Do Police Always Conduct Authoritative Leadership? A Study on Influencing Factors of Changing Police Leadership Style by the QCA Method
Wen-Yu Tang, Jyun-Wei Hong, Chun-yuan Wang
Abstract
Following the principles of discipline and obedience, leaders are often expected to adopt an authoritative leadership style to ensure rapid mobilization and mission accomplishment. However, from the discussion on leadership in general administrative agencies or business organizations, it can be found that leadership styles are becoming more and more diverse. The main purpose of this study is to explore whether an individual police officer’s leadership style has changed and determine the influencing factors. To this end, retrospective in-depth interviews are conducted and followed by a qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), which combines qualitative and quantitative advantages to encode the data, carry out calculations, and complete the analysis in response to the research questions, ultimately coming up with policy recommendations for education training and practical management.
This study found that the police leadership style will indeed change, including temporary switch and essential changes, and is subject to external factors—namely, environmental and organizational factors, subordinate traits, job characteristics, and internal factors (i.e., personal qualities, abilities, and values). “Environmental and organizational factors” and “ability” are the key factors affecting the change of police leadership style. Overall, external factors account for more results of the change.
Keywords: police, leadership style, qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), education and training, change and switch