Psychological readiness for innovation and individual-style self-regulation of police officers

Abstract

It has been stressed that very demanding requirements for the effective management activity put forward for the heads of police departments. This activity should ensure the proper performance of professional duties by subordinate employees. The psychological readiness for innovation will allow the representatives of the police leadership to carry out an effective implementation of the strategy of ensuring the protection of individuals and society. The lack of self-regulation makes them vulnerable while taking important professional decisions.

The objective of the article was the empirical study of the features of psychological readiness and individual-style self-regulation of the heads of police departments at different levels of readiness for innovation.

The author of the research has used “Psychological Readiness for Innovation” (V. E. Klochko, O. M. Krasnoryadtseva) and “Style of Self-Regulation of Behavior” (V. I. Morosanova) methods. The sample consisted of 316 heads of police departments.

It has been theoretically grounded that psychological readiness for innovation is an important professional feature of a police leader able to form his personal resource in terms of constant changes. Empirically, the highest number of correlation relationships was found within a group of leaders with an average readiness level, namely, it was recorded: a tendency to increase flexibility with a more active manifestation of initiative; the ability to set criteria for quality assessment is reduced while increasing the frequency of providing the benefits of activities that require innovation; increasing readiness for change leads to an increase in the ability to assess the results. It has been noted that leaders with a high level of readiness for innovation have increased flexibility with the growth of readiness for changes. With regard to law enforcement officers with a low level of readiness for innovation, it has been concluded that their programming capacity has increased as a result of an increase in the frequency of giving priority to activities that require innovation. It has been determined that such skills as flexibility, programming, correction and self-regulation can improve managerial activity of the leaders in the whole.