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CHAPTER 7
Leadership
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter, the students will have achieved the following objectives:
• Comprehend the complexities of leadership within criminal justice organizations
• Understand the many theories of leadership
KEY TERMS
achievement-oriented
authoritarian
behavioral models
contingency theories
directive leadership
emotional intelligence
Ohio State theory
participative leadership
path goal theory
situational leadership
social distance
supportive leadership
LECTURE OUTLINE
I. Leadership Defined
A. Current research has underscored the importance of leadership to criminal justice
agencies; however, there is a general lack of leadership development programs.
1. Costs of leadership development programs are miniscule when compared to
other publicly prominent programs.
B. Four distinct yet connected ideas about administration guide our definitions of
leadership.
1. Leadership is a process that effectively accomplishes organizational goals.
3. Leadership is a group process.
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4. Yukl (1981) suggests eleven different techniques of influence that affect the
leadership process:
a. Legitimate request: A person complies with an agent’s request because the
person recognizes the agent’s “right” to make such a request.
b. Instrumental compliance: A person is induced to alter his or her behavior
necessary link between the requested behavior and some value that is
important enough to justify the behavior.
g. Indoctrination: A person acts because of induced internalization of strong
values that are relevant to the desired behavior.
h. Information distortion: A person is influenced, without being aware of it,
5. Leadership in public bureaucracies like the agencies of criminal justice is
inherently political and must be examined within the political arena.
a. Leadership in organizations is often discussed with an internal focus.
b. Little is said about the external nature of leadership, even though an
external view is critical to a complete understanding of how public
agencies are run.
C. Leaders can use any one or a combination of these techniques. Regardless of
method, however, effective leaders are able to get subordinates to work toward
the stated objectives of the organization.
1. These techniques are different from styles of leadership.
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2. A style of leadership consists of all the techniques to achieve organizational
goals.
D. Leadership in criminal justice agencies involves convincing both subordinates and
those outside in the political arena that a particular method (usually the leader’s)
is the best one for accomplishing organizational objectives.
E. Leadership is tied to the effectiveness of an organization; as being able to be
II. Theories of Leadership.
A. Probably the oldest approach is based on the instincts of the leader.
2. In addition, it assumes that leadership can be evaluated on the basis of the
personality characteristics of the leader.
3. It is difficult to know whether the leader’s personality makeup is critical to the
5. Behavioral approaches emphasize the behaviors of individual leaders, which
6. Contingency approaches:
1) characteristics of subordinates,
3) the style of leadership.
B. Behavioral Models
1. Behavioral approaches suggest that effective leadership depends on how the
leader behaves and interacts with subordinates. These approaches:
2. These approaches evolved from two separate sets of leadership studies done in the
3. The managerial grid, a popular model of supervision, was created at this time.
a. Originally devised by Blake and Mouton (1964), this grid was based on
4. The Ohio State studies state that leadership could be examined on the two
dimensions of consideration and initiating structure.
a. Consideration is the leader’s expression of concern for subordinates’
feelings, ideas, and opinions about job-related matters. Considerate leaders
5. The Michigan studies, in contrast, sought to dichotomize the leadership process
into two dimensions of supervisory behavior.
a. The production-centered supervisor
C. Contingency Theories.
1. Contingency theories differ from both trait and behavioral theories in that they
2) The path-goal theory
2. Fiedler’s contingency model
1) Leader-member relations are the level of trust and the degree of
likeness that the leader has with subordinate groups.
3) The position power of the leader is the ability of the leader to exercise
power in the organization.
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1) task-production leaders tend to be more effective in structured
situations, while
2) human relations-oriented leaders are more effective in situations that
require a creative response from supervisors and subordinates.
d. High situational control exists for a leader when there are good leader-
member relations, a high task structure, and high position power.
e. Low situational control exists when the opposite conditions are present.
f. Moderate situation control exists when the situational characteristics are
mixed. Some characteristics work to the advantage of the leader (for
example, high leader-member relations) while others do not.
g. The human relations-oriented leader will be the most successful where:
2) is effective in a situation where the group likes the leader and has an
1) The implication that leaders are either task oriented or human relations
2) The theory’s assumption that task and leader-member relations cannot
be modified or changed by the leader’s style.
3. Path-goal theory
a. Suggests that the interaction between leader behavior and the situational
aspects of the organization is important.
1) spell out clearly the types of rewards that subordinates can receive if and
3) design paths and goals for employees that are reasonable and attainable.
1) Directive leadership
3) Participative leadership
4) Achievement-oriented leadership
2) a flattening of organization hierarchies was recommended
4) a reduction in administrative personnel
D. Transformational Leadership
1. Three related concepts are central to transformational leadership
a. Mission and vision statement
2. The power of transformational leadership lies in how it is able to change
traditional criminal justice operations to achieve organizational results.
III. Leadership Research in Criminal Justice
A. Little empirical testing of the theoretical models of leadership in criminal justice
organizations has been attempted.
B. Researcher shows police managers are likely to use styles of leadership known as:
2. telling (high task and low relationship emphasis), and
for
4. delegating (low relationship and low task emphasis).
C. Many of the problems experienced in police organizations are experienced equally in
correctional organizations.
1. Hierarchical structure, limited and often rigid communications systems, and
2. As with police research, leadership research in corrections is not only limited but
offers little information that is useful to corrections administrators.
D. The current state of leadership research in both police and correctional organizations
mandates:
1. additional research on how criminal justice administrators actually lead their
organizations;
3. use of new methodologies to look at the intricacies associated with the leadership
process; and
4. discussion of how much we can expect of our criminal justice managers in
leadership.
F. Courts, prison and probation agencies are not immune to leadership issues of their
own.
1. Issues arise from attempts to understand the political process and its affect on
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2. Many have concerns about how much control their organizations have when
their budgets are stretched thin and there is competition for scarce resources.
IV. Leadership Education: The California Department of Corrections (DOC) Experience
2. Awareness of the importance of building professional relationships with
employees.
4. Ability to incorporate a sense of vision within the organization and, when
necessary, serve as a transformer of culture.
V. Criminal Justice Leadership: A Brief Word on Organizational Culture
2. the mechanisms through which culture is transmitted to new employees,
4. how culture can be influenced by administrators.
CHAPTER SUMMARY
This chapter began with an examination of criminal justice leadership in a political
context. Our purpose was to suggest that the criminal justice administrator has to be politically
astute. Additionally, however, only so much can be expected of the criminal justice
administrator; the charge of ineffective leadership is often incorrect and unfair. Current research
justice organizations. Clearly, leadership is a complex and often misunderstood process.
Understanding styles of leadership, contingent factors that affect the leadership process and paths
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that enable employees to accomplish both personal and professional goals is valuable in
understanding criminal justice administration and offering guidance to organizational managers.
We have not fully applied or tested many of these theoretical insights in criminal justice,
where much of the literature has been prescriptive and not data informed. Moreover, most
theoretical testing that has been done in criminal justice organizations has been limited and
exclusively applied to police organizations. We called for additional research and suggested that
A review of the Leadership Institute offered by the California Department of Corrections
showed that effective qualities of leaders can be identified and taught to criminal justice
administrators. The program, however, must be evaluated to determine its effectiveness in
transmitting the principles of leadership to the real world of criminal justice management and
REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. Discuss the limitations of leadership in criminal justice organizations. Do the best
individuals become criminal justice administrators or managers? If not, why not? In
2. Explore the findings of the Ohio State studies and the Michigan studies as they apply to
the agencies of criminal justice. Are their findings applicable or not? What about
participation in leadership in criminal justice systems? Should criminal justice managers
be concerned with the personal aspects of employees’ lives? Will this concern necessarily
translate into effective leadership and productive criminal justice employees? Why or
why not?
3. Examine transformational leadership. How does it differ from other models of
leadership? Explain some of the issues involved in implement transformational leadership
4. Explore why criminal justice organizations may be more willing to invest monies into
5. Examine the ideas offered by the Leadership Institute of the California Department of
Corrections. Would these ideas be effective in most criminal justice organizations, or just
a few? Which few? Why is it important to have a “vision” in a criminal justice
organization?
DISCUSSION TOPICS/STUDENT ACTIVITIES
1. Form the students into three groups. Give the groups 20 minutes to analyze the case study
on pages 216 and 217 of the text (Police Leadership and the Code of Silence). Assign each
2. Have the students discuss the supervisory relationship between professors and students.
3. Have the students relate Fiedler’s three dimensions of leadership constraint to the
operations of a police department.
5. Divide the students into two groups. Using approximately 20 minutes, have the students
elect a president or leader for their group. Meet again as a whole to discuss attributes or
traits caused to “vote” for or elect their particular leader.
INTERNET CONNECTIONS
1. Access the Art and Science of Leadership website, a resource site that offers articles and
2. Access the Center for Creative Leadership website at
http://www.ccl.org/leadership/index.aspx
3. Access the Free Management Library web page entitled “Overview of Leadership in
5. Navigate to the National Institute of Justice site and learn how the leadership of beat