How can leaders and managers in the police support the learning of others and at the same time, support their own?

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to discuss and attempt to demonstrate that formal mentoring is a helpful tool to develop current and future managers within the changing context of the Police, and to highlight how managers can have both a helpful and hindering influence on mentoring programmes and the learning within them. A longitudinal qualitative case study approach was chosen and semi-structured interviews were conducted alongside focus groups. The findings showed that both mentees and mentors perceived they were learning within the mentoring relationship. Also, despite some common themes in relation to the key moderating factors, managers were seen as both facilitating and hindering these relationships. It was recognised that although interesting to compare and contrast the findings between the two different case study organisations, the findings drawn from this study may not be directly applicable to other mentoring programmes beyond these UK Police Forces. More could have been explored in the focus groups and information could have been collected from those that did not attend the interviews or the focus groups. This research adds value as there is little written about the mentoring and managers, within the interesting changing context of the UK Police force. The insights from this mentoring research suggest that there is much learning to be gained by both parties through mentoring and that line managers need to be encouraged away from the day to day reactive approach towards being more proactive with supporting the personal development of their team members (and themselves) into the future. If they are more involved and supportive of L&D interventions, then they and their team members will gain more from the experience and this will ultimately help them to make a more positive difference within their role.