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Job Stress, Job Involvement, Job Satisfaction, and Organizational Commitment and Their Associations with Job Burnout Among Indian Police Officers: a Research Note

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Abstract

Job burnout can negatively impact individual officers, the organization that employs the burned out officers, citizens with whom these officers directly interact, and the community more broadly. The vast majority of the empirical research on burnout has been based on Western police officers. The present study extends our understanding of the associations that job stress, job involvement, job satisfaction, affective commitment, and continuance commitment have with the three dimensions of burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a reduced sense of accomplishment) among Indian police officers. Ordinary least square (OLS) regression analysis was used to examine survey data from 827 police officers in the Sonipat and Rohtak districts of the Indian state of Haryana using a systematic random sample. The findings indicate that job involvement and job satisfaction were associated with lower levels of all three dimensions of burnout. Job stress was associated with emotional and reduced accomplishment burnout. High affective commitment was associated with lower levels of a reduced sense of personal accomplishment, while continuance commitment was associated with higher levels of emotional and depersonalization burnout. The results suggest that job stress, job involvement, job satisfaction, affective commitment, and continuance commitment have effects on burnout among Indian officers, as has been found among Western officers. As such, police scholars and administrators should focus on reducing job stress and continuance commitment and increasing job involvement, job satisfaction, and affective commitment among officers.

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Appendix

Appendix

The below items were answered using a five-point Likert Scale of strongly disagree (coded 1) to strongly agree (coded 5). The factor loading score from factor analysis is reported in the brackets for each item.

Emotional burnout: (1) Working with others is an emotional strain for me [.69]; (2) I feel that I am burned out from my job [.82]; (3) I am emotionally drained at the end the day from my job [.74]; (4) work makes me feel hopeless [.67]. Depersonalization burnout: (1) I feel that I treat some citizens as if they were impersonal objects [.54,]; (2) I feel that I have become more callous toward my coworkers [.59]; (3) I am becoming less sympathetic to others at work [.65]; (4) I find myself mistreating others because I do not care anymore [.71]; (5) I do not really care what happens to others [.72]; (6) the vast majority of time at work, I treat all coworkers with respect (reverse coded) [.56]; (7) the vast majority of time at work, I treat all citizens with respect (reverse coded) [.66]. Reduced sense of accomplishment burnout: (1) I feel that my coworkers value my assistance (reverse coded) [.50]; (2) I feel that I am effective in solving problems at work (reverse coded) [.67]; (3) I feel that I am a positive influence within HP (reverse coded) [.58]; (4) I have the ability to deal effectively with the problems of citizens (reverse coded) [.73]; (5) I feel that I am positively influencing citizens with my work here (reverse coded) [.70]; (6) I feel that I can create a relaxed atmosphere for citizens (reverse coded) [.49]. Job stress: (1) most of the time when I am at work I do not feel that I have much to worry about (reverse coded) [.59]; (2) I am usually under a lot of pressure when I am at work [.80]; (3) when I am at work I often feel tense or uptight [.70]; (4) a lot of time my job makes me very frustrated or angry [.67]. Job involvement: (1) I live, eat, and breathe my job [.71]; (2) the most important things that happen to me in my life usually occur at my job[.74]; (3) the major satisfaction in my life comes from my job [.72]; (4) most of my interests are centered around my job [.57]. Job satisfaction: (1) I like my job better than the average worker does [.81]; (2) most days I am enthusiastic about my job [.83]; and (3) I find real enjoyment in my job [.62]. Affective commitment: (1) I am proud to tell people that I work for the Haryana Police [.74]; (2) I tell my friends that this is a great organization to work for [.74]; (3) I find that my values and the Haryana Police values are very similar [.66]; (4) The Haryana Police really inspires the best in me in the way of job performance [.72]. Continuance commitment: (1) right now, staying with the organization is more a matter of necessity than it is of desire [.82]; (2) I want to quit police service, but I am continuing to complete the number of years just to get full retirement benefits [.80].

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Lambert, E.G., Qureshi, H., Frank, J. et al. Job Stress, Job Involvement, Job Satisfaction, and Organizational Commitment and Their Associations with Job Burnout Among Indian Police Officers: a Research Note. J Police Crim Psych 33, 85–99 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-017-9236-y

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