Models of organisation and leadership behaviour amongst ethnic minority communities and policing in Britain

• Main Author: Stanislas, Perry
• Published: London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London) 2006
• Subjects: 363.2308900941
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.432456

This thesis examines how the cultural, social and economic characteristics of the African-Caribbean community shape the type of policing problems experienced, and its response to these issues. Central to the problems encountered by this community is the historic role played by racism in shaping important aspects of its ethnic group behaviour. In order to elucidate these issues, a comparison of Jews and Hindu communities was undertaken. Drawing from cultural history, sociologies of race and ethnicity, organisational theory and criminology, the research highlights how the African-Caribbean community has evolved a particular tendency towards specific models of organisations and leadership strategies, premised on notions of group identity. The Jewish and Hindu communities also have developed preferred ways of approaching issues, which are examined in turn. Each approach seeks to address complex problems which leaders are called to tackle and have important implications for the strategies adopted. The second part of the study presents evidence collected between 1993-1995 in a North West borough of London, and highlights the similarity of concerns between particular ethnic communities and the role played by the African-Caribbean community as a source of much of these problems, as well as being a victim of a range of difficult policing problems of its own. The research found that while particular ethnic groups were able effectively to address specific policing concerns, the African-Caribbean had some unique constraints limiting its effectiveness. The principal set of constraints affecting them was found to be the greater number of structural problems it faced, and highlights the intrinsic relationship between the problems experienced by this ethnic community and how this is determined by broader political considerations. These difficulties were exacerbated by the group's own internal differences creating ongoing communal and organisational instability.