The Ministry of the Interior, together with the police authorities and with the support of academia, has fundamentally revised and revised the leadership principles of the North Rhine-Westphalian police. The corresponding framework concept "Responsible perception of leadership in the North Rhine-Westphalia police" is aimed at all police managers in the state and is the first of its kind.
"Good leadership must not be a coincidence. It is an important factor for successful police work. We need this framework for action as a signpost that provides NRW police managers with a path of respect, integrity, credibility and self-reflection," said Minister Reul.
The framework concept for the police is a novelty - previously used handouts such as the principles for "Cooperation and Leadership" from 2004 are aimed at the entire internal administration of the state. The new guidelines, on the other hand, are specifically tailored to the requirements of the police. For the first time, it describes from different perspectives how good leadership is created and how it is defined for the police. It also contains new tools to support managers in their task.
The basis for the framework concept was a large-scale survey on the value orientation of the North Rhine-Westphalia police force. Interior Minister Herbert Reul launched the initiative in September 2019. As part of a survey of employees, many of them expressed their views on topics such as leadership. The key findings of the survey included the desire for a standardized framework for leadership in the police force, but also for more offers to support and train managers.
Reul commented: "In order to improve, we need to clearly state what we expect from our managers. The framework concept was overdue - this was also reflected in the results of the employee survey. We owe both line managers and their employees guidelines for good leadership. It forms the basis for trusting cooperation."
A 74-member state working group headed by the Inspector of Police, Michael Schemke, and with the collaboration of Prof. Dr. Jürgen Weibler from the University of Hagen, took up the suggestions and created the basic paper.
Practical recommendations for action supplement the new guidelines. These deal with special management situations such as dealing with addiction and conflicts or raising awareness of indicators of right-wing tendencies among employees. The latter includes an overview of manifestations, factors that promote and early indicators of extremism. There is also explicit advice on how to deal with identified problems.
A framework for employee appraisals and support tools such as a mentoring program for managers have also been included. Further measures are currently still being developed, including a concept for multidimensional leadership feedback as well as coaching and supervision services.
