ABSTRACT
Leadership influences numerous outcomes relating to the performance and well-being of employees and the organisation’s capacity to strategically and successfully achieve its objectives. Leaders shape employees’ actual and perceived work experience; allocate resources, punishment, and rewards; drive the pace and volume of work; and establish standards of acceptable behaviour (Christian et al., 2011; Kelloway and Barling, 2010). Considering the position of criminal justice employees as leaders and managers within the community, this issue is particularly pertinent for these organisations. This chapter focuses on the conceptualisation of leadership, the distinction between management and leadership, and traditional versus emerging leadership perspectives. Finally, a discussion of the state of play of leadership in criminal justice organisations is presented. The issue of leadership development, which is highly relevant to the content of this chapter, will be discussed in greater depth later in this book in Chapter 14.
