Competent Leadership in the Police
| Date | 01 April 1996 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X9606900202 |
| Author | David Wigfield |
| Published date | 01 April 1996 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
DAVID
WIGFIELD,
B.Sc., M.Sc., C.Psychol., AFBPsS
Force Occupational Psychologist, Sussex Police
COMPETENT LEADERSHIP IN
THE POLICE
Introduction
Police forces,likeallorganizations, need competentleaders. Organizations
that intend to survive must demonstrate performance and value for money,
and this is
just
as true for a police force as it is for a commercial business.
Effective organizational performance requires competent leadership and
acompetent workforce. This article presents a model
of
competency for
superintendents in a regional police force. The paper explains the
techniques used to devise this model, and compares this model with the
core competenciesrecommended by the Home Office. It is suggested that
competencycan represent the focus
of
strategichuman resource initiatives
to support the organization in achieving its mission.
What
is Competency?
Over the last 10 years, "competency" has become a central concept in
human resource strategy for many British organizations. Klemp (1980)
defined
job
competencyas "an underlying characteristic of a person which
results in effective and/or superiorperformance in a job". Boyatzis (1982)
popularized the term "competency" as "a motive, trait, skill, aspect
of
one's
selfimage or social role, or body
of
knowledge". Purists argue that
competency is distinct from skill, although skill is often a component
of
competency. The distinction concerns adifference inemphasis with skills
describing what a person iscapable
of
doing, and competencies describing
what the person actually does.
In this article, competencies will be regarded as follows: sets of
behaviour that underpin successful
job
performance.
An example of a competency (Wigfield, 1994a) for police helicopter
observers is given below. Note that this is one
of
nine competencies
considered to be important for this role.
"Attention
Alert and observant. Searches the visual field effectively in order to
identify specific people and objects. Able to reason spatially, ie to
consider visual information from a variety
of
different perspectives.
Stays vigilant and in a state
of
readiness during periods of long
inactivity. Resistant to boredom, maintains concentration over long
periods of time."
For effective performance in any
job
one would typically expect to
observe a range of competencies. An example
of
acompetency model for
managers in BP (Greatrex and Phillips, 1989) is shown below. Note that
April /996 The Police Journal 99
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