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Background
Between 2009 and 2016, the number of full time police officers in England and Wales fell by almost 20,000, meaning there are now fewer officers than there were in the late 1990s (Institute for Fiscal Studies, 2017). This change in workforce numbers suggests a greater need for effective people management in the police forces in England and Wales than ever before However, leadership in the police has typically been conceptualised in command and control terms, with a strong culture of deference to rank and centralised decision making (Bayley, 1994; Grint and Thornton, 2015; Mastrofski, 2002; Panzarella, 2003; Silvestri, 2011; Wright et al., 2008; Villiers, 2003). Herrington and Colvin (2016, p. 2) explain:
Individual leaders can operate effectively in such organisations by relying on their authority. That is, their ability to direct proceedings by virtue of others’ deference to their rank.
The complexity of contemporary policing and financial pressures on all polices forces in the UK demands a broadening set of leadership skills (Brain and Owens, 2015; Neyroud, 2011; Reiner and O’Connor, 2015; Smith, 2008). Shared or participatory leadership approaches offer a greater opportunity for officer engagement in leadership across all ranks as an alternative to the more traditional hierarchical approach. Steinheider and Wuestewald’s (2008) evaluation of a shared leadership initiative in a US police department showed significant improvements in communication, employee relations and employee motivation. In Germany, Masal’s (2015) survey demonstrated support for shared leadership and found transformational police leaders had a positive influence on shared leadership practices through goal clarity and job satisfaction. Craig et al. (2010)’s UK study of shared leadership in the policing of minority ethnic communities illustrates the utilisation of shared leadership in community engagement. However, these studies draw attention to the challenges of adopting alternative leadership practices in hierarchical command-oriented environments like the police. Shared leadership arrangements, for example, place considerable demands on working practices and training (Craig et al., 2010) and importantly the effectiveness of these approaches is reliant on the support and commitment of senior leadership (Steinheider and Wuestewald, 2008). The authority of rank, in other words, continues to be an important driver in the acceptance of alternative leadership practices in police organisations (Herrington and Colvin, 2016).
Police leadership is also increasingly conceptualised in managerialist...