Masculinity Contest Cultures in Policing Organizations and Recommendations for Training Interventions

Abstract

In the wake of the #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo movements, police conduct has been increasingly scrutinized by the public, especially the use of excessive force, fatal shootings of unarmed civilians, and sexual harassment scandals within policing organizations. Through a review of the policing literature and data collected in a Canadian policing organization, we highlight how masculinity contest culture is related to police misconduct. All four masculinity contest culture dimensions can be observed in policing including: (1) “show no weakness,” (2) “strength and stamina,” (3) “put work first,” and (4) “dog‐eat‐dog.” Masculinity contest cultures lead to negative outcomes for both individual officers (e.g., harassment, discrimination, stress), policing organizations (e.g., lawsuits, turnover), and communities (e.g., officers’ use of excessive force). Training interventions are often suggested to prevent or remedy the negative effects of masculinity contest cultures in policing organizations. However, a review of the training literature suggests that training interventions are unlikely to be effective in contexts where organizational norms are at odds with the training content. Our analysis of police data, along with the literature review, conclude with a paradox—the very organizations that need training interventions the most (e.g., policing organizations that often promote and tolerate sexual harassment) are the least likely to benefit from those interventions. To address this paradox, we invoke the theory of social interactionism and reconceptualize training as an organizational sensegiving mechanism. This theoretical foundation offers new directions for future research on training in masculinity contest cultures and insights for practicing police administrators and public policy officials.

Toxic Leadership and the Masculinity Contest Culture: How “Win or Die” Cultures Breed Abusive Leadership

“…As one of the first empirical studies to confirm the basic tenets of the masculinity contest culture construct, our findings are noteworthy and generally consistent with related studies reported in this special issue documenting the mostly negative outcomes associated with masculinity contest cultures (Glick et al., ; Rawski & Workman‐Stark, ).…”

“…Initial research shows that masculinity contest cultures correlate with a host of negative outcomes, ranging from organizational‐level perceptions and behaviors (e.g., lower psychological safety, more bullying and harassment) to individual‐level attitudes and outcomes (e.g., burnout, turnover intentions) (Glick, Berdahl, & Alonso, ; Rawski & Workman‐Stark, ). However, much remains unknown about the workplace characteristics that exacerbate and attenuate masculinity contest cultures’ effects on individuals and the organizations who employ them.…”

Development and Validation of the Masculinity Contest Culture Scale

“…As expected, masculinity contest norms tended to be strongly correlated with other organizational‐level measures (other culture measures and dominance behaviors from coworkers), moderately correlated with measures of individuals’ relationship to work, and weakly correlated with personal outcome measures such as general psychological or physical health. Similar results (with the MCC relating to negative workplace culture and outcomes) have been obtained by Rawski and Workman‐Stark () within a police organization and Matos, O'Neill, and Lei () in a general worker sample (we review unanticipated effects found by Matos et al. in detail below).…”

“…We are encouraged by Rawski and Workman‐Stark's () research using the MCC within a single police organization. In their sample (which included both police officers and civil employees), MCC scale scores, similar to results obtained in our two samples, correlated with other negative culture and workplace behavior measures (less inclusive culture and leadership, less organizational justice, lower psychological safety) and worse personal outcomes (less organizational dedication, lower job satisfaction, and poorer well‐being).…”

Work as a Masculinity Contest

“…This introductory article outlines a theoretical framework for thinking about MCCs. Subsequent papers in this special issue represent initial studies into measuring MCCs (Glick et al., ), assessing their consequences (Alonso, ; Glick et al., ; Matos, O'Neill, and Lei, ; Reid, O'Neill & Blair‐Loy, ; Rawski & Workman‐Stark, ), analyzing their ideological underpinnings (Kuchynka, Bosson, Vandello, & Puryear, ; Munsch, Weaver, Bosson, & O'Connor, ), and considering potential interventions (Ely & Kimmel, ; Rawski & Workman‐Stark, ).…”