
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What is Leadership
- Very difficult to define; no agreement on definition
- Two characteristics of leadership
- Influencing members of a group
- Directing the group’s effort toward the achievement of organizational goals
Administration and Management in Criminal Justice
Chapter 7: Leadership
Administration and Management in Criminal Justice Chapter 7: Leadership
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What do Leaders do? How is Leadership Behavior Explained?
- Some examples
- They change follower behaviors
- They overcome resistance
- They work toward the achievement of goals
- The coordinate ideas, people, and resources
- How do we explain leadership behavior?
- Traits
- Behaviors
- Contingency theories
- Transactional leadership
- Change leadership theories (e.g., transformational leadership)
Administration and Management in Criminal Justice
Chapter 7: Leadership
Administration and Management in Criminal Justice Chapter 7: Leadership
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Trait Theories: Overview
- Certain characteristics or traits are assumed to be linked with effective leadership
- Implication Leaders were born rather than made since characteristics were inherent in person
- Examples
- Honesty
- Integrity
- Sense of achievement
- Self confidence
- People skills
Administration and Management in Criminal Justice
Chapter 7: Leadership
Administration and Management in Criminal Justice Chapter 7: Leadership
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Trait Theories: Criticisms and Current Status
- Focused on what people are rather than what they do
- A police office is promoted to sergeant based on exam scores. Does their intelligence necessarily translate into strong leadership behaviors?
- Research has not consistently found links between traits and leadership
Administration and Management in Criminal Justice
Chapter 7: Leadership
Administration and Management in Criminal Justice Chapter 7: Leadership
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Behavioral Approaches: Overview
- Focus on actual leadership behavior rather than characteristics
- Ohio State University studies identified two different dimensions of leadership behavior
- Consideration: tend to employee needs; caring; two way communication
- Initiating structure: set goals and standards of performance; focused on completing task
- Problem: studies could not determine best combination of behaviors that resulted in positive outcomes
Administration and Management in Criminal Justice
Chapter 7: Leadership
Administration and Management in Criminal Justice Chapter 7: Leadership
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Contingency Theories
- Also referred to as situational theories
- Summary
- There is no one best style of leadership
- The best style depends (it is “contingent” upon) the situation
- Examples of contingency theories (differ based on the contingencies or variables considered)
- Fiedler’s contingency theory
- Hersey and Blanchard’s contingency theory
- Path-goal theory
- Vroom and Yetton’s model
Administration and Management in Criminal Justice
Chapter 7: Leadership
Administration and Management in Criminal Justice Chapter 7: Leadership
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Fielder’s Contingency Theory
- Two leadership styles: determined by least preferred co-worker scale (positive description=relationship; less positive=task)
- Relationship-oriented: similar to consideration
- Task-oriented: similar to initiating structure
- Contingency variables
- Group atmosphere
- Task structure
- Position power
Administration and Management in Criminal Justice
Chapter 7: Leadership
Administration and Management in Criminal Justice Chapter 7: Leadership
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Fielder’s Contingency Theory (cont’d)
- Operation
- When all contingencies are favorable or unfavorable, a leader should adopt a task-oriented style.
- When contingencies are mixed, a relationship-oriented approach should be used.
- Criticisms
- The LPC measure suggests that leadership is one dimensional (a person is high in one style or the other)
- LPC score is a trait that does not change much; a person’s style is fixed
Administration and Management in Criminal Justice
Chapter 7: Leadership
Administration and Management in Criminal Justice Chapter 7: Leadership
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Hersey and Blanchard’s Contingency Theory
- Leadership styles
- Telling
- Selling
- Participating
- Delegating
- Contingencies
- Psychological readiness: are followers willing/eager/confident to perform task?
- Task readiness: are followers able to perform task?
Administration and Management in Criminal Justice
Chapter 7: Leadership
Administration and Management in Criminal Justice Chapter 7: Leadership
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Hersey and Blanchard’s Contingency Theory (cont’d)
Administration and Management in Criminal Justice
Chapter 7: Leadership
Administration and Management in Criminal Justice Chapter 7: Leadership
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Path-Goal Theory
- Leadership behavior
- Supportive: open, friendly
- Directive: telling workers what to do
- Participative: consults workers; allows them to participate in decision-making
- Achievement-oriented: trust workers to be highly productive
- Contingencies
- Personal characteristics of group members: skill, abilities, willingness to perform
- Work environment: clarity of task; power
- Style depends on contingencies as examples illustrate
- Unclear task requires directive behavior
- Achievement-oriented style used when workers are confident and able to perform task
Administration and Management in Criminal Justice
Chapter 7: Leadership
Administration and Management in Criminal Justice Chapter 7: Leadership
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Vroom and Yetton’s Model
- Leadership involves effective decision-making
- Quality of decisions determines whether goals are achieved
- Including subordinates in decision-making can improve process
- Amount of subordinate involvement depends upon a variety of factors including:
- Amount of information available to subordinates
- Amount of time available to make decisions
Administration and Management in Criminal Justice
Chapter 7: Leadership
Administration and Management in Criminal Justice Chapter 7: Leadership
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Transactional Leadership Theory
- Focuses on interaction between leader and followers
- Two interaction processes
- Contingent reward leadership: manager helps subordinate reach goals by providing structure, support, goals
- Management by exception: manager interacts only when subordinate deviates from expectations (e.g., violates standards)
- Active
- Passive
Administration and Management in Criminal Justice
Chapter 7: Leadership
Administration and Management in Criminal Justice Chapter 7: Leadership
Active- try to anticipate mistakes
Passive- provide negative feedback at performance evaluation time
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Change Leadership Theories
- Rather than just focus on how leaders and groups interact, these theories focus on how leaders can change an entire organization
- Examples (collectively called outstanding leadership theories)
- Charismatic leadership
- Transformational leadership
Administration and Management in Criminal Justice
Chapter 7: Leadership
Administration and Management in Criminal Justice Chapter 7: Leadership
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Charismatic Leadership
- Generate organizational change by having personality characteristics that draw people in (motivating/inspiring)
- Earn the trust and confidence of followers
- Motivate followers to aspire to higher levels of motivation (recall Maslow’s hierarchy)
Administration and Management in Criminal Justice
Chapter 7: Leadership
Administration and Management in Criminal Justice Chapter 7: Leadership
William Bratton, former NYPD and LAPD commissioner, is an example.
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Transformational Leadership
- Leaders work to change the organization by motivating subordinates to achieve higher levels of performance
- Process for inspiring subordinates
- Increase their awareness of the importance of the task
- Make them aware of their own need for growth and development
- Motivate them to fulfill their growth and development needs and be a part of the organization’s success
- Additional elements: inspirational motivation; intellectual stimulation; idealized influence; individualized consideration
Administration and Management in Criminal Justice
Chapter 7: Leadership
Administration and Management in Criminal Justice Chapter 7: Leadership
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Leadership Styles
- One of the most famous examples of leadership style is the Managerial Grid (Blake and Mouton)
- Two axis in the grid
- Concern for people (consideration)
- Concern for results (initiating structure)
- Combinations result in five leadership styles
- Team management: high people, high results
- Control and dominate: low people, high results
- Yield and comply: high people, low results
- Balance and compromise: mid-range people and results
- Evade and elude: low people and low results
Administration and Management in Criminal Justice
Chapter 7: Leadership
Administration and Management in Criminal Justice Chapter 7: Leadership
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Leadership Skills
- The assumption is that these can be developed through training/education
- Derived from the Competing Values Framework
- Clan skills: interpersonal skills
- Adhocracy skills: address future issues and promote change (e.g., create a vision)
- Hierarchy skills: manage time/stress, keep control
- Market skills: motivate others; manage external relationships
Administration and Management in Criminal Justice
Chapter 7: Leadership
Administration and Management in Criminal Justice Chapter 7: Leadership
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Criminal Justice Organizations
- Generally dominated by authoritarian (transactional) leadership approaches
- A growing body of research suggest that criminal justice workers prefer more transformation or participative styles
- Results in higher productivity and job satisfaction
Administration and Management in Criminal Justice
Chapter 7: Leadership
Administration and Management in Criminal Justice Chapter 7: Leadership
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