The criminal justice system comprises agencies such as courts, prisons and jails, correction programs, and police dealing with law enforcement. Most importantly, they have a common goal: ensuring the community is safe. They are responsible not only for protecting the victims but also for prosecuting the offenders, punishing the convicted criminal offenders, giving rehabilitation services through correction facilities, and respecting the rights of the accused. Adequate and proper management and leadership are essential for a successful criminal justice system. Police are one of the most influential agencies in the criminal justice system as they are most controlled and responsible for social control. Organization, leadership, and management approaches are significant in the different generational workplaces.
Management involves organizing finances, people, and resources to fulfill specific tasks n achieving organizational targets. The criminal justice system comprises overseeing and supervising the system where people are ranked into different levels. Equally important, it is responsible for coordinating, planning, commanding, organizing, and providing feedback. Leadership involves inspiring and motivating workers to achieve organizational goals. As a result, the workers will have a fair competition on time, resulting in a willingness to participate and support changing long-term organizational goals. Good leadership is crucial in police agencies; that helps keep the community in order (Ginger, 2017). An organization consists of a corporation, company or society that brings together groups of individuals to achieve a common goal. Individuals in an organization are characterized by size, goals, structure, mission, and values which play a part in achieving the goals of an organization.
Managers and leaders play a major in achieving organizational goals that play a different role. Most importantly, leaders and managers play an essential role in a thriving volatile, and complex criminal justice environment. Managers are responsible for commanding, organizing, coordinating, and providing feedback. They guide their juniors on ways to achieve the organization’s goals and motivate them toward achieving organizational goals. Leaders are task-oriented, responsible, and persistent in achieving organizational goals. In the criminal justice system, leaders are characterized by commitment, risk-taking, dedication, and inspiring and motivating juniors in attaining organizational goals. In many police agencies, leaders motivate their assistants to finish their job. However, most police agencies are not well managed, which may result in inefficiency (Roberts et al., 2016). A leader’s duties include giving directions, assigning tasks, and inspiring and motivating toward achieving organizational goals.
There are different generations of employees, such as Baby Boomers, and Generation X is making up today’s criminal justice organization. Baby Boomers comprise persons born between 1922-1945 while those born between 1946-1964 are named Generation X (Jurney, Rupert, & Wartick, 2017). Those born between 1964 and 1980 are veterans, while others are Generation Y. Veterans involve those retiring ones, while the baby boomers are on the preparation to be retired. The two out oasis only the recruiting of generational Y and X left. The workforce may be waiting to be the future officers. Members of the organization have their features where each group, excluding veterans, is in the workforce. Attitudes, behaviors, personalities, beliefs, characteristics, and values vary in different generations they come from while at work. Generation differences vary according to restraint, logic, judgment, knowledge, understanding, and life experiences. Veterans are said to be most loyal in their professional tasks compared to other generations. They have features such as conformist, highly dedicated, and security conscious. Veterans have a strong commitment to collaboration and teamwork.
Baby Boomers work effectively, have an optimistic outlook, are loyal to their employer, and are self-reliant. In addition, they are task-oriented, where they put priority on work over their personal life. Again, they are usually required to be directed by managers by following a certain chain of command regarding leadership style. However, Baby Boomers are not likely to adjust to organizational changes and are not expected to be technologically updated (Jurney, Rupert, & Wartick, 2017). Generation X consists of independent persons who are opposed to authority, have the strong technical ability, and are loyal to their employers. They are technologically updated and are interested in updating their application and knowledge in their work. Generation Y are collaborative and non-conformists. Again, they work hard and take part in teamwork. Generation Y is capable of multi-tasking and is resilient in navigating change.
Leadership styles in criminal justice are used in managing different generations. The leadership styles range from traditional bureaucratic techniques to motivational leadership approaches (Khan et al., 2020). These techniques focus on expectations and goals for additional mentoring, which communicate in various platforms that use social media and motivation. Using the management and leadership techniques of police officers resolves the problems of various generations. As a result, the major mission statement is for a policy agency responsible for each division. New police officers are advised to use hands-on experience where they incur additional mentoring from old to new police officers among various generations. Other mentoring techniques in different eras with managers and leaders of police departments provided extra potency, experiences, and new technology skills to teamwork in achieving fast results.
Management comprises managing and controlling people in an organization, while leadership includes the ability to lead individuals in an organization. Different generations have varying differences in which managers and leaders have to deal with. Challenges arise in the views and attitudes of workers in various eras. For management of several varying generations, various features of management and leadership styles are not limited to motivating employees. Managing different ages includes mentoring with effective communication that focuses on setting expectations and goals.
References
Ginger, J. (2017). Under Observation: Leadership in American Policing. In Criminal Justice Research (pp. 99-132). Routledge.
Jurney, S., Rupert, T., & Wartick, M. (2017). Generational differences in perceptions of tax fairness and attitudes towards compliance. In Advances in Taxation. Emerald Publishing Limited.
Khan, M. A., Ismail, F. B., Hussain, A., & Alghazali, B. (2020). The interplay of leadership styles, innovative work behavior, organizational culture, and organizational citizenship behavior. Sage Open, 10(1), 2158244019898264.
Roberts, K., Herrington, V., Jones, W., White, J., & Day, D. (2016). Police leadership in 2045: The value of education in developing leadership. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 10(1), 26-33.
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