Supervision in Criminal Justice: A Law Enforcement Supervisor/Manager as an Effective Leader

Introduction

The rapidly changing social and political climate on the global scale is presenting new challenges for policing. Traditionally, law enforcement and communities operated almost in a parallel manner as opposed to modern world where these two rides in a cooperative manner. It is to be recalled also that policing is now considered both a social process and the most apparent aspect of criminal justice system meaning that well-regarded police service is a prerequisite for the positive perception of law enforcement. As a result, policing has become knowledge-based, more complex and more professional (Gottschalk & Glomseth, 2012). To live up to the demands of this modern policing, leadership has become a critical element for accountability and integrity. Nonetheless, how to generate and maintain professional and effective leadership is a difficult subject in this area. This is because of the fact that inspiring good conduct by example in ethical policing is not sufficient (Gottschalk & Glomseth, 2012). Instead, good leaders should be accompanied by good managers who possess precise knowledge of the operations of the law enforcement as an organization so that they are well placed in facilitating and driving the successful pursuit of organizational goals (Gottschalk & Glomseth, 2012). Law enforcement line supervisors and administrators must be in possession of leadership skills that enable them to connect with wider-ranging demographic characterizing policing agency while remaining dedicated to the principal goal of serving the public. As such, being an effective enforcement supervisor or manager requires a balance of contemporary techniques used in modern supervision, management, and leadership as well as integrating appropriate leadership styles and traits.

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Contemporary Techniques for Supervision, Management, and Leadership

Supervision

To improve the quality and efficiency of service delivery to the public, law enforcement must have robust supervision. Whereas effective supervision is a product of strategies including effective communication and effective leaders occupying principal positions, it encompasses the most important phase of administration geared towards attaining specific goals and objectives. In that perspective, supervisors become the conduits through which an organization expresses its commitment or lack of to the employees (Bojo & Aminu, 2017). Supervisors are in charge of providing work-related instruction, resources, and information to the employees (Bojo & Aminu, 2017). In addition, supervisors must provide feedback, positive or negative, to the employees in a time and a fair manner. In policing context, supervision is the key aspect of every officer since, by virtue of being a member of any law enforcement agency, one becomes a first-line supervisor who bridges the gap between upper management and the line officers (Serier & John, 2011). The first-line supervisors play a crucial role as they gather information and distribute within the organization as well as maintaining contact with the community (Serier & John, 2011).

Supervision, being a vital component for organizational leadership, is guided by some basic principles. A supervisor is expected to be cooperative. He or she is expected to work together with administrators, first-line supervisors, and other officers to identify problems and design training based on existing gaps to eliminate the anticipated problems. The supervisor should also be created to help the officers to be innovative and operative in executing their duties to help fit in a dynamic environment. They should be democratic to allow the law enforcement officers try their ideas freely. Furthermore, they are expected to be attitudinal to give advice and accept comments from lower officers. They should also be evaluative and have a plan to assess the situation of the law enforcement agency and undertake necessary improvements (Bojo & Aminu, 2017).

In the modern world, supervisors employ a variety of supervision techniques. These include demonstration, conference, clinical supervision, research, group supervision, counseling model, and eclectic model. Demonstration technique entails presentation of pre-arrange series of events for group viewing in a realistic and practical manner (Bojo & Aminu, 2017). In demonstration technique, the supervisor allows for the involvement of junior officers in an exchange of views for organizational or agency improvement. A conference is a technique whereby the supervisor and the enforcement officers treat each other as equal and discuss new ideas in a free manner with the main goal being to improve service delivery. In the clinical technique, the supervisor establishes a relationship equivalent to that of a doctor and the patient and discusses the agency problems to find out solutions. In this situation, a good rapport must be established between the supervisor and the other officers for collaborative solution seeking for problems that impede efficiency. In research supervision technique, the supervisor inquires into a problem to find out the solution. The inquiry may take a form of qualitative or quantitative analysis. Group supervision involves the use of collegial supervision where officers engage in peer supervision with the aim of improving performance of each other and facilitating attainment of overall agency's goals and objectives. In the counseling model technique, the supervisor is concerned about the self-awareness of the officers within and without the agency, and in Eclectic model, a supervisor employs any suitable supervision technique as dictated by the situation. For example, supervision techniques when in the street may vary depending on the confronting problems or situations (Bojo & Aminu, 2017).

Management

Management is a social process concerned with the responsibility of effective, economic planning and regulation of operations of an organization to fulfill its purpose. Just like supervision, management is a dynamic process comprising various elements and activities geared towards the attainment of goals and objectives of the organization. Management is considered a professional way of running a business and is executed through techniques of planning, organizing, controlling, staffing and directing (Fayol, 2016).

Planning is the basic function of every manager concerned with designing a future course of action in advance. It is a determination of actions to be undertaken to achieve the set goals while addressing imminent challenges (Fayol, 2016). It is systematic and intellectual thinking of means and ways for accomplishing pre-determined goals. The main goal of planning is to help reduce uncertainties, confusion, wastages, risks and uncertainties (Fayol, 2016).

Organizing is process of management involving bringing together financial, physical and human resources and designing a productive relationship amongst them so as to align towards the attainment of organizational goals. Organizing a business is providing everything (supplying tools, capital, personnel) for it to function properly (Fayol, 2016). Key functions executed under staffing include identification and classification of activities, assignment of duties, delegation of authority and creation of responsibility, and coordinating authority and responsibility relationships.

Staffing entails the key function of management of human resources whose main goal is to put the right man in the right job. Staffing is a process of manning an organization structure through effective and proper selection, appraisal and development of personnel (Fayol, 2016). Staffing is concerned with personnel selection, recruitment and placement, training and development, remuneration, performance appraisal, and promotion and transfer.

Directing is the actuation process of an organization to make it work effectively for the attainment of set goals. Whereas planning, organizing, and staffing were preparations for doing an organizational purpose, directing is the actual process of guiding, influencing, supervising and motivating staff for the attainment of goals and objectives (Fayol, 2016). Directing involves leadership, supervision, motivation, and communication. Directing, as a management technique, is equivalent to the entire process of supervising because both are concerned with the actual process of influencing the staff towards achieving the organization's goals.

After the processes of planning, organizing, staffing and directing are accomplished, management is curious to assess the achieved level of accomplishment against the standards to see whether organizational goals and objectives are being met. This is the process of controlling whereby accomplishments are measured against standards to ensure that it conforms to the business expectations (Fayol, 2016). Controlling informs a manager whether a significant process is being made towards attainment of the ultimate purpose of the organization. Thus, control is about establishing a standard performance, measuring actual performance, comparing actual performance with standards and taking corrective action.

Overall, supervision and management share some similar techniques which are aligned to the attainment of organizational goals and objectives; however, supervision is just a subset of management. Supervision and management techniques are all geared towards the attainment of organizational performance. Both involve problem identification and adoption of the appropriate solution. They both involve influencing staff towards achievement of the end goals. Nonetheless, management techniques are concerned with wider perspective of running an organization and look into the long-term. Supervision is mainly concerned with day to day operations but management techniques tend to forecast the future and plan for it. Also, supervising is employee centered while management is more concerned with structuring processes and expecting everyone to act in a professional manner. Supervision pays more attention to human relations where supervisors tend to work collaboratively with employees to influence them. Supervisors appear more cooperative than managers who rely on planning, directing and controlling as systems to drive employees to focus on achievement of organizational purpose. It is for this reason that supervising employs techniques such as demonstration, conferencing and clinical approach to establish close working relationships with employees, collaborative problem solving and solution seeking.

Leadership

Leadership is an influence relationship between leaders and followers who reflect mutual purpose. Leadership is a process, not an act. It involves influencing others through the leadership process. The influence is mutual between the leader and the followers with the goal being to influence the environment around them for the good of all. Unlike management, leadership goes beyond goals into a broad purpose of connecting an organizational vision with followers who inherently have contrasting goals (Colbert, Kristof-Brown, Bradley & Barrick, 2008). It tends to share this characteristic with supervision that entails working together with the followers to achieve the goal. The only contrast is the fact that supervisors hardly recognize the conflicting goals of the followers and on not get ahead to strike a balance between self-goals and those of the organization.

Leadership is more of an art than science. This is because of the fact that leadership entails an instrumental process where one drives positive interrelationships in a genuine manner without following some predetermined system or process as is the case in mana...