Public Safety Agencies
Today’s Leadership Challenges
Leadership challenges are impacting leadership styles within public safety agencies. The challenges include a new generation and attitudes coming into public safety agencies, budget issues, and increasing workload with flat or decreasing staffing levels.
The new generation of employees entering public safety fields is motivated when their values are being met. They want to be fulfilled in their work; they want to make a difference. Moreover they desire for less supervision and want to be trusted in completing the task at hand. Leaders will be challenged in getting their employees emotionally connected to their work. Affective commitment is the strongest of all commitments to a job engaging the employee at an emotional level. The new generation of employees ask questions about why they do things a certain way. Where in the past this may be viewed as insubordination, today’s employees ask questions because they want to have a better understanding of the task at hand and the value it may bring. They have a desire to know the meaning of the task and how it fits into the overall objective of meeting organizational goals. Moreover, the employee also wants to know how their performance fits into the goals established by the organization.
Public safety agencies are seeing an increasing workload with flat or decreasing staffing levels. With this being the case it becomes more important to adjust leadership styles in order to meet the changing expectations of the new generation. It becomes important to engage their affective commitment to the job so that they can leverage their need to be fulfilled and energized and passionate about their profession.
As operating budgets within public safety continue to be cut, leading the new generation will become vital to the success in meeting the organizational mission. Today’s leaders are exploring more efficient organization models that are flatter than the hierarchical model that typifies most public safety agencies. This flattening of the organization will create co-dependence within the differing units of an organization. This leads to collaborative efforts increasing efficiency and decreasing costs. The increased efficiency will help meet increasing workloads without increasing staffing levels. Furthermore, salaries and benefits often represents over 80% of an agency’s operating budget so increased efficiencies such as flattening the organizational model may help agencies meet their budget goals while still meeting the increasing workload demand.
Another tool that leaders can use to meet the increasing workload without increasing staffing is the art of delegation. When properly applied, delegation gives subordinates increasing levels of responsibility by assigning them tasks that a leader would otherwise perform. It frees up the leader to perform other tasks, and when coupled with the appropriate amount of authority, it provides the employee with the sense of ownership in the task serving as a professional development tool. Paired with a participative management style, delegation enhances work efficiency because it helps the employee see where their task goals fit into the overall organizational goal.
Public safety agencies have differing leadership styles across the differing agencies. Police, fire, and corrections agencies are typically a paramilitary organization using an authoritarian style of leadership. It is hierarchical where the authority comes from the top of the organizational chart; organizational goals and objectives come from the top of the organization with little or no input from the lower levels. This type of leadership uses unity of command and span of control to meet their mission. Often, larger agencies typically have an authoritarian type of leadership, motivating their employees through rewards and punishment. Their policies are developed at the top of the organization and mid-level managers in accordance with the established policies make decisions. The organizational goals are made at the top of the organization with little or no input from the employees.
Larger agencies tend to be more authoritarian, smaller agencies lean toward a participatory type of leadership. Smaller agencies typically do not have the personnel or resources that larger agencies have and have to operate through efficiencies derived from all of its employees. The size of the department also positively impacts the communication between the different levels of the organization. They tend to motivate their employees through rewards and punishment and by involving them in organizational planning with goals being established after discussing alternatives with subordinates. The increased level of communication and involvement in planning improves employee satisfaction for they feel that they have a say in the organizational vision. From this lens, participatory leadership styles have been found to improve employee reaction to leadership; employees feel like they have a say in forming organizational goals and it helps them “buy in” to its success.
Regardless of the size of the agency, authoritarian and participatory styles of leadership can be effective in public safety agencies. The nature of the public safety arena requires discipline within the organization to operate safely and effectively when protecting the public. This is where authoritarian styles of leadership can be most effective. When on emergencies, orders must be obeyed promptly and without question. However, a participatory style of leadership can equally prove to be effective in the non-urgent setting when employees are rendered the opportunity to provide input into organizational goals. This allows for them to see where they fit into the organization and invest in its success.
