A.J. Noblet, J.J. Rodwell and A.F. Allisey
The overall purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which breaches in psychological contracts and perceptions of organizational fairness account for variations in job…
Abstract
Purpose
The overall purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which breaches in psychological contracts and perceptions of organizational fairness account for variations in job stress experienced by operational police officers (as measured by psychological distress and employee performance), after controlling for the variance associated with more established job stressors (i.e. job demands, job control and social support).
Design/methodology/approach
This study is based on data collected through a self‐report survey involving operational members of a large Australian police force (n=582).
Findings
Results of hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicate that vast majority of explained variance in psychological distress and extra‐role performance is attributed to the additive effects of demand, control, and support. Furthermore, only one of the social exchange dimensions (interpersonal fairness) is predictive of either target variable.
Research limitations/implications
The limitations that need to be taken into account are the cross‐sectional nature of the study design and the focus on a single police service.
Practical implications
Despite the generally weak support for the social exchange variables, there are signs that dimensions of justice (particularly interpersonal justice) should be included in future police‐stress investigations. The results also suggest that job characteristics such as job demand, job control and social support should be taken into account when developing strategies to prevent and/or reduce chronic job stress in policing services.
Originality/value
This is one of the first studies to examine the relationships between psychological contract breach, perceptions of fairness and police stress.
Details
Keywords
Mahesh K. Nalla, Sheeraz Akhtar and Eric Lambert
Police organizations work better when officers feel satisfied with their jobs. High job satisfaction has been linked to positive outcomes for both officers and police…
Abstract
Purpose
Police organizations work better when officers feel satisfied with their jobs. High job satisfaction has been linked to positive outcomes for both officers and police organizations. Perceived fairness of transfers should be positively associated with job satisfaction. There has been little research in this area, and none of the limited past studies have studied this association among Pakistani police officers.
Design/methodology/approach
Data for the study comes from a survey of 550 officers working in the Lahore police stations in Punjab, Pakistan.
Findings
After controlling for location, work assignment, rank, length of service, marital status, age and educational level, the strongest predictor of job satisfaction was perceived fairness in transfers, an important aspect of policing in Pakistan.
Research limitations/implications
This was a single exploratory study that only measured perceived fairness of transfers. There is a need for additional studies. Further, broader measures of organizational fairness should be used in future studies.
Practical implications
Police administrators should ask staff why they perceive transfers as fair or not and what can be done to improve their perceptions.
Originality/value
There has been little research on police in Pakistan and the current study examined perceptions of fairness in terms of transfers with the job satisfaction among police officers in Pakistan.
Details
Keywords
Stefan Annell, Petra Lindfors and Magnus Sverke
The cost of selecting and training new police officers is high. However, previous research has provided limited guidance on how to select the best applicants. The purpose of this…
Abstract
Purpose
The cost of selecting and training new police officers is high. However, previous research has provided limited guidance on how to select the best applicants. The purpose of this paper is to enhance the understanding of the possibilities to select suitable applicants by using combinations of four common categories of selection methods, namely cognitive tests, personality inventories, physical tests, and rater-based methods (i.e. interviews).
Design/methodology/approach
Using a sample of Swedish police recruits (n=750) the authors performed hierarchical multiple regression analyses, predicting four criteria – performance, satisfaction, retention, and health – at three consecutive time points (after two years of academy training, after six months of field training, and after the first work year).
Findings
No group of selection methods consistently predicted all four criteria at the three time points. In most analyses more than one class of selection methods were statistically significant, but the findings did not support the use of rater-based methods.
Practical implications
Instead of the common praxis of using interviews, the findings suggest an alternative praxis. This involves using the remaining information from cognitive tests, personality inventories, and general fitness tests that had been used in earlier hurdles to screen out unsuitable applicants.
Originality/value
The study extends previous research by including several follow-ups, showing the value of combining different selection methods, and using alternative criteria of successful police recruitment (i.e. satisfaction, retention, and health).
Details
Keywords
Rachael Rief and Samantha Clinkinbeard
The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between officer perceptions of fit in their organization and stress (organizational and operational), overall job…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between officer perceptions of fit in their organization and stress (organizational and operational), overall job satisfaction and turnover contemplation (within the last 6 months).
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used cross-sectional survey data from a sample of 832 officers from two Midwest police departments to examine the relationships between fit, stress and work-related attitudes.
Findings
Perceived stress and organizational fit were strong predictors of overall job satisfaction and turnover contemplation; organizational fit accounted for the most variation in stress, satisfaction and turnover contemplation. Organizational stress partially mediated the relationship between organizational fit and job satisfaction and organizational fit and turnover contemplation.
Research Implications
More research is needed to identify predictors of organizational fit perceptions among police officers.
Practical implications
Findings indicate that agencies should pay close attention to the organizational culture and structure when trying to address issues of officer well-being and retention. Further, the person−environment framework can be a useful tool in examining police occupational outcomes.
Originality/value
The authors findings contribute to research on officer stress by exploring perceptions of organizational fit as a predictor of stress and unpacking how officer stress matters to important work outcomes, including job satisfaction and thoughts of turnover, by considering stress as a mediator between organizational fit and these work outcomes.
Details
Keywords
Tommy Foy, Rocky J. Dwyer, Roy Nafarrete, Mohamad Saleh Saleh Hammoud and Pat Rockett
Workplace stress costs £3.7bn per annum in the UK and in excess of $300bn per annum in the USA. The purpose of this paper is to examine the existence, strength and direction of…
Abstract
Purpose
Workplace stress costs £3.7bn per annum in the UK and in excess of $300bn per annum in the USA. The purpose of this paper is to examine the existence, strength and direction of relationships between perceptions of social support, work–life conflict, job performance and workplace stress in an Irish higher education institution.
Design/methodology/approach
The selected theoretical framework consisted of a combination of reward imbalance theory, expectancy theory and equity theory. An organizational stress screening survey instrument was used to survey the staff (n = 1,420) of an academic institution. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to evaluate the relationships between the independent variables (social support, work–life conflict, job performance), the covariates (staff category, direct reports, age, gender), and the dependent variable (workplace stress).
Findings
The results showed a negative correlation between social support and workplace stress, a positive correlation between work–life conflict and workplace stress, and a negative correlation between job performance and workplace stress (p < 0.05). The results also revealed significant relationships between the covariates direct reports and gender and the dependent variable workplace stress.
Practical implications
The findings from this research can trigger an organizational approach where educational leaders can enable workplace change by developing and implementing social support and work–life strategies, and potential pathways to reduce levels of workplace stress and improve quality of life for employees and enhance performance.
Originality/value
The examination and establishment of particular relationships between social support, work–life conflict and job performance with workplace stress is significant for managers.
Details
Keywords
Kenneth M. Quick and Kevin T. Wolff
This study assesses the relationship between job satisfaction, perceived organizational support and workplace factors on officer turnover intention within an urban, municipal…
Abstract
Purpose
This study assesses the relationship between job satisfaction, perceived organizational support and workplace factors on officer turnover intention within an urban, municipal police organization.
Design/methodology/approach
Using data from an online survey of New York City Police Officers (n = 1,823), both bivariate analysis and logistic regression models were utilized to assess the salience of police officer job satisfaction, perceived organizational support and perception of six workplace domains, including financial compensation, environmental factors, professional fulfillment, work/quality of life balance, treatment from management and occupational risk, on predicting turnover intention.
Findings
The cross-sectional study finds that job satisfaction, financial factors (salary, benefits and retirement benefits) and fulfillment predict lower levels of turnover intention (i.e. higher levels of organizational commitment). Work–life balance and environmental factors (cleanliness of work environment and condition of equipment) predict higher levels of turnover intention. Both perceptions of organizational support and occupational risk, while significant in the bivariate models, were not significantly associated after accounting for other factors. There is no evidence that officer perception of public support or the risk of being injured/killed at work were related to officer turnover intention.
Research limitations/implications
The current study is limited by its focus on only one police department and its use of cross-sectional data, which may limit the generalizability of the results to agencies that differ in size and type and do not allow for assessment of causality.
Practical implications
Officer turnover intention may be reduced by increasing financial compensation, improving the work environment and promoting a healthy work–life balance.
Originality/value
The study contributes to a growing body of research on police officer voluntary turnover by evaluating established predictors along with workplace factors in an urban police department: the setting where officer turnover intention is hypothesized to be the greatest.
Details
Keywords
Andreea I. Alecu and Silje Bringsrud Fekjær
Do female police recruits drop out of police education and/or leave the profession more often than men, and has this changed over time? Can gender differences be explained by the…
Abstract
Purpose
Do female police recruits drop out of police education and/or leave the profession more often than men, and has this changed over time? Can gender differences be explained by the background characteristics and family obligations of the recruits?
Design/methodology/approach
This paper employs administrative registry data covering all individuals admitted to the police academy (1995–2010, N = 6570) and all academy recruits employed in the Norwegian police (1992–2014, N = 7301). The paper analyses the data using discrete-time logistic regression and coarsened exact matching.
Findings
The levels of dropout and attrition are generally low. However, female recruits have a somewhat greater tendency both to drop out of education and to leave the force. The gender differences are quite stable, although the percentage of female recruits has risen sharply. Family obligations do not seem to explain female attrition from the police force.
Research limitations/implications
Because women tend to leave the police more often than men, further research is suggested in investigating female police recruits’ experiences. However, the relatively low level of dropout and limited gender differences also provide a reason to question whether stories of the police as a male-dominated profession not adapted to women are valid across time and in different settings.
Originality/value
This study provides exhaustive and detailed longitudinal data not previously available in studies of police careers. This study also tracks attrition in a period that has involved both increased numerical representation of women and changes in police culture, while accounting for other observable differences between male and female police officers. Contrary to common explanations, there is limited importance of family obligations and altered gender composition.
Details
Keywords
Harun Sesen and Senay Sahil Ertan
This study aims to mediate the impact of workplace stress and job satisfaction on nurses’ perception of training. It sheds light on the links between job satisfaction, Certified…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to mediate the impact of workplace stress and job satisfaction on nurses’ perception of training. It sheds light on the links between job satisfaction, Certified Nursing Assistants’ perception of training and workplace stress in nursing homes.
Design/methodology/approach
A cross-sectional questionnaire was distributed in 12 different elderly home care centres in Northern Cyprus during September to October 2017. The sampling frame consists of 317 full-time Certified Nursing Assistants who completed measures of perception of training, job satisfaction and workplace stress. This paper used structural equation modelling to test a theoretical model and hypothesis.
Findings
The findings emphasize that Certified Nursing Assistants’ perception of training has a positive impact on their job satisfaction and negative impact on workplace stress while workplace stress mediates the relationship between their perception of training and job satisfaction. The results indicate that while the motivation for training and support for training have an effect on job satisfaction, access to training and benefits for training do not yield any significant impact on it and workplace stress plays a mediating role.
Originality/value
This study confirms that the CNAs’ perception of training and job stress affect the emergence of job satisfaction, and workplace stress mediated the relation between training and satisfaction posited by social exchange theory.
Details
Keywords
Yemisi Freda Awotoye and Robert P. Singh
Given the growing number of immigrant entrepreneurs in the USA, the purpose of this paper is to better understand the behaviors of this subgroup of entrepreneurs. Specifically…
Abstract
Purpose
Given the growing number of immigrant entrepreneurs in the USA, the purpose of this paper is to better understand the behaviors of this subgroup of entrepreneurs. Specifically, the paper aims to understand the unique challenges faced by immigrant entrepreneurs and how environmental challenges affect decisions to grow or abandon their ventures.
Design/methodology/approach
To make the theoretical arguments in this conceptual paper, the authors draw on the theory of planned behavior developed by Ajzen (1985), which suggests that a person’s behavior is predicted by their intention, and intentions are predicted by one’s attitudes, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control.
Findings
The paper provides theoretical insights on the effect of demands of immigration on the intentions of immigrant entrepreneurs to engage in three specific entrepreneurial behaviors: new venture formation, growth and abandonment. The authors propose that immigrant entrepreneurs deal with increased stress yet continue to maintain higher intentions to found new ventures compared to non-immigrants. Contrastingly, the authors also propose that the stress and obstacles immigrant entrepreneurs face reduce their intentions to grow their firms and increase their intentions to abandon their firms. The authors also explore entrepreneurial resilience as a possible moderating factor between stress and entrepreneurial intentions of immigrant entrepreneurs.
Research limitations/implications
First, the authors do not distinguish between immigrants from different nations or parts of the world or having different backgrounds. Second, the authors do not fully develop or incorporate the element of coping. Also, our paper is limited to behaviors of immigrant entrepreneurs with micro- and small-businesses.
Practical implications
Venture capitalists could benefit from empirical results of these propositions as funding decisions may need to include consideration of the proposed effects of stress and demands of immigration.
Originality/value
This paper meets an identified need to examine the effects of immigrant-specific issues such as the demands of immigration on the behaviors of this growing group of entrepreneurs.