Storey (2004: 23-5) cites the importance of big picture sense-making (i.e. the ability to scan and interpret the environment; to identify threats to and opportunities for the organisation; and to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the organisation); the ability to deliver change and inter-organisational representation (involving skills such as coalition-building, understanding others’ perspectives, persuasion and the assessment of client needs) as crucial elements of good leadership.

While we acknowledge the significance of these capabilities, we would add that such behavioural attributes are much broader than he sketches and more literally embodies Allison’s (1982: 17) ‘external constituencies’. These include, dealing with external units of the organisation and dealing with independent organisations such as other public sector agencies, interest groups, the private and voluntary sectors, the public, and the media. In other words, engaging in external network activity and developing strategies to steer and manage those networks. Ferlie and Pettigrew’s work has shown that public sector managers are increasingly looking to the external environment. In their study of network management in the British National Health System (1996: 88-9), Ferlie and Pettigrew’s CEOs felt themselves to be highly ‘outward facing’ and believed that it was crucial to institutionalise strategic alliances by fostering a shift from reliance on interpersonal trust to a deeper inter-organisational trust (Ferlie and Pettigrew 1996: 88-9). How then to achieve such focus?

A resource dependence perspective, based on the seminal work of Thompson (1967), Elkin (1975), Pfeffer and Salancik (1978) and Rhodes (1997) provides insights into what this ‘outward facing’ leadership of network management entails. This perspective starts from the premise that, to survive, organisations require resources. The acquisition of these resources typically means that the organisation must interact with others who control them. Control over required resources provides those who control them with power over the organisation. It follows, then, that managing relations with networks of interdependence is the focus of much organisational attention and activity. In the following section we identify a number of strategies available to organisations to manage dependence: the development and maintenance of alternative sources of needed resources; the acquisition of prestige; contracting or bargaining; penetration; knowledge-driven strategies; and the socialisation of conflict. It is not an exhaustive list. It provides a context for us to frame the increasingly outward focus of Australian police leaders