Job Satisfaction for Police Officers

Job Satisfaction for Police Officers

The retention of operational staff within the police is an important organizational issue in many law enforcement agencies. The goal of this research proposal is to determine the amount job satisfaction derived by police officers in the course of their duties based on officers' educational level, ethnicity, gender, and rank/years of service. This proposal will also examine the effect of the agency work environment on officers' job satisfaction in addition to demographic variables. The police work environment has been framed in a negative context, synonymous with workers' stress, job burnout, cynicism, and alienation. The introduction of organizational practices, such as adequate supervisor support, which aim to reduce turnover is a current intervention employed to increase retention levels. Survey data will be collected from an assortment of police departments to find out to what extent a police agency's work environment is a source of job satisfaction.

Interviews enable participants to describe their situation. According to Ernest T. Stringer (1999) the interview process not only provides a record of the subject's views and perspectives, but also symbolically recognizes the legitimacy of their views. An interview may occur naturally and comfortably during normal social interaction or may be undertaken more formally. In either case Stringer suggests that researchers should do the following: 1) Identify themselves, their roles and their purposes. 2) Ask permission to talk with people and record information. 3) Check that the time is convenient for an extended discussion. 4) Negotiate alternative times and places for interviews if necessary. He warns that as interviews progress research facilitators may be presented with viewpoints that appear limited, biased or wrong. They should, however, avoid discussion or debate with interviewees. "Challenges to participant views will occur naturally as differing perspectives are presented in more public arenas. The task at this stage is to grasp the natives' point-of-view, to realize their vision of the world." (Stringer, 1999, p. 68)

A major problem with the interview process is that questions are easily flavored by the researcher's perceptions, perspectives, interests, and agendas. It is essential that the interviewer adapt a posture that is relatively neutral and non-leading. Springer (1999, p. 69) suggests a framework that minimizes the extent to which this is done. Grand tour questions are global enough to ensure interviewees describe the situation in their own words. An example might be questions that begin "Tell me about…" which gives direction without suggesting types or forms of response. Other types of global questions include typical questions, which provide respondents an opportunity to talk about the ways events usually occur, and specific questions, which focus on specific events or phenomena. A guided tour question is a request for an actual tour that allows participants to show researchers around their work environment, it is a method to elicit information through prompting interrogation in a casual manner. A task question aids in description. This might include a request to draw a map or show how a task is accomplished. Further data can be gleaned through extension questions such as "tell me more about…," encouragement comments such as "go on…, yes?, and Uh huh?" And example questions such as "can you give me an example of…"

Some preliminary interview questions developed for this study include: 1) Tell me about your work? 2) What do you like most/least about your work? 3) How do you think your family feels about your work? 4) What is the hardest thing about your job? 5) Why did you enter police work? A separate questionnaire may be incorporated into the study as well. Some preliminary questions might include - on a scale of 1 to 5 please rate: 1) How supportive do you feel your supervisors are? 2) How stressful is your work? 3) How much do you enjoy your work? 4) How much negativity do you feel from the public when off duty? 5) How happy is your family about your work? Of course these questions need further development, but the intent would be to create a story about the positive and negative effects agency work imposes on its employees.

Some advantages of a qualitative study over a quantitative approach according to Andrew Schwartz (2005) are they produce more in-depth comprehensive information. They use subjective information and participant observation to describe the context, or natural setting, of the variables under consideration. Qualitative methods are helpful not only in giving rich explanations of complex situations, but in creating or evolving theories or concepts, and in proposing hypotheses to clarify the situation.