Leadership Training and Development Practices in the Ethiopian Federal Police Commission

This study aimed to assess the leadership training and development practices within the Ethiopian Federal Police Commission. To achieve the study’s objectives, an explanatory concurrent research design with a mixed research approach was employed. The primary data were collected through questionnaires, key informant interviews, and document analysis. A total of 384 respondents were selected using a simple random sampling technique, and 15 police officials were chosen through purposive sampling technique for interviews. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean and frequency distribution) and inferential statistics (correlation), while qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The types of training most commonly has offered to police leaders included short-term leadership courses, as well as extended leadership opportunities occasionally offered to higher level leaders. Depending on the findings, the leadership training and development practices was superficial. As the correlation coefficient analysis result indicated that leadership training and development considered for this survey had a strong positive relationship with police organization performance with a correlation coefficient value of r=0.764 and r= 0.635 respectively at the statistical significance value of 0.001. The strategies for police leadership training and development were not well-integrated. Following, police training and development practices was restrained by personal and organizational hurdles. The study also highlighted that the Police Commission offered inconsistent leadership training and development philosophies, which did not adequately support or promote modern policing leadership development. This led to poor performance among the police leaders, which adversely impacted the organization's performance as well. Therefore, the Federal Police Commission should enhance leaders through integrated and comprehensive leadership training and development programs supported by operative strategies.