Interrogating Emotions in Police Leadership

Theoretical discourse about leadership was traditionally conceived as a rational process of social action emanating from a leader whose traits were deemed largely responsible for the success or failure of the organization. The role of emotions in leadership, when they were discussed at all, tended to be viewed either negatively as irrational dimensions of mind interfering with the rational business of leading or as a discrete psychological category subsumed within emotional intelligence. In this article, the authors conceptualize emotions holistically as an embodied phenomenon that mediates the social process of leadership. They discuss police leadership as a specific organizational context that shapes and constrains emotional expression and suggest ways that emotional intelligence might be construed to aid police leadership development.