The Maryland Transportation Authority Police - Research Paper Example

Transport ity Police Kristybel Brown HMLS 495 Case Study July 15, Introduction The Maryland Transportation ity Police has the man to enforce law and maintain order at the port of Baltimore and the Locust Point Marine Terminals. These points are perhaps the most sensitive security-wise, thus they require effective security apparatus, operations, and leadership. That the Maryland Transport Authority Police has been mandated to ensure that law and order is maintained at such important facilities has exposed the agency to a number of leadership challenges. For the agency to address these challenges, it must not only change its management and structure but also its leadership principles and practices. In fact, without efficient leadership policies, plans, and practices, any changes in the management and the organization of the agency would not translate into improved service delivery (Burman & Evans, 2008). One of the major challenges faced by the Maryland Transport Authority Police for which a reformed leadership plan is recommended is the demographic differences between the agency and the department. A leadership plan that would incorporate strategies that address these demographic differences thus comes highly welcome for the benefit of the Maryland Transport Authority Police’s customers. The proposed leadership plan for the agency should support a culture that would contribute to the tackling of the major challenges the agency faces in its daily operations. In respect of the challenges it faces, this paper outlines a leadership plan for the Maryland Transport Authority Police with regards to its cultures, management, assessment, change, and crime statistics analysis. This leadership plan would also be quite influential in the manner the agency will investigate and interpret state, county, and city laws and codes violation within the confines and the jurisdiction of the Maryland Transport Authority Police, including their stations, property, and vehicles. With this new millennium, increased globalization, and ease of transportation, the agency has encountered new types of challenges, which require that new and foolproof leadership plans and strategies are put in place (Burman & Evans, 2008). For instance, the current ease of movement has allowed more people to access ports and other modes of transports, implying the agency has to employ more officers (Burman & Evans, 2008). Hence, the leadership of the agency must ensure that the increased number of customers are well served and are satisfied. Protection must thus be provided to all the agency’s clientele who use the light rail, bus, metro, mobility, and commuter rail systems, which are currently quite accessible and used by most of the public. This improved accessibility and utilization of these modes of transport by the Maryland community and the increased amount of transport assets have far-reaching implications for the Maryland Transport Authority Police, which is required to effectively protect travelers from criminal acts. The agency thus requires not only professionalism but also sound leadership plans, policies, and practices (Ortmeier & Meese, 2009). Leadership Plan for the Maryland Transport Police There are several leadership challenges that the Maryland Transport Authority Police encounters as far as leadership is concerned. For instance, as its older employees retire in groups, depending on how and when they were employed, the agency loses a significant quality and amount of institutional knowledge. This loss misaligns s the agency’s operations with its strategic direction, goals, and long-term objectives (Day, 2000). The other challenge that this leadership plan addresses is the paramilitary structure currently in use by many state law enforcement agencies, which has hindered the delivery of quick and quality service to the community. For example, the vertical type of chain of demand structure implies that top-level functions such as policy making and budgeting may not address the real issues on the ground. To address such challenges, the agency must undertake a practical approach in designing appropriate leadership plans and development programs. In particular, these leadership programs should support continuous and cross-functional development throughout the agency’s structure. Purposes of Leadership The first component of leadership should be its purposes, implying that the Maryland Transport Authority Police must have an outline of its leadership goals and objectives. First, the agency’s leadership should put in place several leadership development programs that replace retiring staff with competent and qualified staff employees. This kind of leadership program should cut across the entire agency rather focus only on the top hierarchy of the group. Similarly, these programs must ensure all the operations of the agency; leadership, strategic direction, professional development, training, operations, and staff welfare are covered (Day, 2000). The following are some of the purposes recommended for the leadership of the Maryland Transport Authority Police for it to improve its service delivery to the community. First, the agency’s leadership must aim at bridging its employee professional and personal development with its succession plan via strategies such as training and mentoring at the lowest and the highest levels of decision making. Second, the leadership of the agency should establish effective, reliable, and appropriate communication channels and mechanisms by which information on the roles, responsibilities, and the performances of the agency is disseminated to all the stakeholders (Day, 2000). The other aspect of the agency that its leadership needs to communicate to its stakeholders on a regular basis is its investments in employees’ personal and professional growth and development. Third, the leadership of the agency should implement organizational development initiatives and transitions by interrelating agency vision throughout all its departments and operations. These leadership purposes should however not just be outlined without being based on sound theories or model. Not considering of the model or theory upon which a leadership plan is based, it is crucial that such a model inspires the agency to foster professional growth, employee development, and leadership transfer. The main foundational elements required for the models used on leadership plans and programs are formal standards of operations/procedures, executive coaching, feedback, support from the management, and internal and external partnerships. In addition, such a model or theory should be self-assessed by the agency and other interested external partners. Direct reports, supervisors, clients, customers and upper management are among the mechanisms by which such a leadership model or theory should be assessed (Robbins et al., 2009). With regards to the role of the commander’s office on leadership programs and plans, the said office should see to it that the plan reflects positively on and is aligned with the vision and the mission of the agency. The commander or the head of the agency should also provide the necessary resources for the plan and prioritize the plan for employees. The plan must also have a standard operating procedure, which refers to an official document that details the purposes, objective, expectations, and the implementation of the leadership plan. Further, the standard operating procedure serves to clarify the evaluation processes to be used on the agency’s leadership. Also important, as mentioned earlier, are external and internal partnerships in which stakeholders such as government and private organizations, consultants, and private individuals are invited and allowed to contribute to the agency’s operations and management. The Importance of Top-Level Support Like any other organizational programs and strategies, this leadership plan should importantly be supported by the top management of the agency so that it proves effective on the performance of the agency. Such a support would provide the agency with the much needed foundation, prioritization, and resource allocation. This top-level involvement in leadership to be fruitful, investment is required so that the plan reflects on the agency’s leaders’ vision and mission. This involvement of top-level management also ensures that lower cadre employees get a direct experience and contact with the leadership’s operations and functions such as decision making. Executive Coaching Executive coaching is the other aspect of leadership that the Maryland Transport Authority Police should address. In this context, there are several leadership elements and competencies of leadership that the executive should review in its workforce. These competencies include communication skills, decision-making skills, workplace relationships, innovativeness, creativity, change, integrity, vision, coaching skills, strength utilization, teamwork, and team development (Kolb, 2004). Communication skills are important in enabling the agency’s employees to be self-aware and manage their issues, particularly with regards to difficult and stressful situations at the workplace. Decision making, the process by which an individual makes timely and conscious choices, selections, and actions from a variety of alternatives is also vital for effective leadership at the agency (Kolb, 2004). The agency’s leadership should also foster an environment that promotes collaboration among teams, business units for effectiveness and realization of organizational and personal goals and objectives. Further, a work environment that welcomes innovativeness, new and ambiguous information and ideas of addressing unexpected and changing circumstances should be inculcated and promoted at the agency. In this context, the management must constantly challenge the employees to have vision and integrity and motivate, trust, and empower them by way of incentives and growth techniques (Kolb, 2004). The leadership style should also emphasize teamwork and honing of employees’ strengths to improve productivity and professionalism. Training on Police Leadership, Management, and Development Constant training is the other element of leadership that the agency should implement to instill leadership traits in its employees and to ensure continuity and transfer of leadership. Therefore, the right training methods, content, purposes, and instructors must be employed in police leadership, management, and development training opted for at the agency. First and foremost, the training and leadership courses offered by the agency must have well defined and executed purposes, which include providing the personnel with a better understanding of the operations of the agency in relation to meeting personal, organizational, and societal objectives (Baldwin & Ford, 1988). The training should also focus on the identification of future trends of police work such as crime analysis and the strategic planning of current and emerging policing issues. The police leadership and management training recommended should enable the agency’s officers to understand how their work fits in the criminal justice system and the various methods by which they could execute their law enforcement duties in the transport sector. This training should also prepare the personnel on career planning and development, ethics in policing, economics of policing, visioning and contingency planning, the spectrum of policing strategies, and the nature of the powers involved in police hierarchy (Baldwin & Ford, 1988). Further, the preferred leadership training should empower officers at the agency to recognize the transport-specific policing problems and challenges for better decision-making in the future. Importantly, the courses offered on leadership should give insight into the requisite management, strategic planning, and personnel development skills for police work and leadership. The agency should also acknowledge that planning for the future and change is integral to leadership. The leadership of the agency thus needs to address its plans and training needs for its departments and operations. Unfortunately, many police departments and other law enforcement agencies do not invest finances and time on training their officers on leadership, planning and management (Baldwin & Ford, 1988). The organization of the agency should also support change and change management. That is, the agency must incorporate its employees in improving the leadership succession processes. Assessment and Promotions Promotion is an aspect of leadership that has often been marred with a lot of controversies. In many organizations, the assessment and promotion of employees often vary form one department to another, often resulting in cries of discrimination (Haberfeld, 2012). Among the strategies by which the Maryland Transport Authority could assess and promote its employees are performance evaluations, psychological, physical tests, and written/oral examinations consulting firms/department. The only contentious issue that must be addressed by the agency is whether its assessment and promotion mechanisms and practices result in the choosing of candidates with the best and preferred leadership styles (Haberfeld, 2012). If the assessment and promotion methods used do not yield the right leaders, then the concerned departments should identify the improvements to be made. The first challenge in addressing assessment and promotion issues at the agency would be to design a standardized testing system. These written testing systems, when fair and equal, have been shown to measure personnel’s abilities, skills, and/or personality. For skill-specific positions at the agency, candidates should be given job-tasks, which would indicate their performance were they to get these positions (Wynn, 2008). On the other hand, the agency could use the services of assessment centers, which develop standardized testing for the private and government/public sectors. It is thus imperative that the Maryland Transport Authority Police invest more time and money in designing and seeking out testing, assessment, and promotion systems that identify strong leadership behaviors (Haberfeld, 2012). Besides providing the agency with the right leaders, these testing and assessment systems would direct the agency into planning for and taking care of the future with regards to leadership and succession planning. Professional Leadership A non-professional leadership would not go a long way in propelling the agency to success. It is hence important that the Maryland Transport Authority Police defines what success and failure are in law enforcement. This task can only be performed by a professional law enforcement agency. For law enforcers who are not only concerned with their personal growth and development but also for their colleagues and the entire agency, they must provide the right guidance and leadership that would ensure such an agency realizes its goals (Carter et al., 2007). Since no single police department or agency operates in such a manner that no crime is committed in their jurisdiction, it is of the essence that the leadership of the agency communicates realistically what counts as responsibility, success, and failure to the agency. This exceptionally challenging nature of the agency’s leadership of is made apparent by the requirement that it not only defines and achieves its own success, but must also assist others as well to focus on success. To assist each employee and department to achieve its goals, the leadership of the agency has to design a technique by which practical job skills are to be examined and evaluated. What is more, there should be methods in place to help model the personal traits that have since been proved effective in other law enforcement professionals, agencies, or departments. Leadership and Change Since it is rather obvious that the Maryland Transport Authority Police experiences many changes in the increasing numbers of customers and the nature and types of jobs to be done, it is only right to consider change and change management and leadership within its ranks. Given the highly competitive nature of business in current times, organizations have to adjust so that they provide for the rapidly changing client needs (Carter et al., 2007). The agency should therefore realize that resistance to change would only be a dead-end direction to take. In fact, currently, its customers require more and excellent services as their population and security needs expand. If such services are not provided, the public will eventually lose confidence in the agency. Its leadership thus has to put emphasis on actions that would prompt change as smoothly as possible. As the agency experiences rapid and unforeseen changes in direction and coordination of its operations, the leadership should equally be focused on defining its purpose and mainstream agendas. Although the agency’s growth and activity curve may level out at its mature period, innovation and changes should still be embraced if only for maintaining the standards attained so far (Carter et al., 2007). Conclusion For a law enforcement organization such as the Maryland Transport Authority Police, change is permanent and its leadership should design a leadership plan that focuses on vision, mission, purpose/objective, training, change, and professionalism. Consequent to the changing client demographics and needs, the agency’s leadership must adjust accordingly and provide diversified and effective services to the users of the major modes of transport within its jurisdiction. Training is a sure way of ensuring the agency does not lose knowledge and skills as older workers retire. Nonetheless, change must be accepted, with the agency adjusting according to the changing client needs and the emerging organizational challenges. References Baldwin, T., and Ford, K. (1988). "Transfer of Training: A Review and Directions for Future Research, Personnel Psychology, 41(1), 105. Burman, R., and Evans, A. J. (2008). Target Zero: A Culture of safety. Defense Aviation Safety Centre Journal 2008, 22-27. http://www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/849892B2-D6D2-4DFD-B5BD-9A4F288A9B18/0/DASCJournal2008.pdf Carter, L. L., Goldsmith, M., Ulrich, D., and Pfeiffer, J. B. (2007). Best practices in leadership development and organization change. Best Practice Institute. Day, D. V. (2000). Leadership Development: A Review in Context. The Leadership Quarterly, 11, 581. Haberfeld, M. R. (2012). Police leadership: organizational and managerial decision making process, second edition. Prentice Hall. Kolb, J. (2004). “An Examination of Work-Environment Support Factors Affecting Transfer of Supervisory Skills Training to the Work Place.” Human Resource Development Quarterly, 15(4), 449. Ortmeier, P. J., and Meese, E. (2009). Leadership, ethics and policing: challenges for the 21st century, second edition. Prentice Hall. Robbins, S., Millet, B., and Waters-Marsh, T. (2007). Organizational behavior, fourth edition. Prentice Hall. Wynn, M. (2008). Rising through the ranks: leadership tools and techniques for law enforcement. Kaplan Publishing. Read More