Creative and Critical Thinking of a Police Supervisor - Research Paper Example

Creative and Critical Thinking of a Police Supervisor The position of a police supervisor is also a very much demanding position. The supervisor must be so much creative and critical about the things that he can manage all the things wisely. The main role of a police supervisor is to manage and then coordinate all the policies and the rules and then the activities according to those policies in the whole team of all the police officers. In fact, we can say he is the commander over all the police officers. For this reason, there should be some particular set of qualities and attributes, which must be present in the person to be an effective and efficient supervisor. In this paper, we will review the role of a police supervisor as a manger, leader and decision maker for the rest of the police officers. The role of police supervisors is very important in order to achieve the desired goals and outcomes in an effective way. The traditional functions of a police supervisor are to command and then control all the people working under him. The police supervisors are also playing an important role in the motivation of the employees. The achieving and then retaining of the work efficiency is only possible due to the excellent type of supervision in any department. Similarly, the police supervisors are also responsible for the overall work efficiency of the whole department. In other words, we can say that the police supervisors are the main key towards accountability, performance and the vitality in the police department. Here we should know the fact that the perception of a police supervisor as a good and effective leader, manger and a decision maker are the thinking of this new era. Therefore, we can call them as the contemporary police supervisors (Michael, 2001). The responsibilities of a police supervisor are varied according to different situations and we can say that according to the need of the hour. A police supervisor can face unexpected situations and circumstances (Peak, 2009). The role of the police supervisors is very important in order to handle these kinds of difficult and unexpected situations. The police supervisors may train their subordinates that how they can face these situations while keeping their available resources in their hands. This training is an important responsibility of these police supervisors. In this way, the police officers and the supervisors can work efficiently and also effectively. The police supervisor has to oversee the activities of all the sub ordinates so that they can control them in every situation (Peak, 2009). These police supervisors are also responsible for making schedules and then guiding the rest of the officers and thus offering the expertise to them (Peak, 2009). The police supervisors are sometimes involved in the investigation tasks but most of the time their main responsibility is to deal the administrative tasks (Peak, 2009). These administration tasks includes assigning duties, monitoring and then evaluating job performances, investigating and then proposing solutions for the human resource or we can say personnel problems and the most important is the training of the staff members. All of these tasks are highly related to the leadership skills of the person and thus we can say that a police supervisor may needs a good skill set of leadership traits. These leadership skills may help them to command their sub ordinates in an effective way. A good leader can impress his followers in a better way (Peak, 2009). The job of a police supervisor needs patience, tact, courage and a high level of discipline. It has been already discussed that the presence of the leadership skill set is very much necessary in the police supervisors just to accomplish their responsibilities in a more positive way. The performance of the whole police force is actually dependent on the effectiveness of its leaders i.e. the police supervisors. There are some leadership principals, which every police supervisor should follow, in order to enhance their influence on their sub ordinates (Michael, 2001). A police supervisor should consider all his own activities first. A person cannot set an example for others unless and until he is not applying all those principals on his own personality. A police supervisor should manage himself before leading others. In this way, he can impress his sub ordinates in a better way. The coordination is another important element in the leadership traits. The leaders or we can say police supervisors must be interactive and coordinating with their sub ordinates because this may lower downs the communication gap. The less communication gap between the leader and the follower is a big solution to many of the problems (Michael, 2001). The leaders and the followers also require a deep level commitment too. This means that the police supervisors should be committed to their duties and the sub ordinates should also remain true towards their assignments (Michael, 2001). For a good police supervisor, another important skill is the art of listening to others. A leader must be a good communicator as well as a good listener (Fridell et al., 2011). When the police supervisor listens to the people then many of the gaps and the problems can be identified and then solved at an initial stage. Another important leadership principal is to follow first and then lead others (Fridell et al., 2011). Therefore, the police supervisor should involve all the people in the problem solving and the decision making. In this way, many of the creative and innovative ideas can be collected because it is not necessary that wisdom or intelligence may only exist in the minds of upper level people. The sub ordinates or the lower level managers can also propose a workable idea or solutions. When the police supervisor may involve the other people than it may also motivate all the police officers to at least put their part in the decision making. If a police supervisor wants to become an effective leader for his followers then he should go for the power delegation that means the mutual decision making. The leadership does not mean a mere authority rather it means the involvement of people (Fridell et al., 2011; Kight, 2013). There are many leadership styles, which aim for different kinds of leadership characteristics. All of the leadership styles are effective in different situations and circumstances but the role for the leaders and the followers may remain the same in all these leadership styles (Sullivan, 2005). First of all, there comes the autocratic leadership style, the autocratic leaders are the most clear and expressive leaders. We can say if a police supervisor needs a level of understanding between the sub ordinates then he must give a clear expression of the tasks roles and responsibilities. The clear expression may include three aspects i.e. what needs to be done, when it should be done and how it needs to be done (Sullivan, 2005). There is a clear division between the leaders and the followers because of the hierarchal levels. Another characteristic of the autocratic leaders is that they make independent decisions and usually do not involve other people or the sub ordinates in their decision making. Like many other positive aspects, the negative aspect of this kind of autocratic leadership means that it may lose a sense of creativity in the decision making. The loss of creativity happens because of the low level of involvement of the sub ordinates and the lower level people. There will be more options to adopt when different minds are working behind any decision making. The autocratic police supervisors just give directions to the sub ordinates and the employees may have to fool them on their own level of understanding. This type of leadership is workable in the situations where there is short time for making the decisions and the leaders or the supervisor is the most competent person as compare to the sub ordinates. Opposite to the autocratic leadership style, there comes the participative leadership style, which means the high level involvement of all the people and the sub ordinates in the problem solving and the decision making. Another name of participative leadership is the democratic leadership style. The resultant solutions and the decisions under this leadership style will be more creative and innovative as compare to the others. After that, there comes the delegate leadership style in which the followers are so much dependent on their leaders that they cannot even take any single step on their own. The delegate leadership style is not very common in the police supervisors rather the other two are commonly observed in the supervisors. The transformational leaders may influence their followers in a way that they even change their nature and habits and attitudes just to follow their leaders. The transformational means to change the followers into a committed and highly motivated police officer. The transformational leadership depends upon a high level of communication between the police supervisor and the sub ordinates. The police supervisors may motivate employees and thus the productivity or we can say the output performance will be increased. After that there come the transactional leadership which means that the police supervisor just become a leader for achieving any single task or goal and after that there will be no leader follower relationship. The transactional leadership style is just opposite to the transformational leadership style because in the transactional leadership, there is no influence on the followers because of the short time span of interaction or the relationship between the followers and the leaders. For being a good and an effective leader, a police supervisor needs some leadership traits, which may help him to accomplish his role. Honesty and the trust worthiness are the most important traits that are required by the position of leader police supervisor (Kunz, 2010). The police supervisor should display sincerity, discipline, integrity and candor in all of their actions. The competency level of the police supervisors should be more than the others police officers because the role of the police supervisor is to lead and command others in a productive direction (Kunz, 2010). The police supervisor must be forward looking. This means that the supervisor should have a contingency planning regarding any of the incident or accident, which may happen in the future life. The police supervisor should set goals after seeing or we can say predicting the future. This forward looking nature can sense the coming problems and thus the police force may get ready to tackle that problem collectively under the guidance of their leader supervisors. The fair and equal treatment towards the employees is really needed by the police supervisors because in this way the sub ordinates may not feel any kind of discrimination towards any single employee. When all the police employees may get an equal treatment without ant discrimination then it will motivate them towards an intense level of commitment and motivation. The police supervisor should be sensitive towards feelings, emotions, values, trusts and the well being of the others. Courage is another important element that plays a vital role in the leadership of the police supervisors. A police supervisor may have to take some critical decisions, which really need a lot of courage and strength; therefore, they can stand at that particular decision. The police supervisors should aim for making a level of understanding between the police officers about the mutual goals and the objectives, which they are going to achieve. The mutual goals mean that they can be achieved only if all the police people are committed and combined together in the same direction. After establishing this much level of understanding, the police supervisors should must give the police officers the possible ways and the methods, which help them to play their individual roles effectively. This may also be named as the guidance to achieve the mutual goal. In this regard, the sharing of information and the ideas is also very important because this may also help them to create an environment where all the police officers are compatible with each other to work on the same assignments. The time element is an important factor in the decision making of the police supervisors. The timely decision making may save many of the problems which may affect the performance of the police supervisor and the officers. Another important factor is to own the faults and the mistakes. A supervisor may not be a good leader if he is not that much courageous that he can own his own mistakes and the wrong decisions. An accepted and owned mistake may teach a lesson to the leader for the future circumstances. Here it is important that a leader is always a role model for the followers. In the same way, a police supervisor may also set example for the rest of the police officers. If the police supervisor does not accept and own his fault then the followers may also accept their mistakes. The power of decision making should be very strong in the police supervisors because they are working at a position where they have to make urgent and sometimes uncertain decisions. For an effective decision making, there is a need of problem sensitivity in the police supervisors. A police supervisor cannot make an effective decision unless and until he may not understand the main problem in depth analysis (Waters, 2012). The problem solving skills may also help in the effective decision making for the police supervisors. Actually, the procedure may starts with the problem recognition. If the police supervisors are fully monitoring the tasks and activities of the police officers then the problem can be recognized in its initial stages. Actually, the problem solution depends upon the problem recognition. If a police supervisor wisely detects the root cause of the problematic situation then he can propose a better solution and the decision will be more effective (Waters, 2012). Critical thinking is another important skill set which may help to make a decision more effective than ever. Therefore, a police supervisor should aim to develop his critical thinking and other skill sets so that he can use them effectively in his job duties and responsibilities (Waters, 2012). There are many possible ways to motivate the employees towards the achievement of a mutual goal or objective. The police officers may work more devotedly if they receive any motivations form their managers, supervisors or the leaders (Fitch, 2009). The motivation plays an important role for the increase in the output performance and the productivity of the people. There can be different motivational factors, which may include compensation packages, fringe benefits, promotions, additional facilities and many other non-monetary advantages. All of them can motivate a police officer to work efficiently and effectively. This motivation is really needed from the police supervisor side so that the employees or the sub ordinates may get committed to achieve the assigned task and the responsibility (Fitch, 2009). All the critics and the supporters are agree that the police supervisors are the critical component of a successful police department and also these supervisors can even change the whole situation or the scenario of the department by their kind and devoted efforts (Fridell et al., 2011). It is very much clear that the most common goal of the police supervisors is to keep their subordinates out of trouble. The surety of equal and fair treatment to every single police officer is also the responsibility of the supervisor (Fridell et al., 2011). These are the role of supervisors towards their own department. On the other side, the supervisors are also responsible for creating a peaceful environment for the citizens by reducing the number of crimes. To cope up with all of these responsibilities, the police supervisor must be creative, critical, vigilant and efficient towards his duties. Reference List: Peak, K. (2009), ‘Police Supervision and Management: In an Era of Community Policing’, 6th edition page 23 - 45 Michael, A. (2001), ‘The New Age of Police Supervision and Management: A Behavioral Concept’, Loose Leaf Law Publications, Page 49 - 76 Kunz, M. (2010), ‘How to Become an Effective Supervisor in Police Work’, Work Place Regulations, Viewed July 27, 2014 http://smallbusiness.chron.com/effective-supervisor-police-work-26156.html Waters, M. (2012), ‘The Leadership Role of the First Line Supervisors in The Police Operations’, The Florida Police Chief Magazine, viewed July 27, 2014 http://www.clearwaterpolice.org/articles/waters.asp Fitch, B. (2009), ‘The Role of Supervisors’, FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, viewed July 27. 2014 http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/law-enforcement-bulletin/march_2011/two_roles_supervision Sullivan, B. (2005), ‘Police Supervision in the 21st Century: Can Traditional Work Standards and the Contemporary Employee Coexist’, The Chief of Police, viewed July 27, 2014 http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_arch&article_id=1391&issue_id=102004 Fridell, L., Rosenbaum, D. & Mastrofski, S. (2011), ‘Police Supervision: A 360 Degree View of Eight Police Departments’, National Police Research Platform, National Institute of Justice, page 1 – 11 Kight, B. (2013), ‘Leadership Skills’ Eight Leadership Principals that Every Leaders should Know’, The Focus 3 Blog, viewed July 31st, 2014 from http://www.focus3organizationalculture.com/blog/bid/91314/Leadership-Skills-8-Principles-Every-Leader-Should-Know Read More