Session Type: Poster Accepted by MIG(s): Time Allotted: 60 Description: The establishment of the Leadership Developement Center in the Israeli Police Force- Insights and Lessons Abstract: Leadership has been an integral component in history from its very beginning, and there are those who argue that leadership is not confined solely to human society. Many definitions have been given for the phenomenon of leadership.
In light of this perception of the police, many police forces around the world have been led to set up their own centers for the development of police leadership in order to provide a custom-tailored solution to the developmental needs of police leaders.
The police is a complex public organization because it deals with both law-abiding citizens and law-breakers and because it is oriented both toward the community and municipal politics. In the Israeli context, the complexity is amplified by the special characteristics of Israeli society. Since police leadership differs from other types of leadership and since the Israel Police displays such a unique complexity, it was decided that the Israel Police deserves its own leadership development center.
The Israel Police Center for Leadership Development began to operate, in accordance with a decision made on March 1, 2007 by the Israel Police's General Staff under the leadership of the Police Commissioner. After considerable work at the central headquarters level had been carried out to prepare the professional and organizational infrastructures needed for the center's establishment, the development started.
As it was defined when the center was founded, the mission of the Israel Police Center for Leadership Development is to have a major impact on the development of skilled senior commanders in the Israel Police.
The center's mission is to develop the leadership and command skills of senior commanders in the Israel Police and to thereby have a major impact on the functioning of the Israel Police.
The Israel Police's multi-year program identifies the need for leadership development in the organization in order to further the program's supreme goal. The primary goal is the cultivation of an efficient, innovative, well-disciplined police force led by senior commanders who are dedicated, resourceful, and responsible and whose integrity and self-discipline can serve as an example to all the members of the force.
The rationale for establishing a Center for the Development of Police Leadership is based on four guiding principles:
1. Leadership is a basic, central element in the role filled by each senior commander in the Israel Police.
2. The higher the rank and the more senior the role in the Israel Police, the greater the need for senior police commanders with proven leadership skills.
3. Leadership development has an added value for the police force when it is carried out along several complementary axes – through the latitudinal development of senior commanders, through the longitudinal development of senior commanders in relation to their subordinates and through the development of leadership skills against the backdrop of the external context in which police commanders function.
4. The development of leadership skills among commanders with key roles in the Israel Police will have a positive effect on the organization's overall functioning.
The Center's Major Activities are:
1. Development of latitudinal leadership among senior police commanders – through work with homogeneous groups of commanders (with similar roles or with the same rank).
2. Development of the senior commanders of organic units – from the level of the individual police station and above.
3. Research, information and knowledge in the field of leadership and especially police leadership: Erection of an infrastructure of knowledge in the field of police leadership to meet immediate needs and to develop a future body of theory concerning police leadership.
4. Creation of continuity in the teaching and developing of leadership skills at the various levels of the training process.
The center's programs focus on different characteristics of leadership.
1. In spite of the discussion whether leadership is innate or an acquired trait, leadership skills can be developed.
2. The center recognizes the principle that senior commanders must be developed by other senior commanders; nonetheless, other factors (the leadership development center, the Israel Police's various schools and training programs, organizational advisers in the different district offices), all help senior police commanders with consultation and guidance services.
3. Three levels of leadership development are provided:
a) Cognitive: Development of the abilities to think logically and to conceptualize, acquisition of relevant knowledge.
b) Experiential-Emotive skills: Learning from personal experience; increasing insight skills at the individual and emotional levels.
c) Implementation skills: Learning from the professional experience acquired by the Israel Police and by other organizations.
4. The center's operational approach favors the development of generic models that are designed to cultivate commanders at the district and precinct levels and to promote implementation on a local level.
5. The involvement and commitment of senior police commanders in the shaping and authorization of programs and their support of the overall process are vital for the success of the center's developmental work.
6. Each level of command/administration in the Israel Police has a unique set of professional challenges; the center's training programs are adjusted to the needs and characteristics of each group of commanders in order to ensure relevance and applicability.
7. Within the context of the center's training programs, personal counseling will be available and will relate to the implementability and applicability of new ideas raised during the training sessions.
8. The development of police leadership will be carried out in close collaboration with the organizational development section network in the Israel Police's behavioral studies department.
9. To ensure that the center will have an effective impact, it has based its concept of development on continuity; thus, the activities are arranged in a multi-year or cyclical pattern with the center's key target groups of senior commanders (area commanders, precinct commanders, departmental directors, etc.).
At the time of the writing of this article, the Israel Police Leadership Development Center has been in existence for 2 years. During this time, the center has held dozens of workshops for the various levels of command in the Israel Police (from the most senior to the lowest junior command level). Judging from the feedback from these workshops, the clients have been satisfied with the results. The center has demonstrated its capacity for directing its activities in a focused manner in order to meet real needs in the field.
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