Government/Public Sector Employees/Individual Contributors/Members/Adults
OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between transformational leadership and courageous followership behaviors in law enforcement.
METHODOLOGY The target population was defined as male and female police in supervisory positions at six selected agencies in Ohio (N=620), of which 148 participated (24% response rate). They completed the LPI, along with Dixon’s (2003) The Follower Profile. The typical respondent was male (86%), between 45-54 years of age (56%), college graduates (70%), and the job rank of sergeants (66%). Internal reliability coefficients in this study were: .711 Model the Way, .892 Inspire a Shared Vision, .727 Challenge the Process, .857 Enabling Others to Act, and, .845 Encouraging the Heart.
KEY FINDINGS Model the way was the most frequently used leadership practice, followed by Encourage and Challenging, and then Enable, and Inspire. There was a significant and positive relationship between four of the five courageous follower behaviors with respect to the five transformational leadership behaviors leading to the conclusion that “developing courageous followership behaviors prepares police officers for transformational leadership” (p. 111) The courageous follower behaviors of courage to challenge, courage to participate in transformation, courage to serve, courage to assume responsibility each, respectively, had a significant positive relationship with the transformational leadership behaviors of challenge the process, inspire a shared vision, enable others to act and encourage the heart. Only the behavior of courage to take moral action did not significantly correlate with model the way. In all five follower behavior to leadership behavior relationships there was no significant statistical impact due to gender of the respondents.