Elkin notes (1975: 175-6) that while one actor in the network may be engaged in one or more of these strategies, others are similarly engaged. As a result there is a complex dynamic at work, ‘there are multiple, overlapping relationships, each one of which is, to a greater or lesser degree, dependent on the state of the others’. It is in recognising this complex dynamic and identifying the most appropriate strategy to achieve a specific objective that the police leader will demonstrate to what extent he/she has developed a skill set for managing networks. And the stakes can be high. Coping with external contingencies and constraints is critical to organisational effectiveness and, in many cases, survival. As Pfeffer and Salancik (1978: 137) succinctly put it, when external demands cannot be met because of constraints on the organisation, the leader can be removed: the replacement of the leader, who has come to symbolise the organisation to various groups, may well be sufficient to relieve pressures on the organisation. Or, as noted above, strategies to manage dependence and conflict may well save the day.

Police leadership is fraught with difficulty. The modern Australasian policing environment is increasingly complex and challenging. Changing demographic, social, and economic conditions; transnational crime, terrorism, peacekeeping and international deployments have served to broaden the focus of police leaders. Law and order was always a political minefield and continues to be so. New and emerging technologies have transformed the nature of crime and the manner in which police respond to it. Traditional police tasks such as finger printing and escorting prisoners to court are now outsourced by many organisations. Meeting community expectations, providing a visible presence and working with a variety of stakeholders to identify and solve problems is resource intensive. Such complex changes require police leaders to look forward and outward to ensure that they have the capacity to anticipate and manage resource dependency and the external environment.

This complex and ever changing environment raises a number of issues for police governance. Traditionally, police leaders in Australia were autonomous and answerable only to the department. They ran tight, authoritarian organisations that were essentially inwardly focused. Today, command and control is still the dominant governing structure in police organisations but the external environment requires more flexibility than this structure allows. The importance of working with communities and connecting with external constituencies is crucial. In doing so new governing structures with an emphasis on networks and partnerships have come to shape and determine many aspects of the police leader’s role. But, as Fleming and Rhodes have noted (2005: 203), ‘the cooperative behaviour of a network can collapse under the impact of competition or of changed priorities’. Ensuring the capacity of the organisation for command and control responses while at the same time maintaining the fine balance of an inter-dependent network, managing dependence and the external influence of organisations is a primary focus for today’s police leader. In some ways it may well be regarded as what Mark Moore has termed an ‘impossible job’ (1990: 72).