myAIPMHow Police Leaders Learn to Lead
Cathrine Filstad, Tom Karp, Rune Glomseth | Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice
Abstract
This article examines how Norwegian police leaders learn to lead and what constitutes police practices. Twenty-seven police leaders were shadowed during and interviewed about their daily practices of policing. We found that police leaders learn foremost through their experiences by practising leadership within the context of police culture. We therefore argue for a shift from teaching to acknowledging learning through practice instead of learning through practice constituting missed opportunities for learning and being ‘due to chance’. The Norwegian police culture and the Norwegian Police Service not being a learning organization will strongly influence what Norwegian police leaders learn. Consequently, Norwegian police leaders learn management more than they learn leadership. We argue for combining management and leadership in future police leadership practices We also argue for the importance of enabling police leaders to construct their manoeuvring space, acknowledging the importance of a manoeuvring space in police leaders’ learning to ensure their learning results in changes in established practices.
Introduction
In this article, we respond to the call for more research on how police leaders learn (Flynn and Herrington, 2015). Policing has changed due to new types of terrorist threats, new technologies, immigration and new forms of crime (Flynn and Herrington, 2015; Herrington and Colvin, 2015; Martin and Mazerolle, 2015; McLeod and Herrington, 2016). These obstacles in policing arguably challenge police leaders’ capacities to learn how to ensure leadership during complex solutions and new ways of conducting police work (Flynn and Herrington, 2015; Martin and Mazerolle, 2015; Roberts et al., 2016). Flynn and Herrington (2015) suggested that future police leadership requirements should be a blend of management skills (organizing, budgeting, staffing), personal skills (motivating and communicating), and leadership skills (strategizing, analysing, and reflecting). Hence, we studied police leaders and how they learn leadership skills in their daily practices, especially where management and leadership might be interchangeable.
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How Police Leaders Learn to Lead, Cathrine Filstad, Tom Karp, Rune Glomseth, Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 2020