CJ Admin - Participative Leadership?

Mary Poole makes the statement, "Leadership should be more participative than directive." To make an accurate assessment of this statement, it is critical to understand wheat leadership entails. Leadership has been characterized as hard to explain, but I believe it is easy to understand it by observing it in action. The following scene explains leadership, and why it crucial that leadership has a participative component. In Hank's Band of Brothers, there is a scene of American soldiers preparing an assault on German troops; their commander issues his orders, then on the signal leads the attack...he does not stop and see if his men follows, he just attacks and does his duty. This was management ( organizing the attack, delegating assignments to subordinates, etc) up until the point up until the point he leads the charge. It is necessary for him to participate in the attack to be an effective leader. He must demonstrate his competence; “To be effective, leaders need to be perceived as competent by their supervisors as well as the majority of staff who they supervise. It is important for leaders to understand their job requirements and expectations of their position.”(McCallum, n.d., para 7) More importantly, leading, or participating from the front, demonstrates courage. “ Through courage and actions to do the right thing, this will motivate staff who will be drawn to their leader.” (McCallum, n.d, para 19) Finally, it has been asserted that “It is clear, however, that the way to be a good leader is to lead as you would want to be led. “ (South University Online, 2014, para. 6) Finally, by participating, a leader is in place to judge conditions at ground zero and understand the perspectives of the line in addition to building personal relations to support informal communications. I do not feel that it is MORE important that leadership be more participative than directive, but it is essential that a leader participates to demonstrate competence and courage. There are organizational models in which a leader needs to be more directive then he would need to be in other models; in a hierarchical model, for example. One thing to keep in mind is that the many people on the line in criminal justice organizations have leadership duties simply due to the legal powers they hold over the citizenry; coming from this perspective, it highlights the participative nature of leadership. Quite simply, participation is necessary in these cases as part of normal duty. In correctional facilities, it is easy for leaders to take participative actions; leaders can walk the floor, aid in cell shakedowns, and assist in every day to day activity that the line carries out. Indeed, this is good practice. “Staff and offenders look at supervisors’ actions over time. Sustained performance is the only way to win respect and trust and to send the message that the values the manager or supervisor enforces must be taken seriously.” (Campbell, 2006, p. 38) Of course, a leader also needs to be aware of his own primary duties and not spend all his time on the line. Somebody has to shuffle papers from the IN box to the OUT box, after all! Kidding aside, administrative duties are also necessary for effective duty accomplishment; nobody works well when their paychecks are messed up. There my be policies that prohibit certain levels of leadership from participating in potentially dangerous situations; it is imperative that true leaders seek to overturn such policy and get himself into the trenches whenever possible. If the only factor in employee turnover was the participative level of management, then my opinion would be that a more participative leader could reduce turnover; however, there are going to be more important factors, such as “pressure [that] might be caused by the exceedingly large numbers of inmates to look after, the extreme disciple required, the long hours, and the sheer job profile of a prison guard (South University Online, n.d., p. 2) The argument could be made that a participative leader would be in a better position to gauge these factors and may be able to resolve such issues, or be able to use informal communications to mitigate some conditions. Campbell, N. (2006). Correctional leadership competencies for the 21st century: Manager and supervisor levels. National Institute of Corrections, DOJ. Retrieved August 15, 2014 from http://static.nicic.gov/Library/020475.pdf McCallum, D. (n.d.). Leadership within the Florida Department of Corrections. Florida Department of Corrections Retrieved August 15, 2014 from http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/Content/getdoc/5ca27f87-d4c4-4a79-b01f-11cc95e24af9/McCallum-David-paper-pdf.aspx South University Online. (2014). MCJ6001 XA: Criminal Justice Administration: Unit 3: Week 2 (Aug 14 - Aug 20):Overview. Retrieved August 15, 2014 from myeclassonline.com South University Online. (n.d.). Dealing with ‘burnout’ Retrieved August 15, 2014 from http://vizedhtmlcontent.next.ecollege.com/pub/content/6161935d-00bc-4256-83db-d292ffd9f379/Burnout.pdf?eclg_res=173426&eclg_resver=237510 Most prison regimes are paramilitary and hierarchical. Young officers and other employees are subject to strict, sometimes arbitrary rules and discipline. http://digitalcommons.pace.edu/plr/vol24/iss2/5