The courageous death of Lt. Col. Arnaud Beltrame by the hand of a terrorist this week may well mark a new page in the history of international policing. In the face of so many such siege situations that can go so often heavily the terrorist's way, police globally have in recent times been issued with orders across the board to 'engage' ...not 'mediate'. The Lindt Cafe siege was indeed our own local watershed here in Sydney.
This challenge however may well need a new form of leadership to lock these new policies and processes into place given that police have since Dirty Harry days (art imitating life) securely 'set up a base' outside the siege. So, how can leadership theory hope to deal with this change?
Beltrame had already been awarded for gallantry several times; he may well not be the average policeman who are called upon to immediately deal with these situations on arrival at the scene. Policing follow set processes; so, how can they be implemented effectively to deal with this all to often seen scenario? Clearly, leadership is the key.
Let's turn to management theory to see what may assist in such a solution.
The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ - a 360 degree feedback instrument - Bass, 1988) has been a foundation stone of leadership characteristics to draw on. From this Bass became the second father (post Burns, 1978) of transformational leadership (TL) which, it must be said for all it's notoriety, has failed in the corporate world, given >70% of such efforts have not succeeded (McKinsey, 2016).
This style is founded in emotional responses which would appear to be the needed foundation stone for the required new transformative processes. Notwithstanding this, research of the MLQ (350 cases to date) has shown that the transformational style (TL) has "far greater effect in government and particularly in 'military' applications" (Bass, in Hughes, Ginnett & Curphy, 2015 p. 597). So, there may be an appropriate application here despite its otherwise patchy corporate record. The transformational leadership style features:
- evoking pride and confidence
- instilling power and confidence in followers
- setting exacting standards for the organisation
- drawing self-sacrifice on behalf of the group
TL is however very much a top-down discipline and it may have indeed been 'transcended by' (Tebeian, 2012 p.365) Greenleaf's 'servant based' leadership. Which has been found to exert far greater influence at the individual level from its innovative 'who serves who' model. There are various similarities with TL such as: vision, trust, influence, credibility, support and a service mindset. Kouzes and Posner (2007, p.75) point to perhaps greater suitability of the team based focus given that the key to organisational change is 'execution' which must be implemented at the group level. Jaques (2007) has written on this extensively with similar recommendations.
Bibu (2007) too has expressed that the empowering process of a team is best oriented towards achieving a common task in an innovative way. 'The group climate' (Manole, et al, 2011 in Androniceanu, 2011), as a situation, can be controlled by the leader's style.
Both styles do tap into the essence of charismatic leadership which 'creates the greatest personal commitment' (Boyatzis and McKee, 2005). Tebeian (2012, p. 314) further notes that ethical, effective leadership motivational models very much drive job satisfaction which is the empowering hub of group performance.
While a hybrid model may be appropriate, Becker and Huselid (1999) stressed the importance of effectively integrating key strategic models designed to re-frame the organisation's internal environments. Once again, care during implementation would create more successful outcomes. It is the one-off communication plan that failed the corporate world.
'The willingness of organisations to pursue systematically the twin goals of achieving organisational mission and assisting employees to achieve their personal goals is an implicit obligation of ethical stewardship and organisational leadership' (Bernard and Andrews, 2007).
On successful leadership of required changes
Thereby, it can be seen from the above cases that with effective leadership instruments and normative systems (values, trust based), there is hope for greater security from our international policing bodies as they strive to implement new and aggressive models designed to thwart terrorist siege situations.
Organisational systems and programs must be designed and implemented such that they reinforce employee behaviors that can produce the desired outcomes.
We should always, of course, take the time to recognize the individual bravery of a true hero such as Lt. Col. Beltrame.
