Police Culture and Women in Police Leadership

Abstract

We have in this thesis chosen to write about the organizational culture of the police and female police leadership development. The study has been carried out with the cooperation of eleven different females in leadership positions in the police, placed in five different Norwegian police districts. Our research question is: “How does the police culture influence female police leadership development?” The findings show that the entrance into the police has been decisive for how the police culture is perceived, as there are cultural differences in the different departments and areas. These differences seem to be related to the gender distribution in the different places. Female leaders feel a need for behaving in a masculine manner in order to fit into the culture, but the so-called “old male culture” seems to fade away, as there are only individuals that behave in that way, and not groups. The possible cultural barriers contain of; need for power motivation, need for confidence, assumptions of female leaders, expectations of masculine traits and access to leadership networks.