Leadership represents the capability to set confidence and provide people with support necessary for the achievement of particular goals. Leadership is a powerful factor in the development of innovative technologies and projects. Leadership principles promoted the development of humanity in all spheres of its activity, including criminal justice (Karimu, 2012). Thus, the given research paper will analyze the impact of the leadership principles on criminal justice organizations, the Biblical approach and anti-religious impact on leadership, as well as the relativism and hypocrisy in leadership.

The Leadership Laws Applied in Criminal Justice Organizations

The original leadership nature includes the statement that a human being cannot live without communication with other people. The common thing between leadership and criminal justice consists in the interaction of people via communication. The leadership nature is dual, comprising the business sphere (formal leadership) and the sphere of relations (informal leadership) (Karimu, 2012). In other words, in the first case, leadership includes the development and achievement of goals, and in the second case – the consent between people or “a human factor”.

Leaders impart the feeling of the importance of the fulfilled work to their followers. Olusola Karimu (2012) states that “characteristics of a good leader in criminal justice include flexibility, adaptability, and versatility” (p. 26). The principles of leadership include the lid, influence, respect, intuition, priority, and sacrifice (Hurduzeu, 2015). Effective leadership depends on the interference of a leader and their followers and also on the distribution of power between them.

The Law of Lid

A lid or its absence represents an extremely important issue for modern leaders. According to Maxwell (2007), the lid is a positive expectation of the fact that the leader’s follower will try to be as effective as possible and will bring the benefit to the organization. The principle of the lid is based on trust. The higher the trust to the person is, the stronger the expectation of his or her effectiveness is (Maxwell, 2007). The principle of the lid is reflected in criminal justice organizations in the work of their employees aimed at effectiveness at the workplace to reduce the number of crimes.

The Law of Influence

There are many methods of leadership influence, including the impact through public regulations, principles and moral values of an organization, as well as direct orders. The influence and power equally depend on the affected personality, the situation, and the ability of a leader (Maxwell, 2007). Therefore, the absolute influence does not exist, as nobody can influence all people in all situations. In the criminal justice organization, the influence is only partly determined by the hierarchy. The force of influence of a definite leader is determined not by the level of his or her formal powers, but by the degree of dependence on the other person. The impact of a leader increases in correspondence with the dependence on other people. A leader should understand that the unilateral influence can cause an adequate counteraction of subordinates (Maxwell, 2007; Hurduzeu, 2015). Each effective criminal justice leader should support the reasonable balance of influence sufficient for the achievement of goals but not causing the feeling of the protest and rebelliousness.

The Law of Respect

The leadership law of respect states that people follow a strong person whom they respect – a leader. The stronger the leadership ability of a person is, the quicker he or she distinguishes the qualities of a leader or their absence in people. People as a part of a group are united by the strongest leader and follow them. Otherwise, people leave this group and start pursuing own aims. All of them are the carriers of changes and want to be a part of the perspective picture seen by the organization (Maxwell, 2007). The law of respect finds its implementation in criminal justice organizations. Respect plays an important role in such justice organizations, as it allows employees to follow the leader, thus increasing the effectiveness of own performance and indicators of the organization.

The Law of Intuition

The law of intuition is based on the instinct and a set of other intangible factors. The leader’s intuition often appears to be the factor that separates the greatest leaders from just good people. Leaders see everything through the prism of leadership, and as a result, instinctively or almost automatically know what should be done (Maxwell, 2007). In criminal justice organizations, this ability allows the leaders to make correct and immediate decisions in the most unpredictable situations caused by the specificity of criminal justice.

The Law of Priorities

Successful leaders live in accordance with the law of priorities. They realize that the vigorous activity does not necessarily mean the achievement of the set goals. However, the best leaders are capable of forcing the law of priorities to work for them, trying to satisfy many priorities with one action (Maxwell, 2007). It allows them to increase their concentration at the same time reducing the number of actions. Thus, the law of priorities is based on the skill of a leader to structure his or her activities as well as activities of the subordinates in such a way to make them effective (Maxwell, 2007). Efficient leaders in criminal justice organizations use the law of priorities in their work, as it allows focusing the employees on crucial things, the ones that have the highest priority and are important for the achievement of organizational goals.

The Law of Sacrifice

Sacrifice is a fixed leadership element, representing a continuous process but not a single pay. Successful leaders always support the readiness for sacrifice, which is necessary for changes for the better and achievement of the aims in the organization (Maxwell, 2007). The law of sacrifice has a positive effect on criminal justice organizations, as the leaders working in them often have to sacrifice something. For instance, they sacrifice financial resources in order to achieve their goals and represent effective performance together with their subordinates.

The Impact of the Biblical and Anti-Religious Approaches on Leadership

The Biblical approach to the problem of leadership in organizations has its positive implications. The first important feature of leaders is their ability to lead the followers to the achievement of the put goals (Vondey, 2010). In the Bible, John writes about the good shepherd who makes all sheep follow him:

The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. (John 10:3, New International Version)

The superiority of leaders over others consists in the capability to correctly show the direction of movement. It is their feature, the property putting them in the position of showing the way to the followers. According to Vondey (2010), prediction is a necessary element of the leader’s abilities. However, the only prediction is not enough. The future should be converted into the definite goals. The long-term and remote goals often receive the form of the determination of a mission that can be established by organizations. For some of them, the shortest and the best determination of the mission is “to learn the God and to make Him learnt” (Vondey, 2010, p. 7).

The antireligious approach to the development of leadership states that the mission and goals of a leader are not caused by the Biblical motives and the desire to do something good. They are caused by the personal motives and the desire to receive financial or moral satisfaction. Apart from that, the supporters of the antireligious approach to leadership consider that the followers of a leader are motivated by the personal material or professional aims.

Relativism and Hypocrisy in Leadership of Criminal Justice Organizations

The supporters of relativism and hypocrisy in leadership state that leaders are not able to decide what good or bad is. According to Mohamad (2010), the ethics of leadership is relative and depends on the social and cultural circumstances in which a person lives. The relativists do not try to solve ethical dilemmas, as they believe that humanity cares only for itself. The role relativism separates the personal behavior and the social role (Mohamad, 2010). In order to be an effective leader, a person follows a special morale covered with the shadow of hypocrisy.

Conclusion

In conclusion, leadership is the form of the impact on the behavior of people. It is based on the social and psychological contact and common goals. The leadership principles such as lid, influence, respect, intuition, priorities, and sacrifice make an essential positive impact on the leadership in criminal justice organizations, as they promote the development of effective leadership activities. Thus, the analysis of influence of the mentioned leadership principles on organizations working in the sphere of criminal justice was made in the paper. Apart from that, the paper covered the Biblical perspective of leadership as well as anti-religious approach to the leadership development.

References

Hurduzeu, R-E. (2015). The impact of leadership on organizational performance. SEA -Practical Application of Science, Volume III, 1(7), 289-294.

Karimu, O. (2012). Understanding leadership standards and ethical practices in criminal justice. Asian Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 1(3), 23-31.

Maxwell, J. (2007). The 21 irrefutable laws of leadership: Follow them and people will follow you (10th ed.). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.

Mohamad, S. (2010). Ethical corporate culture and guidelines for ethical leadership. International Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance, 1(2), 151-154.

Vondey, M. (2010). A Biblical-theological aesthetic of imagination and creativity and its application for leaders. Journal of Biblical Perspectives in Leadership, 3(1), 3-12.