The executives education has a direct effect on role stress which comes from the skills and knowledge that provide an executive to cope with the complexities of leadership and administration of a large organization (Beehr, 1976). In external versus internal hiring, it is hypothesized that chiefs hired from the outside would experience greater levels of role stress than those promoted from the inside. A chief hired from the outside must find support in an unfamiliar organization. Control over the hiring procedures hypothesizes that increases in a chief?s perception of control over hiring policies would be inversely related to perceptions of role stress. Length of service hypothesizes that role stress would be higher before the end of the first four years, than after the first four years (Crank, et al. 1993)
Individuals who have a high degree of work autonomy are less likely to experience role strain (Beehr, 1976). Autonomy is negatively related to role stress and stress related constructs. The hypothesis in decision making autonomy was that chiefs perceptions of autonomy in making decisions would be inversely associated with role stress (Crank, et al, 1993).
Data for the survey by Crank, et al. (1993) was obtained from two samples. The city police chiefs? data was obtained from a national sample of 1,120 police chiefs. Random sampling was used to select the police chiefs. Data for the county sheriffs was also obtained from a national sample; random sampling was also used to select the sheriffs (Crank, et al. 1993).
There were many predictors that were involved in the Crank, et al. (1993) study. The predictors include position, educational attainment, external versus internal hiring, control over hiring procedures, decision-making autonomy, and length of service. These particular predictors were selected because they have substantive interest in the field of policing.
Crank, et al. (1993) explored the relationship between work-stress and police stress. This study supports the idea that education may make a difference in the psychological well-being in positions of leadership in police agencies. It was also found that sheriffs have higher levels of stress than chiefs, which was not what was expected earlier in the study.
Differences have been found in police behavior and attitudes for officers in larger departments as compared to smaller ones (Brown 1981; Matrofski, et al. 1987; Meyers, et al. 1987; Powell 1990). Large departments are usually paramilitary and bureaucratic agencies (Bittner 1970; Manning 1977; Kroes 1986). This type of setting can be stressful due to the fact that the officer?s perception of the agency is self-serving and unresponsive. Brooks and Piquero (1998) examined department size and its effect on stress. Police officers in ten police departments were given a voluntary, anonymous survey, dealing with stress in policing. The size of the sample was 2,316, and the response rate was at 55 percent overall. Officers from a small and medium sized agency are compared with officers from larger agencies. Officers from the larger agencies report a higher level of stress from administrative factors. Officers from large departments have lower stress for dealing with suffering than do officers from smaller agencies (Brooks and Piquero 1998). Brooks and Piquero (1998) found that size of a police agency plays a role in stress. It looks as though officers from large police departments may experience higher stress levels relating to administrative stress, stress from the criminal justice system, and stress from personal demands.
One controversy in understanding police stress is in the ability to measure it. Lord et al. (1991) conducted a study to measure the effectiveness of the Police Stress Inventory, and to evaluate it concurrent and discriminate validity (Lord, et al. 1991). Data was collected from 259 North Carolina law enforcement officers. Their work experience ranged from one to over ten years. Educational level ranged from high school through graduate work, with a median range of associates? degree. The median age group was 31 to 35 years old (Lord, et al. 1991).
Lord, et al. (1991) evaluated a scale designed to measure job stress among law enforcement officers and has attempted to apply empirical research to an area that relies mainly on anecdotal evidence. The occupational stress study in high stress occupations, like law enforcement, is an important area of research, which can have serious implications for policy and practice. Before doing anything it is necessary to be sure that stress is what is being measured in order to possibly reduce or eliminate the causes of stress, and prepare workers to deal with its effects.
There are many factors contributing to stress of a law enforcement officer. These factors include on the job stress, or departmental stress, and also questions such as was the officers born with it, and/or is it brought upon by the job itself? These are a few areas that could be researched and the answers to the questions can be obtained. There are a variety of ways to test and do research on these issues. My proposal will take a little different approach in conducting the research to find some of the answers to these questions.
Police officers can experience stress from a variety of different things. An officer can be stressed with the job itself, or it can also come from within the department. On the job stress can be caused by a number of different things. An example of this is every time an officer answers a call, he or she has to treat that call like it could be a dangerous situation. The pressure the officers put on themselves day in, and day out takes a toll mentally and physically. Fortunately, the majority of the calls police officers answer are not dangerous.
Probably the most stressful situation in a police officers career would be if that officers had almost died, or if and officers partner had died. When an officer is hired within a station and that officer is assigned a partner, that is the person that they are going to spend a majority of their time with. Now if their partner dies, it is going to hit them harder than anyone else. There have been many instances in which an officer?s partner had died and the officer could never function the same way again. The stress on that individual officer was just too much to handle. The first thing the officer would do is blame themselves, thinking that they could have done something to prevent it, when in reality it is unlikely that the officer could have done anything. In the majority of the cases the officers do not go back to work, and they just feel like it is impossible to go on. This is the number one reason for police suicide. One of the options police departments should offer their officers is someone to talk to if a particular officer is having a problem with something. One of the major problems with police departments is that all of the officers are kind of expected to have a hard attitude. This makes the officers feel like when there is a problem they should handle it themselves, instead of talking it out with someone, which is usually the best remedy for problems.
Departmental stress is completely different from on the job stress. Departmental stress has to do with things within the police department itself. Examples of this include officers? supervisor, other officers, or something called shift work. Shift work is when an officer is on one shift and then they get moved to another shift. Officers say that it disrupts their family life, as well as their job performance. An officer can be overtired and not feeling up to par, which can effect his or her decisions. If an officer makes the wrong decision the police department is going to come down hard on that particular officer, which is obviously going to cause stress to that particular officer. If the officer has family stress than that will be brought to the job and could influence decisions made on the job.
Stress can be caused by a number of different things. This study is designed to explore the officers? point of view on the subject of stress. The research is going to discover whether the majority of the officers feel stress from the department in which they are employed or if the job itself is more stressful. This research would also discuss ways to cope with stress, as well as better ways to handle stressful situations.
The data will be gathered by means of an anonymous survey. The survey will included demographic data, questions about family, how often the officer thinks about injury, what is the officer?s current assignment, what the officer likes or dislikes about being a police officer. Also, the likes and dislikes of the officer?s current assignment, and what the officers expect when they retire.
The survey will be distributed to two different police departments. The first department is the Amherst Police Department. Seventy-five officers from Amherst will be chosen to anonymously complete this survey. The Amherst community contains middle to upper income citizens. The second department will be the Buffalo Police Department. One hundred fifty officers will also be chosen anonymously to complete this survey. The Buffalo community is described to have low to upper income citizens. There is a difference in the amount of officers surveyed within each department because of the department size.
I will be randomly sampling the officers for this survey. In both Amherst and Buffalo, there are three shifts. The shifts include the morning shift (7am-3pm), the afternoon shift (3pm-11pm), and the night shift (11pm-7am). In each department before each shift there is a briefing session. During the briefing, the officers are informed of events on what to expect on their shift, or certain things to look out for. This is when I will administer the surveys randomly. This is an obtrusive measurement, meaning the officers are aware they are being studied.
As already stated, I am doing an anonymous survey. This type of survey will ensure the officers that the information that was given on the survey will not be passed on to their chief or captains, and none of the information will be put into their records.
The primary advantage to using an anonymous survey is that I can get all of the information I need, as long as the officers will take the time to fill out the survey. I will have no idea as to which survey belongs to whom, so there will be no bias against any single individual. The primary disadvantage is getting the officers to fill out the survey. An officers might not fill out the survey if he or she is worried about their superiors finding out what they put on the survey, this will cause unnecessary validity problems.
There are a few ethical and political considerations within this study. The ethical dilemma is due to the type of question on my survey. There are personal questions which could make the officers feel uncomfortable for a variety of reasons. Even though the survey is anonymous the officer might be fearful of someone seeing what he or she wrote. The officer might feel embarrassed about his or her answers, or it may hit a little closer to home for the officers, and may bring up some bad feelings. When asking anyone personal questions about themselves there is always the possibility of ethical dilemmas. Political dilemmas include problems with the higher ranking officials. If my study finds that the police organization causes more stress on the officers than the actual police job itself, the police agency may have to figure out a way to correct the problems. If the officers are aware of this then they might demand more from their agency, which intern causes stress to the higher ranking officials, especially the chief.
Internal validity problems include selection bias, and maturation. Selection bias may occur due to the fact that I am picking the officers at random. The officers who are most likely to fill out my survey are the younger officers. If it happens by chance that I randomly pick officers with more time on the force, and they have no interest in my survey or my study, then this causes and internal validity problem. Maturation my become a problem if the officers decide that my survey is pointless, and they become bored with it. I am trying to control for this problem by giving the officers an incentive with the movie tickets and the letter from the chief.
External validity brings up the issue of generalizability. I have to make sure that the research I am collecting will be able to be used by other researchers in future studies about police stress. I do not want this study to only benefit the Amherst and Buffalo police departments.
My proposal is to find out the main cause of police stress, whether it is job stress or organizational stress. In finding out this information I hope police agencies will take corrective measures in fixing the problem at hand. Police agencies should offer assistance to officers who are in need of it, and it should not be thought of as a bad thing to need help. If agencies can correct these problems than the officers performance on the job should improve. Everyone has to work together to get good results.
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