Organized Crime Leadership

Introduction 

Over recent years, the rate of criminal activities worldwide has increased significantly due to rising drug misuse, poverty, parental negligence, and population growth. The high poverty level in different parts of the world, particularly in developing countries, has been the primary cause of crime ( Harp et al., 2018). It explains why the number of criminal cases in developing countries is higher as compared to developed countries. The rising instances of crime, membership, and leadership of such groups are becoming an issue of concern, particularly for an organized criminal group made up of highly centralized enterprises and national groupings. Given the nature of illegal activities and the associated parties, leadership play a critical role in ensuring that the operation of a group is efficient and effective 

Most criminal activities involve some aspects of collaboration where mafias, gangs, or terrorist related groups perform criminal activity. According to Ouellet et al. (2017), the unions of criminal groups pose a more significant societal problem than the individually committed crime. Collaborations existing between different gangs and terrorism are regarded as organized crime. Conceptualization of organized crime has been an issue of concern within the research field; many researchers question what is composing an organized crime and how it operates. So far, there is no common understanding has been arrived at concerning the operation of organized crime. Some researchers have argued that organized crime is about criminal organizations or criminal activities. It operates an entirely different way from lone offenders; organized crime is more about the power concentrations. 

With the increasing cases of criminal activities and the fight to end criminal cases, it is fundamental to discuss matters associated with criminal organizations that have been growing over the years. This study topic is essential because it gives the readers a clear picture of how criminal organizations operate and the leadership models used in such an organization. The readers can make their minds concerning such organizations based on the things they learn from this paper. According to Mitchell et al. (1997), having detailed information regarding an activity allows you to make a well-informed decision. By reading these articles, readers' will not only different leadership skills, but it will also change their perceptions towards organized, either negative or positive depending on an individual's understanding of the text. 

The general objective of this research paper is to find out the type of leadership in criminal organizations. The report will seek to discuss some of the factors influencing criminal organizations' regular operation and how such factors eventually affect organizational leadership. Various relevant leadership models will be addressed, taking into account the functions of organized crimes. In addition to that, relevant individual attributes that accrue to good leadership will be discussed to ascertain the traits that best suit organized crime leadership. 

Literature Review 

The fight to control criminal activities has been faced by numerous challenges ranging from the inability to understand how organized criminal groups operate and the limits of such groups. Tracking down organized crime is quite tricky because it is conducted in a more secretive and manageable manner. One of the main factors controlling the operation of organized crime is strong leadership, which the group throughout its tough and challenging times ( Atuesta and Pérez-Dávila, 2018). Even though leadership in organized crime is not as effective as authorized organization leadership, the leaders play a vital role in making that the group remain organized. The fight for power does not affect its operation. 

There are two main issues associated with organized crime leaders: the responsibilities of the leaders within the organization and how the leaders can be punished over the offenses committed by their subordinates ( Bishop et al., 2017). The criminal organization naturally embraces complex organization strictures, making it challenging to track down top leaders for the subordinates' crime. The criminal law doctrine has found it extremely difficult to punish these leaders because of the features of organization structures used. Standard features of organized crime leadership include decentralized management, leadership isolation from junior ranks, and mechanism encouraging initiative. 

Although some criminal leaders follow the standard organizational leadership structure, they tend to do most of their activities differently. Unlike leaders in a non-criminal organization, leaders in organized tend to avoid various communication technologies such as teleconferencing and telephone. Instead, they advocate for face to face meeting. Research shows that many organized crime leaders use such meetings as a platform for managing criminal groups. Regardless of the circumstance under which someone would prefer to organize a face-to-face meeting, it is usually one of the most effective ways of discussing an organization's future. 

Management of criminal gangs is not a walk in the park; it requires one to embrace various leadership styles just like a manager in any company would do. Organized crime leaders may need to possess additional skills to overcome the numerous challenges they go through. Besides the primary management duties, criminal organization leaders are expected to go the extra mile of bearing the substantial risk factors related to their job. Like how hard it is to manage an illegal business, organized crime leaders also find it very uncomfortable to address the gang members and keep the company on track. Nearly all criminal organizations operate illegally, something that makes things even tighter for the leaders of such groups ( Lemoine et al., 2019). They are ever on the run with the governments ready for everything humanly possible to eliminate their business. You can imagine leading a group that nobody in society seems to support except its members. It is very frustrating, and one may not fully exhaust his or her leadership abilities due to the job's challenges. The risk factor in criminal activities is so profound that it can even lead to sentencing or death. 

When discussing leadership in criminal organizations, it is essential to consider all the factors associated with such an organizational environment. The internal and external environmental analysis plays a crucial role in ensuring that all the factors that may affect the leaders are considered. According to El Talla et al. (2018), an organization's nature plays an integral part in determining crucial organizational aspects such as the structure of an organization, appropriate leadership styles to be used, and how the organization should be controlled. A typical example is a comparison between a service company and a manufacturing company, the operations of the two companies differ, making it unrealistic to embrace the same management style. Besides the business nature, the employees also matter a lot in determining the kind of leadership that best suits an organization.n For instance, how a leader can handle illiterate employees slightly differs from how the same leader will handle literate employees. In most cases, literate employees require little attention as they tend to follow the directives that they have been given. On the other hand, illiterate employees will most require more attention because they have a lower likelihood of following the instructions that they have been given. 

In the case of a criminal organization, membership is also an essential factor that ought to be considered. Even though there are some criminal groups that are made up of professionals, most criminal gangs consist of illiterate individuals who can easily be swayed into commuting crimes. The gangs' leaders always take advantage of members' illiteracy to persuade them to commit a crime. As much as members' illiteracy level is an advantage to the gang leaders, it also poses a severe threat to the gang's smooth operation because the majority of these illiterate members are unable to follow the instruction given by their leaders. They are prone to making small errors, which ultimately effect the leaders and the entire group. 

Another essential aspect that is associated with the leadership of organized crime is the issues of recruitment. The leaders of criminal gangs are directly responsible for the recruitments of new members into the team. It is upon them to come up with a mechanism of convincing people to join the gang ( Rushchenko, 2019). Besides that, the leaders have the mandate of verifying people who can join the group, whether they have been brought about by the gang members or the leaders themselves. The recruitment process in a criminal organization is way different from the ones performed by organizations in other sectors of the economy. Based on the recruitment role, the organization structure resurfaces because it determines the recruitment process's body. Under normal circumstances, the human resource department usually has the mandate to conduct the recruitment process. However, in a criminal organization, the case may be different because there is a proper structure to divide the leaders' roles. 

In most cases, you will find that the same person responsible for the organization's general management very approves the new recruitment into the organization. Past study has indicated that power division becomes a significant challenge in criminal organizations because there are no laid down guidelines which the leaders are expected to follow ( Schuler and Cording, 2006). In the end, they fight over positions, which may ultimately lead to the business's closure. 

In general, a criminal organization has numerous striking differences with other organizations, making its leadership styles slightly different from the rest of the organization. Based on the literature review, organized crime leaders face numerous challenges besides those any other leader managing an organization would face. Therefore, these leaders require different leadership skills to be able to discharge their duties effectively. They must have the ability to endure difficult situations that the organization can go through and bear the enormous risk associated with the nature of their jobs. 

Analysis and Discussion 

The study's analysis was conducted based on the literature review and the readings from the provided resource. An in-depth research was done on leadership styles and criminal organizations. The study sought to incorporate the information gathered from the criminal organization related resources and leadership resource to accomplish the study objectives. Both textbooks and internet-based resources were used in the study to come up will concrete findings regarding organized crime leadership. 

Based on research findings, individual attributes play an essential role in determining an individual's leadership qualities. The characteristics define the leadership role in which an individual is fit to play and the kind of organization that the person can work best. Not everyone possesses leadership skills, and not all leaders have every skill that one is expected to have when occupying a leadership position. Therefore, the most important thing is to relate individual attributes with leadership skills and styles to develop the best personal qualities that best suit their leadership role. For this case, the paper focused on how individuals attribute can make one fit or unfit for a leadership role in a criminal organization and how these attributes can help the leaders encounter some of the challenges facing them. 

According to Northouse (2018), four individual attributes can affect a person's knowledge and leadership skills. It includes motivation, crystallized cognitive ability, personality, and general cognitive ability. The highlighted features play an essential role in modeling the leadership skills of an individual. The attributes help an individual in complex problem solving within an organization, which is very useful organizational leadership, particularly in organized crime where complex problems are numerous. The attributes are essential to every individual as it allows them to explore their leadership competencies. 

According to Weiss (2020), the general cognitive ability can be referred to as a person's intelligence, his or her ability to process information, think divergently, reason quickly, and capacity to remember past events. General cognitive ability is associated with an individual's biology and not the experience that the person has had. Regarding the management of criminal activities, general mental ability plays a crucial role in ensuring that everything runs smoothly, and there is no form of inconvenience that can impair the organization's operation. As stated earlier, the criminal organization has several complex issues that require one to be a creative, fast thinker and think divergently to solve such problems. 

Crystallized cognitive ability refers to an individual intellectual ability that has developed over time. Crystallized cognitive ability is learned through experience and its capacity increases as the goes. It improves an individual's ability to solve a problem more quickly, especially an issue that has existed before. Given the nature of criminal activities, it is essential that those organized crime leaders have crystallized cognitive ability to handle cases that need urgency and get used common problem in the environmental set up such arrest. A goof criminal organization's leader should develop a mechanism of handling frequently occurring problems. 

Apart from the leadership and psychological set of mind suiting organized crime leadership, it is crucial to consider how they operate in the work line. On many occasions, gang leaders have been accused of drugging their members into committing a crime without featuring in the crime scene. These leaders have been charged with exploiting other members, particularly junior members, to achieve their criminal objectives. To make matters worse. The gang has been accused of taking more significant profit portion, yet they don't even participate in the actual illegal activities. Such allegations have triggered internal tensions, which has seen some leaders quite their positions. Organized crime leaders have been accusing of taking advantage of others for their gains. But regardless of any form of pressure, both internal and external and internal, a good leader must stand out firmly to himself or herself and ensure that members are comfortable with the responses given. Furthermore, there is no leadership position without criticism; there people who will always be against your leadership; however much you may try to please them. 

According to the study findings, the criminal organization's best leadership model is the situational leadership model. This type of leadership model is based on situations; that is, different situations require a different leadership approach ( Al-Ghanem et al., 2020). According to this argument, one can only be an effective leader if they are ready to adapt to different situations' requirements. In a criminal organization, different situations arise daily, making it too hectic for leaders to manage. Therefore, with the leadership model's application, organized crime leaders can address any problem that arises without hesitation. 

Conclusion 

In conclusion, the rate of criminal activities worldwide has continued to rise despite the fight end criminal associated activities such as robbery and terrorism. The high level of crime rate has been associated with an increasing number of criminal organizations, making it extremely difficult to track down the perpetrators. One main factor that has contributed to the success of organized crime is the existence of strong leadership. It has been noted that most criminal organizations have embraced different organizational structures to ensure that the operation runs smoothly, and they are not caught on the wrong side of the law. The study literature has reviewed factors associated with organized crime and how such factors affect such organizations' leadership. Research findings have shown that personal attributes such as motivations, general cognitive ability, personality, and crystallized cognitive ability, influence individual leadership skills. Based on study findings, it has been concluded that the situational leadership model is best suited for organized crime leaders. 

References 

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