Executive and Strategic Leadership - Article Example

Police Executive The nature of leadership in modern world does not give room for uncertainty and lack of preparedness. In addition, the current environment expectations and requirements demands that everyone must be properly prepared and well equipped in case of any challenges from leadership. A leadership that is sufficient requires incorporation of all stakeholders especially the major ones keeping into consideration that it is not usually possible to satisfy everyone in your area of leadership. Most people’s view the position of a chief executive officer in a narrow sense in making decision and setting the organisation’s strategic goals. Most of the current CEOs positions experience a considerable impact from the contemporary media and politics. This creates a difference between the perceived functioning of these positions and what the ones holding these positions are really experiencing. This article gives a critical discussion of the position of CEO in law enforcement and the conflicting pressures and influences impacted to the CEO form different stakeholders. The article focuses on a case study of Christine Nixon who was a Victorian police commissioner in Australia. Nixon was the first female commissioner of police in Australia, she was a reformer and was working towards an organisation that was family-friendly and more open while fostering personal development in the entire police staff. Nixon also realized the necessity and relevance of policing approaches which are evidence based. Towards Nixon’s end of her term, her career was connected to controversy at the height of most tragic bush fires in Victoria in 2009 a day referred to as ‘Black Saturday’ when she left the incident room and went for a dinner engagement. This brought about heated arguments where she was criticized by a commission of public enquiry into the bush fires for the action that she took by going to dinner with friends living the incident room where she was needed at a time like this as a police commissioner. About two and a half years after the incident, Nixon published a book known a ‘Fair Cop’ which gained criticism from the media for having the nerves to publicise such a book that focused on defending herself. The media and public had clearly not forgotten her controversial details during her career, although most of the critics neglected her achievements during her tenure. She really received negative comment from various articles in media frenzy relating her physical being with her duties as the police commissioner especially the black Saturday controversy. Leadership styles Nixon’s leadership in this case can be explained before and after the black Saturday controversy. The way the police force perform and do things depend on the ability, experiences, aspirations, social connections and other human features on the position of the police commissioner. Given that she was a reformer in Victoria police, she made the organisation more open and family friendly. Although she was responsible for making the final decision as police commissioner, she involved the staff in making decisions in order to come promote personal development within Victoria police. As the first female police commissioner, her criticisers say the she was so soft thus, in a way she more relied on her police staff to move on and make decisions which was seen as too soft for the functions police. This sent more critics as they said that the government did wrong to send a girl to do job meant for a man. Critics see her as the wrong person to do the job and claims that her qualification for this kind of leadership is not based on her leadership capabilities but it is just because she was a woman, honest and fresh. Her leadership in the force is seen as demoralising and too feminised in a way that the force surrenders the streets to the mob. This makes critics to visualize her as a soft and naive leader (Harvey, 2010). Though she demonstrated a democratic leadership in the police force, she did not fully understand the diversity and dimensions of the police leadership for a leadership that is effective. This can then be seen through her conduct during and after the black Saturday. Her leadership can be questioned due to her failure to recognize the importance of the relevant stakeholders, their influence and how do deal with their concerns. Her leadership undermined the power of the media and politics until it was too late to a point that made her to learn from her own mistakes. In addition, this made her positive leadership portrayed before the black Saturday to be covered by this event. Her leadership lack of stakeholders’ incorporation made it hard to make a favourable public opinion and image. She lacked the influence of the media and the public in her work making them to run over her everywhere for negative reasons. However, her leadership as a police commissioner had been has been affected by making her own decisions without considering any alternative. This is evidenced by her decision to leave the police incident room for a dinner when her area of jurisdiction required her leadership skill more. She also made quick decision without any consideration and finally, her decision to leave the incident room on a Black Saturday was making a decision that can be considered to be poor (Bass, 2007). Although, Nixon was seeing herself as a strategic leader who came to the force in order to make changes, this is not what most of people see. According to the media, the critics see her person who just tries to force her image into the public. They claim that her leadership has increased demonstrators in the streets due to poor strategies on leadership. Another critic sees the writing of her book ‘Fair Cop’ as a way of annoying the public. They claim that her leadership in the police force gradually destroyed the career, health and reputations of many innocent men and women police officers. They state that the launching of the book shows her lack of professionalism, her own failings and the stress innocent officers will suffer due to her false accusations on the misconduct of police officers. The comments on one of the articles stated that her failure in leadership flawed the leadership of women in Australia. This is an evidence of making decision without consultations with colleagues in the police force which one of the contributors of failures in leadership strategies. Although she displayed a democratic leadership before the event on Black Saturday, the view of the media and the public after the event portrays a different kind of leadership where she seems to be using pressures over the police officers to make things done rather than involving them. She seems to be giving her officers very few opportunities to make decisions within the force. This is evidenced as media claiming how she made false accusations on innocent police officers. This shows an autocratic leadership where her decision did not benefit the experience and creativity of her colleagues led to loss of positive output of the police force accompanied by criticism on the entire police force (Drill, 2011). Nixon’s leadership can be well understood after the events of the Black Saturday which reveals that her failure in leadership was due to lack of incorporation of all stakeholders in making decisions within the police force. Government is another party involved in this case. The type of leadership from the government can be explained through the role of prime minister in the Nixon’s case. Gillard uses a very highly effective type of leadership as she is very keen on the effect of the decision she makes in analysing Nixon’s book during the launching. As a politician, she realizes that she requires the support of people and media as they will determine her political life. She applies the necessary experience and skills in addressing Nixon’s issue in order to win the support of her, media and public. She first considers the nature of the environment keeping in mind that no one has forgotten the Black Tuesday controversy. This makes her not to take sides. During the launching of Nixon’s ‘Fair Cop’, she defines the book as going through modern issues in the society ranging from policing nature, changing leadership styles, women’s role, public life accountability, and our response to the cruelty of nature. In order to support the achievements of Nixon, she narrates Nixon’s journey from the time she was young to the time that she realized she needed to conform to the current changes and realities in the world by joining the police force. In the launching of the book, she did put in considerations that the media and public are all ears in order to identify the position she took in Nixon’s controversy. She makes sure that she delivers her duties for that day by launching the book without stating her position in the book (Drill, 2011). In order to win the support of all, she put emphasis that she was not there to adjudicate about the Black Saturday controversy and she really puts it clear and neutral to all that the readers of Nixon’s book will be able to judge about what is written but she did not give her judgement. By doing this, she was able to switch from different leadership styles in order to win the support of everyone. As a politician, Gillian was able to satisfy the media, the public and Nixon by using different styles in leadership to come to a neutral ground. This can be seen as situational type of leadership (Yukl, 2006). Another party involved in this case is the media. The direction provided by the media in Nixon’s case is playing a very crucial role in determining the fate of Nixon. The media has been in an effort to cover the achievement made by Nixon since 2001 when she took the leadership. All the articles posted on the media gives a different direction from what the public thought of Nixon. The media only shows the negative part of Nixon’s leadership. Critics in the articles just express their concern of Nixon’s lack of leadership qualities. Every word that she makes in public becomes a source of more criticism in her leadership. In the article Frazer is feels hurt that Nixon decided that dinner is more important than the life of people burning in bush fire. She also differs with Nixon’s idea that the commission was a kangaroo court claiming that it is because Nixon’s failed responsibilities are exposed to the public. This goes on as more and more critics come out expressing just mockery and disapproval to Nixon’s years of commitment to the police force. Critics even deviated from analysing Nixon’s responsibilities to a point of placing more abuses on her physical condition. Being fat for her has contributed much greater problems as critics wants to derive the perception that any of her failure has resulted from her efforts to look for food first rather than concentrating on crucial matters in her position. Others just referred to her as a hungry one who lacked the will to recognize the interests of other people. They make everyone have a perception the every large woman will always fail to deliver their duties (Harvey, 2010). On the move to explain her views in her book, the media does not see anything positive during her life in the force. What they did is to point out every statement that is related to the black Saturday in order to prove her incapability in leadership. Critics see the death of 173 people during the Black Saturday as attributed to her visiting a hairdresser, taking her 45 minutes to write the book which they criticise a lot and going for a dinner instead of remaining in the police incident room (Bolt, 2011). Although there might be mistakes in Nixon’s life in the police force as the chief executive officer, it does not mean that there is not any achievement in service to the government but she lacked to incorporate all the players to work effectively. This shows a different type of leadership where the media has inflicted a notion of negativity in the life of Nixon as the police chief. Although this draws attention on the accountability of the police commissioners, it may also create a sense of negativity form the views of critics in the media giving the public the wrong perception of leadership. The main factors present during Nixon’s service as a police commissioner in the case include the media pressure, political influence and community satisfaction. Before the Black Saturday controversy, Nixon did not really realize about the media, political and society’s challenges in her role as a police commissioner. In addition to the legislative work of the police commissioner which involves planning, organizing, coordinating and controlling of activities and operations within the police force, the influence of stakeholders is a crucial point which cannot be ignored (Druker, 2004). Media pressure The media pressure has greatly influenced the role of Nixon as a police commissioner. From the ordinary duties of any chief executive, Nixon thought that her position would also follow the same suit. Given that the police force is an essential body in public service, Nixon was required to be prepared to face the challenges from media. Before the Black Saturday, Nixon’s work had been without much of media intervention which made her to forget their influence in the course of her job. After the controversy, that is when the importance of involvement of media in management of such as crucial department was in great need. Media can be said to be the major players in the controversy of the Black Saturday. Through media, the perception of the role of a police commissioner had gone to higher levels which show that the effectiveness of this position will depend on consideration of different factors especially the key players in any industry (Flemming, 2004). The media pressure can be explained by various articles which were assessing the role of Nixon as a police commissioner in Black Saturday. Through the media, there is a show of lack of accountability for Nixon in her police commissioner’s position. The media criticizes the Nixon’s ‘Fair Cop’ book saying that the her lack of accountability as police commissioner led to the death of 173 people through a bush fire on that fateful day due to Nixon’s decision to prefer going out for a dinner with her friends and leaving the most trusted and needed responsibilities of her position which could have saved lives. This led to covering of anything good she has done during her life as a commissioner and displaying only the negative side of her life (O’Connor, 2011). In another article, the media also criticises Nixon’s decision to leave for a diner on such a terrible day and making assumptions that every process and system was successfully working. This makes the media to question on her responsibilities as a police commissioner who is supposed to coordinate all the operations and processes in such as fateful day. The critics in the media associate her large body size with her habits of giving food priorities instead of the more important underlying issues ahead. Critics in the media claim that she cannot be able to manage the operations in the police force as a commissioner the same way she cannot control her eating habits. This shows the need for recognising the efforts of the media in addition to normal roles of a police commissioner (Harvey, 2010). Nixon’s failure in her duties during the controversial Black Saturday is also criticised based on her sex and devoting time to write her book. Through the media, people did not agree with her decision to devote at least 45 minutes writing her book while the country was in a crucial condition whose operations were supposed to be conducted by Nixon as a police commissioner. This showed her flawed responsibilities in the police force. The media has also been challenging her election into such a position where it claims that she brought the anti-authoritarian and feminised service to the police force. This would then make her responsibilities challenging as her position required to be authoritative a characteristic that she lacked (Bolt, 2011). Political influence In administrative context, a police force should always be accountable to the government. As the government is made from politics, the leadership in the police force may be easily influenced by the government. As the operations in the police force should not be subjected to the interference from the politics, it is usually challenging for any chief police officer to relate with the government without political influence. A police commissioner needs to be control any political influence during the decision making (AFPA, 2012). Political influence in the police force will lead to changing of strategies in the force to reflect less effective, and softer policing which could be seen as making the force non-authoritative and changing the perceived purpose of every staff in the police force. Policing is very essential in modern management of the police force and any political influence within the process of policing will lead to adoption of less effective process. The executives should never assume any political influence within the force as if the leaders will not have the tactics to handle the issues according to the modern way, they will end up being criticised in their leadership leading to loss of job (Edelbacher, Delip & Marenin, 2007). The current work of police commissioners require effective policing as they need to have a good understanding of the current and future challenges within the police and the society. The executives will also be able to find the measure required to face these problems. This will enable integration of the theoretical knowledge in leadership of police force with the practical experiences for effectiveness of the police force. Nixon had been basing her experiences in leadership on the theoretical knowledge where she took the role as only to implement strategies for democratic leadership in the police force. The political influences lead to development of non-authoritative and soft force. This was due to the fact that Nixon based her leadership on theoretical knowledge ignoring the most important knowledge of practical experiences. As a result of lack of practical experiences and failure to incorporate the relevant stakeholders, Nixon found it difficult to handle challenging and dangerous situation on policing which led to much criticism from various stakeholders. This pressure made it harder for her to continue with her responsibilities as police commissioner in the police force leading to her resignation. She later came to learn after the criticism that the contemporary society requires the leadership that is flexible and from the previous lessons, one can come up with productive approaches and programs in policing through modification and elimination while involving the relevant stakeholders (Das & Marenine, 2009). Community satisfaction Community satisfaction is essential for successful operations within the police force. If the relationship between the police and community is bad, then the leadership in the force will always be criticised. As major stakeholders in making decision in the police force, the police commissioner’s major role is satisfying the community ensuring that community policing overcomes the fear of the community. It also imposes restraints that are sufficient on the community for them to be free from any fear. A successful policing will be based on well build partnerships between the police and the community and an improved relationship between the society and the police force (Edgar, Earle, & Fopp, 1993). The community challenge that Nixon has for community policing is developing of the ways to profile the problems facing the community affected by the bushfires. Lack of plans to address the Black Saturday made the community to lack confidence on Nixon as the police commissioner. Given that she was aware that the community was suffering, Nixon who the same community have vested the responsibility to address their issues left the police incident room and went for a dinner. Nixon failed the community by lack of community policing as a strategy for making the force pro-active in responding to the bushfires within the community. This makes the police force to be void of problem solving capacity within the community (Marvel & Moody, 2000). The big blame falls on Nixon who was responsible for developing such strategy and being in the forefront in the rescue operations during that day. Instead of concentrating on personal issues at a challenging time like this, Nixon was supposed to work towards more strategic and stronger management with the affected community in order to lead her force in fulfilment of its responsibilities to protect the community. Lack of effective community policing resulted to mistrust between the community and the police force. Nixon failed to satisfy the community as the expectation of her leadership in the force was not able to create community environment that is free of fear but her actions led to creation of more fearful and insecure community (Bureau of Justice Assistance, 1994). In order to satisfy the community, the executive have to fully involve the relevant stakeholders in development of the strategies. Effect of leader’s action to the community Leader’s actions impact the stakeholders both positively and negatively. Leaders actions may lead to trust or mistrust in the community. As the police force in these days are expected to achieve various outcomes such as reducing fear, solving underlying problems within the community, developing great cohesion in the community. The community hold the police leaders responsible for any outcome in handling of issues within the community. If there are positive outcomes, the community increases trust of the police force. If the outcomes are negative, then the force will develop mistrust of the entire police force. This is evidenced by Nixon’s failure in her responsibilities as a commissioner when she failed to mobilize the force in order to manage bushfire in the Black Saturday but decided to go for dinner (Benson, 1981). Effect of leader’s action to the media Leaders’ actions will result to either criticism or praise by the media. Media is regarded as the prime source of crucial information about the accounts of the police force. If the leader’s actions are acceptable, then the media will praise the leader’s success, thus encouraging good leadership and instilling the confidence of the police force. However, if the actions of the leaders are perceived as negative by the media then criticism will develop exposing the weaknesses in the police force and in leaders themselves. This criticism leads to identification of problems in the force giving chances for correction. This is the case of Nixon as her failure to perform her responsibilities which led to the controversy in Black Saturday. As the media criticises her actions and blames her partly for the death of 173 people during the bushfire, the media is able to influence replacement of ineffective leaders with effective and accountable ones thus fostering the performance of entire police force (Bayley, 1994). Effect of leaders’ actions on government The actions of the leaders will also determine the success of the government. If the leaders adopt strategies that will lead to a successful force, then the government will be effective where it earns the support of its citizens. However poor performance in leadership will transfer the weaknesses to the government (Thomas & Hyman, 1977). If the leaders cannot be able to convince the ministers that they are responsive to, then their strategies will never be accepted by the government. Given that they are appointed under the influence or incorporation of the government, they also have the responsibility to serve the public in an effective manner. If a police commissioner is able to convince the government on the strategies and changes for improving the performance of the police force, then their influence will bring the required changes and improve the efficiency of the entire government. Leadership actions that are politically manipulated are meant for favouring the few within the government. This results to failure in performance within the police force and the government leading to lack of support from the public (Zamble & Annesley, 1987). Conclusion The expectations and the requirements of the demands of the contemporary environment require leaders to be well equipped and prepared for the increasing challenges. The presence of the relevant stakeholders results to more challenges in modern policing. The executives are faced by the challenge of considering the past and present experience while also putting into consideration the organisation’s environment and future. Leaders who are considering policing by incorporating their theoretical knowledge through visualising leadership as planning, organising and control are faced with great challenges in their work. However, modern leadership requires incorporation of past practical experiences and theoretical knowledge as a way of overcoming the challenges. Most of these challenges are generated by the stakeholders, thus, inclusion of them in policing will lead to effective leadership. On the other hand, it is important to put into consideration that you cannot satisfy all the stakeholders to make leadership effective. This is because some of the stakeholders create unnecessary challenges which if all are put into consideration; it will not be possible to practice leadership. The most effective approach to policing while under pressure from all the stakeholders is to always be open to constructive criticism, to maintain high accessibility to public ideas and welcoming scrutiny. Although this process may be challenging and painful, it will lead to a stronger policing thus, retaining the respect and securing the assistance of all concern stakeholders. 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