NCJ Number
202968
Journal
Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 30 Issue: 5 Dated: October 2003 Pages: 559-583
Date Published
October 2003
Length
25 pages
Annotation
This article assesses police officers’ perceptions of daily work experiences and the nature of their associations with burnout and pro-organizational behavior.
Abstract
One purpose of this study was to test the stability of the finding that police officers view organizational hassles as more distressing than operational ones and clarifies whether positive perceptions of daily work experiences (uplifts) follow a similar pattern. Another purpose was to determine the nature of relationships between perceptions of work experiences, officer well-being (measured by burnout), and pro-organizational behavior (measured by organizational citizenship behavior--OCB). The final purpose was to determine the presence of either moderating or mediating effects of disposition and coping. About 200 police officers filled out questionnaires assessing their work experiences. The data showed that police officers appraised operational hassles more negatively than organizational ones. Subgroup analyses revealed that officers’ appraisals of work hassles depended on the type of work routinely performed. Patrol officers, involved in daily patrol and investigation, identified operational aspects as being more bothersome, whereas supervisors and administrators, whose duties primarily involve implementing policy, viewed organization aspects more negatively. Uplifting organizational experiences were apprised as being more uplifting than operational ones, regardless of the type of work officers performed, suggesting a greater relative importance of organizational experiences to officers’ positive evaluations of their jobs. Officers that reported more work hassles described themselves as feeling more emotionally exhausted and subject to feelings of depersonalization. Organizational hassles had a stronger relationship with distress measures than operational ones. OCB was more often associated with organizational experiences than operational ones. The inverse relationship between OCB and burnout lends further credence to the contention that burnout can have a detrimental effect on organizational well-being. Work hassles and uplifts made significant contributions to psychological distress and well-being, respectively, independent of dispositional influences. Both problem- and emotion-focused coping styles buffered burnout in the face of increasing work hassles. 6 tables, 9 notes, 79 references