Criminal Justice Leadership Strategies and Practices

          Criminal justice administration continues to attract more criticism from the public. Leadership of this department needs to develop appropriate and effective strategies that will help improve the performance of police as well as other administrators of criminal justice. Leadership determines the culture which in turn affects the performance of the organization. According to Casimir, (2010), supportive leadership effectiveness has a positive impact on performance. Supportive, instrumental and collaborative leadership styles are components of an effective leader, which influences culture and performance, (Mannion, 2009).Criminal justice and Organizational Culture

a) Supportive leadership style

Administration of criminal justice requires the support of leaders within the organization. Supportive leadership enhances working relationship between leaders and their followers. According to Shah, (2011), this style of leadership enhances friendly working environment for employees. This improves employees’ performance in their quest to administer justice for all in a fair and appropriate manner. This culture has proved to be effective in many organizations that administer criminal justice.

b) Participative or collaborative culture

This type of culture is similar to effective leadership style and is equally prominent. It is common in large organizations and therefore relevant in criminal justice department. Employees work in collaboration to achieve the goal of the organization. The collaboration of the organization with relevant stakeholders is necessary in providing justice to the public.

c)  Instrumental or team building culture

Instrumental leadership style is goal oriented culture in the organization based on team building within the organization. This is very essential in administration of criminal justice. Leaders in criminal justice department should develop team work among their employees for them to attain organizational goals.

d) The culture of effective leadership

Effective leadership is essential in improving the performance of the organization. Organizational culture revolves around leadership’s commitment and participation in the tasks of the organization, (Lock & Crawford, 1999).  Effective leadership is therefore, affected by culture which in turn impacts on the performance of the organization. Effective leaders must therefore, be supportive of the employees, must collaborate and should also be able to build team culture.

e) Cultural dimensions

Cultural dimension which include among others, attention to detail, risk taking, stability, people orientation, team orientation, aggressiveness and innovation. They lead employees’ motivation to perform and they affect effectiveness of the leader. This is essential in criminal justice department.

Criminal justice and Behavioral Theory

Contingency theory

This theory advocates matching of leadership style to the situation. This theory proposes matching of different leadership styles to a team of employees and organizational goals. This theory is further divided into two theories, namely; the path-goal theory and situational theory.

Path goal theory

This theory suggests that effective leaders should be able to assist their subjects attain their goals in life. In criminal justice department, leaders should be able to help their junior police officers to realize their goals through motivation. This may be achieved through assigning tasks according to individual’s ability and skills. Leaders should also provide advice, direction, counseling and rewards to their employees.

Situational Theory

This proposes changing the leadership strategies and styles in different circumstances. According to this theory, different situations call for different types of leadership. For instance, leaders should be able to change leadership style in relation to the abilities of the employees.

Transactional theory

This is a contract form of leadership in which both parties agree on the terms work in advance. Employee or follower is obliged to take orders from the leader to perform a task and the reward is given on completion of the assigned task. This is applied in administration of criminal justice because it involves taking orders from the leader and also in engaging the services of private investigators to carry out certain tasks.

Transformational theory

This are leaders that engage their subjects, bring trust and creates connection to bring about motivation and moral and boost performance, (Northouse, 2001). They focus on others to help them realize their potential and increase productivity. Transformational leaders are generally visionary leaders.

Criminal justice and Planning

Planning objectives

Planning is undertaken in order to prepare an organization for the future. A strategic plan specifies activities to perform by different people, how they will be performed and when they should be performed plus the resources. It is a means of predicting the future and prescribes course of actions to achieve the planned objectives, (Blatstein, 2012). Planning is an integrated process consisting of different types planning. There are three main types of planning in organizations, namely strategic plan, operational plan and results management process.

Strategic planning

Strategic plan should ensure that organization is able to respond to dynamic changes within the environment. A good strategic planning should describe the current status of the organization; specify where it wants to go and how it will get there, (Blatstein, 2012). An effective leader should be able to develop an effective strategic plan that will positively influence the future of an organization.

Benefits of strategic planning

Strategic planning is very beneficial to criminal justice department in the US. The plan helps criminal justice department to think strategically. It provides a vision and clarifies the future direction for the department. In addition, it helps them to deal effectively with the changing environment. A good strategic plan promotes teamwork and will assists in solving major organizational problems and improve performance, efficiency and productivity, (Bryson, 1988).

Planning process

The first step in strategic planning is development of an initial agreement. (Bryson & Einsweiler, 1988). This agreement consists of the purpose of the plan, the steps to be undertaken and the resources to used. The plan then identifies and clarifies external mandates imposed on the organization. These are usually contained in the legislation for most public organizations. Stakeholders’ analysis is undertaken to incorporate their views in the plan.

Assessment of environment strategy development

Both internal and external environment are assessed to determine organization’s strengths and weakness as well as threats and opportunities. This analysis is very essential in organizations that administer criminal justice. It helps them to develop effective and realistic strategies. Identification of strategic issues is followed by strategy development for the organization. Finally, the plan should describe the organization in the future, (Bryson & Einsweiler, 1988).

Criminal justice and community relations

Public evaluation of criminal justice

Research has shown that a variety of factors can influence public confidence and satisfaction with the police. Skogan (2006) identified personal attributes such as race, age, socioeconomic status and neighborhood factors to influence public confidence on the police.

Race and criminal justice administration

For instance, research in the US revealed that black minorities tend to provide less favorable rating of police conduct than white citizens. This is consistent with similar research conducted in Australia which showed a volatile relationship between the police and ethnic minority groups.

Age and criminal justice administration

Young people tend to have more contact with the police than older people. They are therefore, more likely to be the victims of violent crime as compared to older people. The frequent negative contacts are likely to result into lower ratings about the police by younger age groups, (Skogan & Steiner, 2004).

Socioeconomic status and criminal justice administration

Research has shown that people of high socioeconomic status tend to support police and are more likely to rate the police positively than those in lower socioeconomic class, (Correia, 2000). It is therefore, believed that police tend to be differential towards middle and high class groups of people to gain positive evaluations from influential members of the society.

Significance of differences in opinions on public justice

Examination of demographic differences in opinions provides criminal justice department with useful information on how personal attributes impacts on ratings of the criminal justice department. The rating of police by citizens depends on demographic characteristics among others. Contact of individuals with the police significantly affects how people evaluate the police, (Murphy, 2009).

Conclusions

Effective leadership is the essential in achieving high performance and ratings within the criminal justice. Public rating of police depends on demographic factors as well as the frequency of contacts between an individual and the police. Therefore, procedural justice influences how people evaluate the police and the criminal justice department.

References

Below, P. J., Morrisey, G. L., & Acomb, B. L. (1987). The Executive Guide to Strategic Planning, San Francisco: Josse Base.

Blatstein I, M. (2012). Strategic Planning: Predicting or Shaping The Future? Organization Development Journal, 30(2), 31-38.

Bryson, J, A. (1988). A Strategic Planning Process for Public and Non-profit Organizations. Long Range Planning, 21(1), 73- 81.  

Bryson, J, M and Einsweiler, R, C. (1988). Strategic Planning for Public Purposes-Concepts, Tools and Cases, The Planners’ Press of the American Planning Association, Chicago, IL and Washington, D.C.

Skogan, W. and Steiner, L. (2004). Community policing in Chicago: Year ten. Chicago, IL: Criminal Justice Information Authority.

Casimir, G. (2010). Combinative aspects of leadership style and the interaction between leadership behaviors. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 31 (6), 501-517.

Lok, P & Crawford, J. (1999). The relationship between commitment and organizational culture, subculture, leadership style and job satisfaction in organizational change and development. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 20(7), 365-373.

Mannion, K. (2009). Leadership for success. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 30 (7), 639-648.

"How to Make Money Online Tutorials." N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Mar. 2016. <http://www.paypervids.com/>.

Murphy, K. (2009). Public Satisfaction with Police: The Importance of Procedural Justice and Police Performance in Police–Citizen Encounters. The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology 159.  42(2), 159–178

Northouse, P.G. (2001). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

Shah, S., Iqbal, J., Razaq, A., Yemen, M., Sabir, S & Khan, M. (2011). Influential Role of Culture on leadership Effectiveness and Organizational Performance; Information Management & Business Review, 3(2), 127-132.