3. METHODOLOGY AND FRAMEWORK
3.8 Social Constructivism
During the mid 1990s, Abu Dhabi Police (ADP) began, belatedly, to mirror Western police forces in a move away from its paramilitary past through a modernisation strategy. Under the auspices of Lieutenant General HH Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al
Nahyan, (2005 to present), Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, ADP has moved away from its paramilitary past to a more complex policing system. ADP has also introduced since 2005, community based policing, problem-based policing, intelligence lead policing and crime reduction models. All these initiatives have been introduced through project managed methodologies. This methodology has been one of the main catalysts for change within ADP.
The paradigm used in this research is based on Social Constructivism. Social Constructivism emphasizes the importance of culture and context in understanding what occurs in society and constructing knowledge based on this understanding (Derry, 1999; McMahon, 1997). This perspective is closely associated with many contemporary theories, most notably the developmental theories of Vygotsky and Bruner, and Bandura's social cognitive theory (Shunk, 2011).
A Social Constructivist methodology has been considered and carried out before within the police training setting (Glasgow and Lepatski, 2010), and there are some studies that consider Constructivist methodology in the development of leadership potential with the police services (Martyn and Scurr, 2007). Social Constructivist methodology is the
chosen methodology for this research
.
In this investigation, a group of senior police leaders who are also regarded as subject matter experts were interviewed and thereafter surveyed to give their opinions on especially the topics of leadership and change management. Every senior police officers interviewed was asked to provide an account from their own perspective. This
perspective was based on a life of constructs, encounters, and beliefs that have shaped the senior police officers’ knowledge and understanding of leadership and change. Each individual's idea or sense-making of communities and organisational structures, as a construct, was different but this added to the depth of understanding that can potentially emerge from mixed methods research. Hence, the methods used in this research makes for a quality research product.
This research is, in theory, grounded on the premise that, "leaders need to be encouraged to develop their understanding of themselves and their social and
organisational communities and imperatives" (Iles & Preece, 2006, p. 324). With this in mind, some writers believe leaders and learning are codependent (Lambert, 2002; Sackney & Mergel, 2007). This codependency matches with the Social Constructivist epistemology as constructed by Dewey, Piaget, and Vygotsky (Sackney & Mergel, 2007). Social Constructivists, "hold assumptions that individuals seek understanding of their world in which they live and work" (Creswell, 2009, p. 8), and furthermore that, "learners construct their own reality based upon previous experiences, mental structures and beliefs that are used to interpret social reality" (Sackney & Mergel, 2007, p. 75).
Expanding upon this principle and drawing on the research of Bruner (1990), and Brown, Collins and Duguid, (1989), Social Constructivists propose that, "learning involves the learner in sense-making activates that are shaped by prior knowledge and experiences that occur through social interaction and that are contextually situated" (Sackney & Mergel, 2007, p.75).
The understanding of Social Constructivists, based on the work of Crotty (1998), is grounded on a number of suppositions:
1. Meanings are constructed by human beings as they engage with the world they
are interpreting
.
2.
Humans engage with their world and make sense of it based on their historicaland social perspectives
.
3.
The basic generation of meaning is always social, arising in and out of theinteraction with a human community
.
This research, placed within the Social Constructivist paradigm, will assist to facilitate senior police officers to consider themselves as subject matter experts and leaders and build, "leadership capacity through broad-based, skilful participation in the work of leadership" (Lambert, 2003, pA2l). Police officers in ADP will potentially learn and mature and therefore, from a Constructivist's view, build upon their leadership capacity and
develop as senior police leaders
.
Leadership development, in contrast, is universally presented as inherently relational, social and collective and correspondingly drawing from three sets of capacities: structural (social and network ties), relational (interactions and relationships), and cognitive (shared representation and collective meaning)" (Parker & Carroll, 2009, p. 263).
Some scholars involved in contemporary leadership (Northhouse, 2014) have
concentrated primarily on leader specific theories, such as trait theories, transformational
Alternatively, in educational leadership studies (Lambert, 2002; Sackney & Mergel, 2007), have focused on shared or distributed leadership approaches which are
supported within the Social Constructivist paradigm
.
Social Constructivists believe that leadership is a social construct and within a social constructivist epistemology can theoretically be applied to many current and past leadership theories. For example, the great man or trait theories from the 1930's were based on the theory that leaders had personal traits that fostered their leadership ability. Social Constructivists would argue that a trait, although a personal attribute that some may have, and others may not, is a social construct. In other words, for a trait to be of use within leadership, somebody else must recognise, consciously or subconsciously the trait and give it meaning. This sense of meaning must be embraced by the community in order for it to be fully understood.
Leadership research, from a Social Constructivists view point, is not done for the advancement of new knowledge alone, as is found within other epistemologies, such as Positivism (Creswell, 2012).
Scholars in police leadership have the benefit of learning from leadership studies in other disciplines. For example in research literature found within educational leadership studies, some Social Constructivists think that, "leadership is the reciprocal processes that enable participants in a community to construct meanings that lead toward a shared purpose" (Lambert, 2000, p16). In police science, leadership, especially within dispersed leadership theory, within a social constructivist epistemology, have similar goals. Police staff who work within ADP participate and live in various communities with similar goals and functions. Police leaders also need to work together in establishing a meaning- making process to develop police leadership capacity, and to fill the leadership space that has been created for numerous reasons in Abu Dhabi.
This research began with a discussion about senior police leaders of ADP and how to obtain their opinions on senior police leadership in a changing society. The context of policing, with its culture, beliefs, networks, relationships, values and norms, provides an excellent arena for the study of change management and leadership. The Social
Constructivist paradigm is well suited as the theoretical framework to guide this research and provide meaning and substance to a changing UAE.