Policing is considered as one of the most stressful occupations (Alexander, 1999; Paton and Violanti, 1999; Anshel, 2000). Many of these acute stressors come from within the organization itself; lack of work autonomy and role ambiguity represents one of those forms of stress. Job stressors internal to the organization have been shown to negatively influence an employee’s commitment and motivation (Jaramillo et al., 2005). The connections between job performance and evaluations tend to be less clear for more complex jobs such as police work and these complexities may lead to increased levels of role ambiguity (Organ & Greene, 1981; Rousseau, 1978). Nonetheless, it may be possible for management to leverage aspects of organizational structure …show more content…
When levels of role ambiguity are high there should be significant concern for public organizations because it produces a range of harmful outcomes that include reduced performance, high turnover, illness and chronic disease (Katz & Kahn, 1966; Rizzo et al., 1970). High levels of role ambiguity are troubling because employees who experience role ambiguity are likely to seek potentially damaging coping strategies that further hinder organizational performance (Kahn et al., 1964; Rizzo et al., 1970) and family/ personal life of employees.
Nevertheless, law enforcement officers are often expected to sacrifice their personal welfare to protect the public in the line of duty. But policing in India cannot go on as it is. A major cause of poor policing lies in the blurring of lines between the political executive and the police establishment. The interference by elected politicians and bureaucrats into the everyday management and functioning of the police weakens its leadership, creates uncertainty of direction, breaks chains of command, obscures accountability, destroys discipline and divides loyalties all down the
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In the context of existing studies conducted on work life balance with reference to work autonomy and work ambiguity in police force, it can be stated that this issue has been explored in various countries but there seems to be very limited research studies in this field in India and specifically in Himachal Pradesh. This study aims to contribute to the research work life balance by examining the relationship of work life balance (and its dimensions) with work autonomy and work ambiguity. The results of the present study may provide law enforcement organizations with the information they need so as to develop policies that allow employees to enhance their autonomy and mitigate work ambiguity in the process of coordinating and integrating work and non-work aspects of their
When political anarchy, social injustices, and crime end up leading to civil depravities that go against the foundation of democracy, society depends on the police to come in and keep the peace, while attempting to restore the order. These officers are asked to pursue criminals in vehicles, and on foot, repeatedly expose themselves to the dangers of the crimes, and remain calm while being under pressure at all moments on the job, and even off duty. Being an officer of the law takes a special person
The existence of police corruption in society raises many important questions. What causes police of...
The law enforcement officers suffer quite more job-associated stress than the people living in the community. Many have had to realize that the nature of the profession itself may be exposing officers to the increased levels of stressors. In essence, job-associated stress is among the major health concerns of the law enforcement community, and this is because it can have some impact on the physical, mental and emotional well-being of the officers. The difference in the stressors between the law enforcement personnel and other individuals is the fact that, the enforcement officials get to interact with the human population that are quite angry, upset or even uncooperative, in which case it takes some toll on
Some of the world’s most-loved and well-known superheroes include Superman, Batman, and Spiderman. However great these superheroes may appear, their fictional stories also include stressors that they face everyday, such as the villains that they encounter and the pressure of being a hero and an everyday citizen. In this way, stress often negatively impacts the lives of the ones who watch over every neighborhood, every street, and every house. Such is the job of a police officer. Because stress has become an important topic in the community of law enforcement, things that are commonly discussed are the causes of stress, the effects of stress, and the handling of stress in the lives of police officers.
Police stress is viewed as a structural problem that is amongst the police culture (Kappeler & Potter, 2005). The argument made is that the working environment causes the stress. Even though a police officers job is not as dangerous officers still determine the danger as a source of stress. Police stress can be split up in to three sources: occupation, job-related and external stress (Kappeler & Potter, 2005). Just the thought of the job gives officers stress. Job-related circumstances such as responding to calls can also create stress. Finally, external sources such as personal stress can all lead to an officer being highly
In law enforcement, discretion is left up to each police officer to make responsible and reasonable decisions on situations while in the field. A police officer will have no choice but to use discretion in certain situations and make decisions on what type of force or punishment is necessary for the situations. Many people in the society always believe that police officers can make any decision they wish to at any time while working. This is very wrong because there are situations whereby a police officer or even the chief of police has no other choice, but to follow the law in making decisions. The role of the police administrator is double challenging because, he/she must determine how best to use discretion as well as encourage or dissuade discretion by subordinate members ...
For numerous years, corruption within the police department has been a national problem. The corruption is not only limited to America, it reaches parts of Asia and Europe. Police officers are investigated regarding this issue, with good judgement. Corruption and misconduct in the police department are evident in various embodiment.
Law enforcement is an important element of the United States’ system of criminal justice apart from the corrections and the courts. It is one of the major functions of the various governmental agencies of police. It is therefore concerned with police service or functions of police departments. In this paper, the author analyzes at law enforcement and related issues. Specifically, the author discusses law enforcement, theoretical understanding of the different models of policing as well as policing styles. The author also looks at the question of stress associated with the life of a police officer and how such stress affects them. This is a purely theoretical discussion based on secondary sources of information. Time and resources constraints could not allow for a more empirical, experimental fieldwork research. The materials relied upon are mainly journal articles from respectable academic journals and databases.
...ll help to weed out the bad candidates from future police officer positions. The fight against corruption will be a long battle as the problems of yesterday, still remain today, with little to none improvement.
One may ask themselves, if law enforcement officers are working to protect the public, why would they commit corruption like they do? As it is described above, corruption is a big part in the law enforcement sector of society. The entire concept is quite complex although it may seem self explanatory to many people. Learning the many types of corruption and misconduct is only the beginning, then, to understand why the officers commit the conduct for which they do. With all this, it becomes apparent to the certain measures that need to be taken to rid society and police departments of the conduct that is constantly present.
The article Police Integrity: Rankings of Scenarios on the Klockars Scale by “Management Cops,” conveys that the different scenarios for each definition and the nature of police work make this corruption difficult to specifically define (Vito 153). Since it is so challenging to correctly define, the three broad ca...
Corruption in law enforcement has been a nationwide problem for many years. Not only is corruption held in one level of law enforcement, but throughout the three levels including the state, local and federal. The formation of the first police departments were the model by the early english society. The early years of policing began to contribute various forms of misconduct from police officers. Soon thereafter, Sir Robert peel established early modern policing which influenced the colonial america policing to the english society. Yet, even after following the model of other countries of law enforcement, Colonial America corruption still continued. In the mid 1800's, corruption continued to widely affect society as a whole. It was until August Vollmer, who marked the contribution of professionalism to policing, that a notable difference began to diminish corruption. Misconduct occurs at all policing levels and continues to spread worldwide. The most common types of corruption are bribes, kickbacks, shakedowns, opportunistic theft, physical abuse, protection of illegal activities and physical abuse. These types of corruption are seen throughout all levels of law enforcement. Corruption is more prominent among higher ranking officers. Not only is misconduct found among those holding higher positions, but it is also seen in rookies who are just entering law enforcement. Corruption is induced not only from individual corrupt officers or chiefs, but occurs as a result of inadequate leadership structures and administrative policies. Eliminating reducing misconduct must be done by demonstrating integrity, better organization within the policies, stricter recruitment and training.
Police corruption is a nationwide problem that has been going on for many years. Not only is corruption a problem on our own U.S. soil, but police practices of corruption go as far east as Europe and Asia. Many studies, polls and examinations were taken to find out how exactly what the general publics’ opinions of the police are. Officers receive a lot of scrutiny over this issue, but for good reason.
Bamberger, P. A. (1990). Antecedents and consequences of role stress: The processes leading to turnover intentions among public sector professionals. (Order No. 9018061, Cornell University). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, 289-289 p. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/docview/303850297?accountid=14543. (303850297).
Thus, the job profile of police is very challenging. They are prone to a lot of job pressure. Lack of cooperation and support from the public adds to their problems. The increasing rates of suicides and illness reveal that police personnel in India are beginning to crack up. The police personnel should be stress free, healthy in mind and body because it has to perform important functions in the society and it has a major role in country’s