ROLE OF LEADERSHIP AND POSSIBILITES FOR ITS DISPLAY IN THE STATE BORDER GUARD

The authors explore the display of leadership in the State Border Guard in order to find out whether there is a place for leadership and the human factor in the relationship between management and subordinates in the strictly regulated organization. The aim of the research: to study the role of leadership and its display in the State Border Guard. Tasks of the research: 1) to describe the nature of leadership and its role in the organization's activities; 2) to conduct a survey on the most significant aspects of leadership manifestation in regards inspectors and officers from different border guard units of the State Border Guard; 3) to make conclusions and develop proposals regarding the necessity of leadership and possibilities for its display. The research methods: 1) literature analysis, observation; 2) surveying, data processing, analysis, and interpretation. At the end of the research, the authors conclude that the respect and appreciation provided by the superior to the subordinates is as important as a good salary and work conditions at the State Border Guard. Hence, in the opinion of the subordinates, a superior who can display the respect and appreciation to the subordinates will be able to become the leader. Even in a strictly regulated organization such as the State Border Guard, the superior can offer his/her subordinates the assistance – not by completing a task on behalf of the subordinate, but by providing the advice and guidance. This behaviour is an attribute of a democratic management style creating a favourable ground for leadership development.


Introduction
Often in organizations, the management process and the role of a manager is considered as obvious.The common understanding is that in public administration institutions everything is subordinated, neglecting the importance of the management attitude towards the staff and, vice versa, the attitude of the subordinates towards their managers and overlooking the preconditions for the formation of this attitude.The above-mentioned issues have prompted the authors to select the research theme -the display of leadership in the State Border Guard -in order to verify that in an organization, where everything is strictly regulated, there is still a place for leadership and the human factor in relations between the superiors and subordinates.
Mostly the leadership theories emphasize the significance of leaders' personal traits.The most important attributes of the leader are enthusiasm, fairness, and honesty, respect for the team and subordinates, friendly support.The manager has just formal authority, while the leader has the trust of his/her followers.Respect and recognition of the manager is just as important as a good salary and work conditions.Hence in the opinion of employees, only the manager who can display his/her respect and appreciation to his/her subordinates can become a leader.
When delegating responsibility, exchanging information, and displaying appreciation, predominantly, a democratic management style is being implemented in the Border Guard.In the research, it is concluded that the respect and recognition on the part of the manager is as important as a good salary and working conditions at the State Border Guard.Even in a strictly regulated organization such as the State Border Guard, the manager can offer the subordinates his/her assistance -not by completing the task on behalf of the subordinate, but by providing his/her advice and guidance.This behaviour is a feature of a democratic management style that creates a good ground for leadership development.

Nature of leadership and its role in an organization
Leadership is a phenomenon that cannot be measured in terms of money, material values, it cannot be defined or described by figures or formulas.Leadership is displayed in groups where not just earnings, work efficiency, and achievements, but as well the organizational microclimate, mutual relations, emotions, and feelings are important.Individuals are units that form the group.
Organizational psychology researcher R. Garleja emphasizes the particular role of human potential and the need for its development: "An individual, his potential, is as powerful and compelling as he is able to assess and recognize the truth about himself, to understand himself, to define his role in time and space, his identity in the social environment.It is a description of individual self-respect.The human potential needs to be shaped, developed, and sustained.For this purpose, the organizational environment, education, culture, science, history, socialization institutions, and the world experience are used" (Garleja, 2006).
There are different definitions of leadership in literature: 1) leadership is often identified with a personality -a leader; 2) influence of an individual on other people can be described; 3) a specific pattern of behaviour can be described; 4) it can be described as a certain type of interaction between individuals.All leadership definitions include three components: a group, influence, and a goal.Leadership occurs in groups, the leader influences the behaviour of group members in order to achieve a specific goal in a better way.Leadership is a process when an individual influences achievement of group or organizational goals (Reņģe, 2007).According to several researchers (Burn (1978), Moorman (1990), Bass (1987Bass ( , 1991))), the leader plays a key role in shaping the vision of the organizational future.
Leadership is an ability to persuade and influence an individual or a group of people to achieve a goal together.The person who plays the main role in the group, defining and implementing the actions aimed at achieving the goals of the group, is the leader.The leader's main tasks are to demonstrate the initiative, to develop and support people's willingness to work successfully.The ultimate goal of the leader is to achieve the goal set by the group (Forands, 1999;Ukolovs, Mass, Bistrjakovs, 2006).Leadership is a complex activity; the acquisition of leadership skills requires specific personality traits, purposefulness, self-criticism (ability to measure achievements and to make adjustments of own behaviour), and confidence in the idea.The leader uses his power consciously, with inspiration and, usually, with success (Ukolovs, Mass, Bistrjakovs, 2006).
The authors believe that leadership is an ability to encourage others by using motivational tools such as inspiration, guidance, and support.Each team needs a leader to help them to succeed and achieve their goals by pinpointing the direction of development.A good manager should be able to help his/her teammates to find a deeper meaning for their work.
Table 1 compares management and leadership methods showing that the management techniques are based on the traditional management theory -planning, organizing, delegating, and controlling, while the leadership methods are more related to the change management, gaining employees' support, managing emotions and values.Whereas characteristics of the managers are mostly related to the formal power and its implementation in an organization, characteristics of the leaders relate to flexibility, development of employees' motivation and responsibility, and inspiration.The military leadership is able to provide many insights for the civilian sphere.US Secretary General J. Loh has defined the principles of good leadership.The commander has: 1) to be a model, both with his authority and influence; 2) to be open and accessible; 3) to promote a positive vision and culture within the structural unit and should not avoid complex problems; 4) to be able to distinguish between errors and intentional offenses, and act differently; 5) to be able to apply discipline in a fair and non-discriminatory manner; 6) to understand trust and loyalty towards his unit; 7) to understand when to apply discipline (Dawson, Burrell, Rahim, 2010).

Display of leadership in the State Border Guard
Military organizations assign high emphasis to the leadership positions.Relevant leadership at all levels is so important that, without it, the success is not guaranteed -even with the use of the latest technology and equipment.Therefore, the military organizations emphasise the leadership and the various ways to improve and to develop effective leaders.Successful training provides a better understanding of good leadership.
Leadership in the military is defined as influencing people -by using goals, directions, and motivation during action to carry out missions and to improve the organization (Jian-Quan, 2009).
The State Border Guard is the institution directly subordinated to the Ministry of the Interior.The Border Guard is armed and serves to ensure the integrity of the state border and to prevent illegal migration.
The operations of the State Border Guard is organized in conformity with the law, humanism, human rights, transparency, a single command, and based upon the assistance of inhabitants.A single command means that all the general decisions regarding the institution are made by one person, or by the Chief of the State Border Guard.
All administrative units (the Central Board and territorial boards in Ludza, Daugavpils, Viļaka, Ventspils, Riga), as well as the Aviation Board are subordinated to the Chief of the Border Guard.However, each territorial board has its own chief administering the border control units of the territorial boards such as border checkpoints, border guard units, immigration control services and departments.Each border guard unit or immigration control department has its own chief.
The authors have carried out a survey of the State Border Guard inspectors and officers.One hundred and four respondents, including 53 women and 51 men, were surveyed.The age distribution of the respondents is a very important indicator, since it affects both the managerial work style and the microclimate and job satisfaction and requires different motivation principles for different groups of employees.In the study, 45% of the respondents were in the age group 26-35, 40% of the respondents -in the age group 36-45.Thus, the majority of the respondents were people aged 26 to 45 years.The share of the employees over the age of 56 was small -2%, in the age group from 46 to 55 years -4%, and in the age group under 25 -9%.Distribution by the position in the organization: 70% of the respondents were officers, 30% -inspectors.The officers have a higher rank.Distribution of the respondents by the duration of service: 72% of the respondents had a service record of 10 years and more, and they had to be considered as very valuable employees for the organization, having a lot of work experience and high professionalism.Certainly, some of them were leaders in their structural units, or informal leaders whose opinion was respected by the others.The duration of service of 22% of the respondents was 5-10 years, 4% of the respondents -3-5 years, and 2% with 1-2 years of work experience were still at the beginning of their career at the State Border Guard and could become leaders in the future.
The results of the survey let the authors conclude that the manager's personal traits have a very significant influence on the management style.Therefore, the authors believe that, when planning the career of new officers, the management should pay attention to the personality and personal traits of an individual, as even in strictly regulated organizations such as the State Border Guard, there are the opportunities to create and develop an individual style of management.The effect of the rank can be strengthened, thus ensuring more effective management of subordinates by developing their leadership qualities.That is why leadership is called the supreme form of good governance.Most of the respondents (36%) agreed that the legislative requirements influenced the management style.This can be explained by the fact that the State Border Guard is an organization strictly regulated by the law, where each activity is to be carried out only in accordance with the law.
Internal normative regulations is an important part of the management, because they clearly define the procedures and actions to be employed at the State Border Guard.Consequently, they exclude possibility of different interpretations in the management processes.The results of the survey indicate that the employees of the State Border Guard understood the peculiarities of the organization's work.Therefore, the authors assume that the employees had a clear understanding why the management made appropriate decisions in one or the other situation.More than half of the respondents (56%) strongly agreed that leadership was necessary.Most of the respondents believed that leadership in this organization could be obtained in the result of long-term and persistent work.Thus, more than half of the respondents believed that there were managers in their organization who had leadership qualities and who were respected by the staff.
On the other hand, less than half of the respondents believed that the managers considered microclimate in the organization as important.Thus, it can be concluded that there were managers in the organization or perhaps the conditions were created, avoiding the employees to think that the microclimate in the organization could be improved; or the employees focused on other priorities in their work without considering the organizational microclimate.Consequently, the senior executives needed to pay more attention to the relationship between the managers and subordinates, the relationship between employees of the same rank, and what he atmosphere prevailed in a particular unit.
Less than half of the organization's employees considered that the managers were able to display their appreciation at the right time.Thus, it can be concluded that almost half of the employees of the organization did not receive recognition when it was most needed.The authors believe that the key to the manager's relationship with employees is providing feedback that can also include appreciation.The distribution of responses to the statement suggesting that there are managers in the organization who can maintain the team spirit and consolidate the team is very similar, still the highest number of responses fall for the neutral position of the scale "Neither agree, nor disagree" (28%).This once again confirms the previously mentioned statement that some employees do not even think about the 94 Latgale National economy research matters such as team spirit, team building, since they mostly focus on their job responsibilities and outcomes.
It is a prerogative of democratic leaders to convince subordinates that there is a need to perform a task.Of the respondents, 26% strongly agreed that they were convinced in this way to complete the tasks, 28% slightly agreed with this statement, 24% slightly disagreed, 6% -completely disagreed.Regarding the statement that the managers in the organization affect the subordinates to carry out the task by offering their help, the majority of the respondents (30%) have answered that they strongly disagreed, 24% slightly disagreed, 24% were neutral, 16% slightly agreed, and 6% strongly agreed.The authors believe that the distribution of the responses can be explained by the strict regulation of activities and responsibilities; nevertheless, the superior could offer his help providing his advice, guidance, and support and not completing a task instead of the subordinates.This behaviour is an attribute of a democratic management style creating a good ground for leadership development.

Conclusions and suggestions
An individual differs from other organizational resources by the inner world, soul, and emotions.All leadership definitions include three components: a group, influence, and a goal.Leadership is a process that takes place in groups.A leader influences the group behaviour in order to achieve a certain goal in a better way.Considering the above-mentioned, the most precise definition of leadership would be the following: leadership is the ability to encourage others by using the motivational tools such as inspiration, guidance, and support.Each team needs a leader to help them succeed and achieve the goals by pinpointing the direction of development.A good manager should be able to help his/her teammates to discover a deeper meaning for their work.Most of the leadership theories emphasize the importance of personal traits of the leaders.Thus, the most significant characteristics of the leader are enthusiasm, fairness and trustworthiness, respect for the team and subordinates, friendly support.
The performance results in different groups, departments may vary because a good manager has ability to motivate the team.It is advisable to lead the team in a way it is "focused -relaxed", that is, the employees persevere on the set goal, nevertheless, they do not experience any fear and negative stress, moreover, they feel free express their ideas, recommendations, and use their own techniques to better achieve the goal.
The managing staff needs to pay more attention to the relationships between the managers and subordinates, the relationships between onerank staff, and to the atmosphere that prevails in a particular structural unit.
The research allows concluding that less than half of the organization's staff believed that the superiors were able to express their appreciation at the right time.This indicates that almost half of the organization's staff did not receive recognition when it was most needed.Providing feedback is a very important and useful process in manager-employees relationship, as during the feedback, the necessary appreciation can be expressed as well as suggestions provided for improvement of work.Even in a strictly regulated organization such as the State Border Guard, the manager can offer the subordinates his/her assistance -providing advice and guidance, not completing the task on behalf of the subordinate.This behaviour is an attribute of a democratic management style creating a good ground for leadership development.
The authors propose the chiefs of the territorial boards to express appreciation to the staff for the good performance.Since less than half of the organization's staff believed the managers could display their appreciation at the right moment, it can be concluded that almost half of the organization's employees did not receive recognition when it was most needed.The chief of the territorial board has the right on his/her own or at the suggestion of the chief of the subordinate structural unit to propose to the Chief of the State Border Guard to reward the staff for their performance.As well, he/she can issue the "gratitude" award him/herself.Therefore, the authors recommend the chiefs of territorial units to assess the situations and use their rights to grant these awards to the staff.

Table 2
Leadership display in the State Border Guard: results of the survey (Source: compiled by the authors, responses of the respondents, %)