Abstract
Purpose. The purpose of this study was to examine the diversification of rank structures within the context of law enforcement agencies and determine how promotional systems impact the upward mobility of nontraditional sworn employees. Historically, law enforcement has been the enclave of male Caucasians; however, the changing demographics of the communities served by law enforcement has generated internal and external pressure to create more inclusive organizations that represent the community and their diverse interests. Theoretical framework. Chris Argyris' espoused theory versus theories-in-use is the underpinning of this research effort, framed by the cognitive dissonance of Leon Festinger. These theories aptly describe and frame the iterative process of promotional systems and their inherent capacity to advance representative bureaucracy, progress towards that ideal, remain static, or regress into a homogenous state. Methodology. Ten of the largest law enforcement organizations within the United States responded to a request for public records which sought agency demographics, promotional processes in use, diversity plans, and equal employment opportunity plans. Descriptive statistics were used to compare and contrast the ten agencies against jurisdictional demographics, rank structure demographics, degree of executive discretion, and the demographics of legislative oversight bodies. Content analysis was used to compare the various diversity and equal opportunity employment plans submitted by each agency in order to assess degree of agency commitment towards diversity. Findings. Using a typology generated with this study, the ten agencies were categorized based on their leadership diversity, as demonstrated by the relative equality of group mobility rates within their rank structures, and their commitment towards detecting and correcting conditions of adverse impact. The four categories of bureaucracies were representative, nonrepresentative progressive, nonrepresentative static, and nonrepresentative regressive. Of the 10 agencies studied, only the Texas Department of Public Safety achieved the top rating, with the other nine divided evenly among the remaining three categories. Conclusions and recommendations. The variables that appeared to mostly influence which category an agency was placed in was the degree of executive discretion, the use of seniority in promotional processes, and the size of legislative oversight over appointing authority. Executive discretion itself proved to be a tool that could advance or retard the diversification of leadership within law enforcement organizations.