Power in Law Enforcement: Subordinate Preference and Actual Use of Power Base in Special Weapons Teams (SWAT)

• NCJ Number: 125934
• Author(s): D E Patterson
• Date Published: 1989
• Length: 148 pages
• Sale Source: UMI Dissertation Services
• Publication Type: Thesis/Dissertation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Members of Special Weapons Teams (SWATs) from five law enforcement agencies in Southern California participated in this study designed to investigate which type of power SWAT members prefer their sergeants to utilize, the relationship between preference for power type, and the danger of specific situations as influenced by self-perceived skill level, the member's preference for supervisory power usage, and the actual use of power bases by SWAT sergeants.

Abstract

The study hypothesized that team members would prefer personal power styles including expert, information, and referent over positional power styles such as legitimate, reward, and coercion. The study predicted that the strength of preference would increase with the danger of the situation and with the member's self-perceived skill level and that SWAT sergeants use more positional than personal power styles. The findings indicate that members show the same preference for positional as personal power when viewed categorically, but that, when viewed individually, they prefer information, coercion, legitimate, referent, reward, and expert styles respectively. As hypothesized, SWAT sergeants use more positional than personal power, but the gap between actual use and preferred use by SWAT members is not significant. 16 tables and 7 appendixes.