Job satisfaction, psychological strain and turnover intentions in Police Officers: the influence of organisation-specific measures of support

Abstract

Previous occupational stress research has suggested that both occupation-specific and organisation-specific measures should be included in estimates of psychological well-being. The present study investigates the relationship between two new police-specific support measures (supportive leadership and supportive culture) and job satisfaction, psychological strain, and turnover intentions. A survey containing both police-specific and generic measures was distributed to police officers from one Australian state police service. Responses from 383 officers were analysed. The structure of the two new police-specific measures was tested via confirmatory factor analysis, and the two factor structure was demonstrated to be robust across two independent samples. The police-specific leadership measure significantly predicted job satisfaction, turnover intentions and strain, while the police-specific culture measure significantly predicted job satisfaction and turnover intentions. The generic measure of supervisor support was significantly associated with both strain and turnover intentions, but demonstrated insignificance with the inclusion of the police-specific measures. The results add support to the value of organisation-specific measures in the assessment of occupational stress. The advantages and disadvantages of including organisationspecific measures are discussed. Implications are drawn for the valid measurement of stress within the high-risk industries in general and within the police services specifically.