Virginia Beach
Police Officers Learn Leadership Skills from SPP Professors
Senior Officers in the Virginia
Beach, Va., Police Department (VBPD) are learning
how to become more effective
leaders through a class offered under SPP’s Executive
Education initiative.
“Leadership development is a new direction for
us, and I believe the content of this course marks
a new direction for the police department as well,” says
SPP
Professor Mark Addleson, who, upon the request
of VBPD Sgt. Mark Bowman, developed and is teaching
the course with Adjunct Professors Scott Brumburgh
and Raj Chawla. Executive Education at SPP is headed
by Professor
Lee Fritschler.
Dr. Mark Addleson
(center) with adjunct professors Raj Chawla
(left) and Scott
Brumburgh (right)
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Meeting on a weekly basis for a month, course instructors
help the officers to create new strategies for dealing
with the pressures and conflicts that are inherent
to the job, brought on by factors that include budget
constraints and additional responsibilities such as
community policing, and recruitment issues. In addition,
officers are learning how to use peer evaluations to
improve their own competencies and to work as a team
by coaching one another toward becoming better leaders.
Addleson says that the decision
of the VBPD to offer the course reflects its reaction
to a changing world. “It
is often said that this is a time of change, when organizations
have to think about doing things differently,” Addleson
says. Part of a VBPD initiative to build a “culture
of integrity,” the course helps students deal
with this change.
“The course focuses on leadership, change, and
coaching. Students are exposed to ideas about organizational
change. The object is to examine the sorts of competencies
that enable the police department’s leaders to
respond to the particular tough problems they face,
to see the connection between those competencies and
organizational culture and to learn practices that
support those competencies,” Addleson says.
Senior
officers in the Virginia Beach Police Department
report benefits from their class, offered
under SPP’s Executive Education initiative.
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In the class of 15 students, the
discussions focus on how to create a workplace that
encourages teamwork,
collaboration and “reciprocal commitments and
responsibilities,” according to Addleson, who
directs SPP’s Masters program in Organizational
Learning.
He adds, “Making a culture
of integrity the focus and tying this to the challenges
of solving tough
problems is what gives the course a unique flavor.
The expectations set by leaders and the actions they
take have a marked impact on the culture, so we are
looking at both theories and practices of leadership.
Coaching also plays a crucial role in enabling new
practices.”
He adds, “Ultimately the course addresses accountability,
commitment, and trust. These are important in all organizations
and most of the time we don’t focus on them.
So, here’s an opportunity for students to ask
some tough questions about their organization and that
in itself is a big shift from the point of view of
organizational culture.”
Although the course is only half
over, Addleson says that it is has already been a
valuable learning experience
for the instructors, and students have begun to apply
some of the lessons on the job. “The collegiality
of the police department culture is a good grounding
for what we are doing,” he says, adding, “It
appears that the learning has been really practical.
Officers have ways of responding to problems that they
didn’t have before.”
 Click here to
listen to Professor Mark Addleson's interview with
Currents Editor Stephanie Kriner
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