Scottsdale Police Department’s organizational structure has a direct influence on its leadership style because it affects the behavior of an individual policeman, which also influences the organizational structure. The department’s functional specialization generally divides the groups of policemen into special functions based on their purpose or expertise. This will assist the police officers to focus on specific areas to increase their performances. This will, therefore, call for different supervisors or leaders to manage these different specialized groups. These different groups in Scottsdale Police Department may include the gang unit, the dogs unit, and the patrol unit.
Determining Span of Control
In Scottsdale Police Department span of control will include the number of police officers that are under a given commander. In this case, a smaller number of officers creates a narrow span of control, a larger number creates a wide span of control. The size of Scottsdale Police Department in relation to the total number of officers and the subordinate staff it has will be used to determine spans of control. A wide span of control is recommendable because it is less expensive to manage as compared to the narrow span of control. Workforce skill level will also determine the span of control. The simplicity and complexity of the tasks performed by the police officers will influence how they will be grouped and managed by a commander. Since police tasks are repeatable, less supervision is required, thus a wider span of control is recommended for Scottsdale Police Department. Lastly, the chief of police in Scottsdale should determine whether the department’s goals allow him or her to be comfortable with the number of officers reporting directly to him based on their responsibilities, training, and planning. For instance, police chief usually has fewer officers reporting to him as compared to other commanders.
Leadership Style
Transformational police leadership will be the most effective leadership style for Scottsdale Police Department. This leadership style focuses on a people-centered approach, which aims to empower, motivate, and inspire the police officers (Mitchell & Casey, 2007). The police chief and other commanders using this approach would support their junior police officers by asking them what needs to be done to improve their work performance; something commonly referred to as servant leadership. The department’s police leaders need to transform the department’s vision into action. Most of the decisions should be made at the street level. The officers should be encouraged to go into streets and create positive changes within the community. To implement this leadership strategy, police leaders must change the way police officers think in order to transform the department’s culture. This will provide a new strategy of policing, which focuses more on service and less on finding law offenders.
Leadership and Union Relationships
Police unions were created to work together with members of rank-and-file and law enforcement leaders to protect their rights and demand for better pay and better living conditions (DeLord & York, 2016). For the effective working environment, police leaders must maintain an effective relationship with the unions. In the case of Scottsdale Police Department, the police chief together with commanders must ensure that they maintain effective communication between them and the unions. The Proper communication system is required because without it, tension will be created between the union and management. Unions can be engaged through sharing expertise, organizing meetings and providing guidance. Secondly, the department’s management should negotiate a labor agreement with the union officials. This is essential because it will govern the relationship between police union members and the management. Third, any grievance arising from the union should be properly addressed in a constructive and positive manner through providing training. Lastly, interest-based bargaining helps the parties to invest effort and time in understanding each other’s problem thereby creating a long-term effective relationship between them.
Interagency Collaboration
Interagency collaboration is a necessity for Scottsdale Police Department because it will bring the community and police officers together to find a common solution to problems affecting their community. The focus of this intervention will be to ensure that children are well educated on upholding the laws and respecting the Constitution and the families are well protected including their property.
Addressing Employee Stress
Scottsdale Police Department should create a pleasant working environment for the police officers and its subordinate staff. This environment should be clean and free from noise. Studies have shown that a dirty working environment causes anxiety and stress and makes it more difficult to complete tasks. Team bonding should also be encouraged through the effective communications system. Police officers should be encouraged to build trusting relationships between them.
Employee Burnout
To minimize police burnout in Scottsdale Police Department, the management should allow the police officers follow their passion, are realistic when assigning tasks to the police officers, scheduling breaks, being flexible, and keeping reasonable work hours.
Motivating Employees as an Individual or a Group
Scottsdale Police Department can motivate its officers by explaining to them the importance of attaining the department’s goals and objectives. Additionally, the officers should be made to understand why their tasks are important in inspiring other employees too. They should, therefore, perform their tasks to their best capability. Groups are motivated by making them realize that working towards achieving a common objective keeps team morale high and focused.
Introducing a New Employee to Organization’s Culture
To improve the productivity of new police officers, Scottsdale Police Department’s management should involve long-time officers as mentors, conduct daily meetings with the new officers, and let the officers learn what they need to do for the first four weeks, other than assigning them tasks.
- DeLord, R., & York, R. (2016). LAW ENFORCEMENT, POLICE UNIONS, AND THE FUTURE: Educating police management and. S.l.: CHARLES C THOMAS.
- Mitchell, M., & Casey, J. (2007). Police leadership and management. Annandale, NSW: Federation Press.
