Shared and transformational leadership in the police

Although an increasingly complex work environment requires shared forms of leadership in the police, there is little empirical evidence on how to facilitate shared leadership in the police. The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of transformational leaders in supporting shared leadership.

The study is based on an online survey in a German state police (3,000 invited participants, a 39 percent response rate). The empirical analysis relies on a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach.

The study findings reveal that transformational leaders exert a direct, positive influence on shared leadership and have an indirect, positive influence through their capacity to clarify organizational goals and create job satisfaction for followers.

This large-scale study is the first to examine antecedents of shared leadership in the police. The results expand on the literature on transformational leadership by highlighting transformational leaders’ role as “SuperLeaders” in supporting shared leadership.