From the bottom‐up: sharing leadership in a police agency

Police work has become intensely community and crime‐prevention oriented, demanding high commitment and discretionary activity from police officers. Collaborative leadership practices that involve employees in workplace decision‐making have been shown to increase commitment, but have not been widely adopted within law enforcement organizations. This case study examines the effects of a shared leadership initiative in a suburban police department. Twenty‐four months after implementation of an employee steering committee (called the Leadership Team) quantitative and qualitative data indicate significant improvement in employees’ perceptions of work conditions, labor–management relations, commitment, and community‐oriented policing, as well as increases in discretionary police productivity.