A Comparative Approach to Job Satisfaction, Field Performance, and Resilience Among Patrol Officers

When patrol officers experience poor job satisfaction and make the decision to leave their profession, their departments face the cost of recruiting and training new officers. The purpose of the present study was to develop a new measure that could be used by police departments to identify specific dimensions of job satisfaction in their officers so that appropriate interventions could be made before officers reach the point of ending their employment. To enhance widespread applicability of the new measure, the 221 study participants were from convenience samples of patrol officers in the United States and Turkey (95.9% male; mean age = 29.4 years; mean service = 5.9 years). Officers completed anonymous surveys to report individual and departmental demographics, to give satisfaction ratings for a variety of aspects of their work environment, and to report other psychosocial variables that might be used to assess validity of job satisfaction dimensions. Exploratory factor analysis produced the 22-item Patrol Officer Job Satisfaction Scale (POJSS) with four dimensions: Fair Promotions, Pleasant Conditions, Supportive Peers, and Departmental Pride. ANCOVA revealed that POJSS dimensions did not differ according to officer age or years of service. Also, although officers from Turkey reported less Fair Promotions and Pleasant Conditions than officers from the United States, officers from both nations were similar in perceptions of Supportive Peers and Departmental Pride. Results are interpreted as reductions in Turkish patrol officer job satisfaction (in perceived fairness and pleasant working conditions) due to political upheaval at the time of sampling, but the comradery felt among officers and pride in their departments remained constant across nations and across adverse conditions.