Leadership and Communication Problems within Criminal Justice Term Paper

Leadership and Communication Problems within Criminal Justice Organizations - Term Paper Example Leadership is vital component of an organization, which influences it ability to conduct its objective. Communication enhances information delivery in organization. Criminal justice is a sensitive area, which requires proper leadership structures and effective communication for effective service delivery. The role of criminal justice organization influence social and human development. Sociologists believe that social growth depend on the effectiveness of the criminal justice organization. This paper identifies leadership and communication problems within criminal justice organizations. 2. Importance of Leadership & Communication Leadership refers to devising a vision of the future and influencing people through communication of the vision and motivating people to overcome the hurdles (Easton 266). From the above definition, it is evident that influencing depends on a range of processes and factors, which vary with the choice of applied leadership theory. Criminal justice organizatio n such police force face leadership challenges associated with management style. Hierarchical leadership style or bureaucratic leadership style influences service delivery in the police force. Police officers face the challenge of making moral judgment verses following orders of their bosses. Largely, this problem leads to ineffective service delivery in this department. Studies reveal that many police officers have limited authority to make moral judgment because of nature of leadership style that the organization has applied. a) Issues & Problems In hierarchal leadership style, chain of command dictates flow of information from top authority to the bottom authority. For instance, in police force, police boss passes information to the immediate junior officer who in turn does the same to his juniors. This leadership style often leads to many problems associated with criminal justice organizations. The informal relationship between criminal justice organizations and other organizati on pose leadership challenge to criminal justice organizations (Stojkovic.et. al. 192). Police chief gets a lot of pressure from partner authorities, which influence service delivery in the department. Largely, the society gauges the effectiveness of leadership structures through actions on the ground without considering factors that influence the outcome. For instance, police chief handling issues touching on political interest must employ different leadership tactics in handling the matter. The external influence is a serious problem that influences criminal justice leadership structures and service delivery. Officers working in courts usually get orders from their seniors to handle some court issues in a particular manner. Court leadership structures and police leadership structures are different. The difference in structure influence service delivery to the society. Leadership structures in court apply democratic leadership style, which promotes collective participation in organ ization decision. On the other hand, police department applies autocratic leadership style, which promotes decision making from the top management (Easton 284). Autocratic leadership style delivers good results in emergencies. On the contrary, police department conduct several activities, which do not call for emergency actions. For example, investigations require