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1 – 5 of 5G. Zukauskas, K. Dapsys, E. Jasmontaite and J. Susinskas
Stress plays an important role in human life. Under normal conditions it has a favorable influence. However, constant pathological stress can be harmful. The results can be…
Abstract
Stress plays an important role in human life. Under normal conditions it has a favorable influence. However, constant pathological stress can be harmful. The results can be depression, leading sometimes to alcohol and/or drug abuse, or suicide. Some specific groups of society are affected by stress more frequently and more severely. One of these groups is the police. This article aims to identify key psychosocial problems which police officers of Lithuania are encountering in an independent post‐communist state. The common social situation in Lithuania is briefly reviewed and the main stress factors which influence police officers are evaluated using a specially developed Lithuanian University of Law Questionnaire (LULQ). The stress factors having the greatest negative effect are the administrative problems of police work, family problems, and an ineffective criminal justice system. The results are compared with similar studies carried out in the USA. The necessity of amendments in LULQ and survey design, as well as the development of a program of police officer psychophysiological “abilitation” and rehabilitation, are discussed.
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Erica Ceka and Natalia Ermasova
This study investigates the relationship between police officer's willingness to use Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and their perceptions about stress and help-seeking in…
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates the relationship between police officer's willingness to use Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and their perceptions about stress and help-seeking in policing, considering the effect of gender and ethnicity in this association.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey of 431 Illinois police officers is used to measure officer's perceptions about help-seeking and organizational stressors. The conditional PROCESS modeling (Hayes, 2012) was employed to analyze the hypothesized mediation model. The ANOVA test was used to determent the effect of gender and ethnicity on organizational stressors in policing.
Findings
Findings suggest police officer's willingness to use EAP is shaped by the perceived negative effect of stress on promotion through the mediator, confidence in their departments to receive adequate assistance, with noticeable gender and ethnic differences. The analysis demonstrated that female police officers feel stressed because of unfair promotional opportunities and poor relationships with supervisors. Female police officers are less willing to apply for the EAP services to mitigate stress than male police officers. The findings reveal that ethnicity is a significant predictor of the police officers' willingness to apply for EAP services to mitigate stress.
Research limitations/implications
The current study is limited by its focus on only one police department located in the Illinois, USA. This may limit the generalizability of the results. The cross-sectional nature of data used to draw conclusions and variation in departments' characteristics and compositions could influence results.
Practical implications
The research has practical implications for those who are interested to understand organizational stressors and perceptions on help-seeking in policing. This study provides suggestions for police administrators to make effort in creating more sensitive working environment to reduce stressors for female police officers and representatives of ethnic groups.
Originality/value
The research unveils the significance of officer's confidence in their departments in modifying their willingness to use EAP, revealing the effect of organizational stressors on confidence. The study adds empirical evidence to existing research on impact of gender and ethnicity on their willingness to use EAP.
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This study aims to assess the effects of commonly examined police stressors' on the members of a developing country's centralized police department: Turkish National Police (TNP).
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to assess the effects of commonly examined police stressors' on the members of a developing country's centralized police department: Turkish National Police (TNP).
Design/methodology/approach
This study is based on a data collected through a self‐administered survey among the members of the TNP during the summer of 2005 (n=812). Using multivariate level OLS regression models, predicting effects of commonly examined police stressors on the participants' stress levels are analyzed. Findings are evaluated in comparison to existing literature about police stress.
Findings
This study indicates that organizational issues are the most important causes of stress in policing. Besides, it was found that several police stressors, as found for local police departments, might not be having the same effects for larger, centralized police departments.
Practical implications
Modern policing can be a less stressful job if the police organizations take necessary steps towards applying modern management techniques at both macro and micro levels. Demographic differences, danger at work, or workload should not be counted as predictors of stress in policing without a through consideration of organizational matters.
Originality/value
This is the first study empirically and systematically assessing the issue of stress among the members of the TNP. In addition, it is one of the rare studies published in English regarding the issue of police stress in a developing country.
Matti Vuorensyrjä and Matti Mälkiä
This paper aims to take a look at police‐specific factors of stress – police stressors – and to assess the effects of these factors on police officer burnout. The paper also seeks…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to take a look at police‐specific factors of stress – police stressors – and to assess the effects of these factors on police officer burnout. The paper also seeks to test the linearity of these effects.
Design/methodology/approach
The study focuses on four stressors: defective leadership, role conflicts, threat of violence, and time pressure. As a measure of burnout, Bergen Burnout Indicator 15 is used. The data are cross‐section in nature and come from the Police Personnel Barometer (PPB) conducted in Finland in 2008. The PPB‐survey targeted the entire police administration in Finland. The response rate was 67.2 percent (n=6,871). The current paper uses a sub‐sample of police officers (constable rank) from three functional areas of policing (n=2,821).
Findings
Controlling for age, gender, education, shift work, tenure and the function of the police officer, the effects of the different stressors on burnout were all statistically significant. Statistically significant and robust nonlinear effects of the stressors on burnout were also found.
Originality/value
The study introduces a new measure of stress to analyze police work. It takes a preliminary look at the reliability and validity of the measure. The study considers linear as well as nonlinear effects of the stressors on burnout and suggests that the effects under scrutiny are essentially nonlinear.
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The aim of this paper is to present an architecture and prototypical implementation of a context‐sensitive software system which combines the tangible user interface approach with…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to present an architecture and prototypical implementation of a context‐sensitive software system which combines the tangible user interface approach with a mobile augmented reality (AR) application.
Design/methodology/approach
The work which is described within this paper is based on a creational approach, which means that a prototypical implementation is used to gather further research results. The prototypical approach allows performing ongoing tests concerning the accuracy and different context‐sensitive threshold functions.
Findings
Within this paper, the implementation and practical use of tangible user interfaces for outdoor selection of geographical objects is reported and discussed in detail.
Research limitations/implications
Further research is necessary within the area of context‐sensitive dynamically changing threshold functions, which would allow improving the accuracy of the selected tangible user interface approach.
Practical implications
The practical implication of using tangible user interfaces within outdoor applications should improve the usability of AR applications.
Originality/value
Despite the fact that there exist a multitude of research results within the area of gesture recognition and AR applications, this research work focuses on the pointing gesture to select outdoor geographical objects.
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