A second type of supervisor is the innovative supervisor.
This person encourages officers to be less concerned about measurable outcomes and more concerned about solving problems within their assignments. Engel (2004 :209) argues that this type of supervisor holds values more consistent with a community policing approach to police work. The role of the supervisor is to provide support to officers so they can perform their jobs well.
The supportive supervisor is a person who seeks to support officers in the performance of their jobs and to serve as a potential buffer between officers and management. The supportive supervisor provides praise and rewards to officers and seeks to inspire them to perform their jobs. In addition, the supportive officer, according to Engel (2004 :211), may be open to criticism when support serves as a shield against inappropriate behavior among officers and diminishes accountability.
Active supervisors exhibit behaviors that are consistent with positive views of subordinates and high activity for themselves. Active supervisors work with officers in the field. They spend much of their time working with officers and less time in the district or precinct. They are not overly concerned with global issues of crime and disorder. They are more concerned with doing, not talking or being inspirational. Officers view such supervisors as getting involved in their work and supporting them in their assignments when possible.
Traditional supervisor: A supervisor who expects measurable outcomes and aggressive activities.
Innovative supervisor: A supervisor who encourages problem solving over measurable outcomes.
Supportive supervisor: A supervisor who supports employees and serves as a potential buffer between employees and management.
Active supervisors: A supervisor whose behaviors are consistent and predictable with positive views of employees and high activity for himself or herself.
Which style is most common and most preferred? Engel (2004 :13) found that the styles are equally distributed across the departments she surveyed, but when separating the departments, she found differences in the types of supervision styles found among police sergeants. No one style, according to Engel (2004 :216) is preferred because we do not know which style leads to what outcomes. This research highlights what we have said before in this chapter:
You cannot think about supervision styles among criminal justice supervisors without thinking about what organizational goals you are trying to achieve. Engel (2004 :216) states the following:
· Police administrators who wish to establish particular policies and procedures within their departments need to recognize the differences in first-line supervisors. None of the four supervisory styles identified in this research should be considered the “ideal” standard for police supervisors. Each style was associated with both benefits and problems. The appropriate supervisory style for departments will differ based on their organizational goals (our emphasis). Police administrators should recognize the need for better training of first-line supervisors to achieve these organizational goals.
For now, we can conclude that effective supervision occurs within criminal justice organizations when supervisors exhibit technical skills (specialized knowledge or expertise), human skills (the ability to work with and motivate people), and conceptual skills (the ability to analyze and diagnose complex situations) to complete the supervision function ( Robbins and Judge, 2007 :7), and these activities are linked to specific organizational goals. Further research will have to test and assess these competencies to provide prescriptions of value to criminal justice supervisors. These empirically based prescriptions will have value to all components within the criminal justice system: police, courts, and corrections.
Technical skills: Specialized knowledge or expertise exhibited by a supervisor.
Human skills: The ability of a supervisor to work with and motivate employees.
Conceptual skills: The ability of a supervisor to analyze and diagnose complex situations.