Shared leadership with minority ethnic communities: views from the police and the public in the UK

Abstract

The study compared and contrasted the views of police leaders and minority ethnic community representatives on different aspects of shared leadership in the context of policing in minority ethnic communities. Drawing on data collected in the UK during 2003–2005, the challenges facing police forces pursuing shared leadership approaches to delivering services are examined, with a view to providing supporting evidence for addressing training needs and reviewing institutional development. There is clear support for policing systems where the views of community members are actively sought by police leaders. On the other hand both police and minority ethnic community representatives recognise the low quality of cross-cultural communication and general lack of cultural awareness as obstacles to successful policing. There are also key institutional issues which need to be dealt with before adoption can take place. On the basis of the evidence presented the viability of shared leadership must be considered as conditional on making certain reforms in policing practice and training.

Keywords:

• leadership
• practice
• training
• minority ethnic culture

Notes

1. The definition of ‘police leader’ used in the article refers to police officers who hold the substantive rank of Sergeant, Inspector, Chief Inspector, Superintendent or Chief Superintendent in a UK police service with specific duties in relation to liaison with minority ethnic groups.

2. A minority ethnic community is defined as ‘a group which is a minority within a particular society and is socially distinguished or differentiated from other and/or by it primarily on the basis of cultural or nationality factors’ (ACPO 1997, p. 1). In this study the subjects are ‘people from minority ethnic communities who meet with the police on a formal basis in relation to community issues’. For inclusion minority ethnic community subjects needed to work and live in the local police areas.

3. Given the issues raised by the evidence collected on shared leadership in this study it is recommended that police services maintain a more formal record of officers with experience of specified liaison duties with minority ethnic community representatives.

4. This is a high-level advisory group in the Metropolitan Police Service that advises the Commissioner and others.

5. While there were some geographical variations in the views gathered from survey, interview and focus groups respondents in the different localities studied, there was not strong enough evidence to suggest that differences mattered significantly in a predictive sense. In other words, while the views of police officers in West Yorkshire and Strathclyde or minority ethnic community representatives in South Wales and West Yorkshire were not exactly the same, the differences were not systematic in any discernable way. Geographic patterns have therefore not featured in the analysis that is presented below.