Perceived stress, job satisfaction, and happiness among police personnels posted in offices and fields

Abstract

Background:

Police personnel are emergency service providers who face many issues in their daily functioning with the public. They expressed subjective stress and tension. In addition, their job’s transitory nature adds to the day-to-day hassles and challenges. However, the services provided by those who are posted in the office and the field are different.

Aim:

The present study aims to measure and compare the level of stress, job satisfaction, and happiness among police personnel working in the office and field.

Materials and Methods:

A cross-sectional study was conducted on 60 police personnel from Bhubaneswar and Cuttack cities of Odisha. Three scales were used to assess their stress level, job satisfaction, and happiness: Perceived Stress Scale, Job Satisfaction Scale, and Oxford Happiness Questionnaire.

Results:

The statistical analysis shows a significant difference between the police personnel posted in the field and office with respect to three variables: perceived stress, job satisfaction, and happiness.

Conclusion:

The results of the current study underscore the need for ongoing support and mental health services for police personnel, particularly those deployed in the field. It is crucial to address their work’s psychological toll and provide resources to support their mental and emotional well-being.

Stress is a word used to describe experiences that are challenging emotionally and physiologically.[1] To comprehend the long-term effects of stress, Selye’s[2] model, known as General Adaptation Syndrome, provides insight. Perceived stress can be regarded as an adaptive response to individuals’ situations, resulting in physical, psychological, or behavioral deviations or alterations.[3] Among police officers, stress arises from various factors related to their working environment, such as excessive working hours, limited family time, irregular eating habits, the need to make difficult decisions, sleep deprivation, substandard living conditions, mistreatment from superiors, disrupted personal lives, and the eroding public confidence in the police job.[4,5,6]

Employee job satisfaction is evaluated based on various aspects, including remuneration, promotional prospects, benefits, policies and procedures, relationship with management, work hours, work–life balance, and the inherent nature of the work.[7] The matter of job satisfaction among employed individuals is a subject that draws the attention of researchers and practitioners across various disciplines.[8] However, research efforts have primarily centered on supporting the activities of business organizations[9] as opposed to the workplaces of government sector entities such as police and armed forces.

Happiness refers to subjective well-being, which is experienced by individuals and plays a crucial role in determining overall well-being. Examination of the psychological well-being of police personnel identified several factors contributing to fatigue among these officers, including long and unpredictable work time, shift work, and inadequate sleep. These causes possibly contributed to the observed increased levels of morbidity and mortality, mental illness, and family dysfunction among police officers.[10]

The police force constitutes an integral component of emergency service providers, with law enforcement personnel encountering many routine difficulties in their daily interactions with the public. Due to the disparity in responsibilities of police personnel posted in offices and fields, it is necessary to do an objective evaluation of the perceived stress, job satisfaction, and happiness among officers serving in different environments. Consequently, this study seeks to examine and compare the levels of perceived stress, job satisfaction, and happiness among police officers stationed in the field and office and the interconnectedness of these indicators with one another.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The study was initiated after getting institutional ethics committee approval (IEC Appln. No: 407, Date 14/10/2020). Cross-sectional design has been used in this study. Before administering the questionnaires, the researcher established rapport with the subjects; the subjects were assured of the confidentiality of their results, and informed consent was obtained from them. After that, the data were collected from the sample. In this study, two groups of police personnel, that is, one group posted in fields and another group posted in offices, were taken as samples. Police personnel posted in the field are those who are working in the field, actively involved in taking care of citizens, and primarily involved in field-related work, whereas police personnel posted in office are those who are currently working inside the premises of the police station and not involve in field-related work and don't directly involve in taking care of citizens. Sixty participants were chosen purposively from the police stations and offices of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar. Thirty participants from offices and 30 from fields were taken. Police officers aged between 30 and 60 years were selected as participants. The minimum designation specified for inclusion in this study is the rank of inspector. The inclusion criterion for the first group (field posted) was that the police office should have posted in the field for a minimum of last 1 year, and for the second group (office posted), the police officer should have posted in the office for a minimum of last 1 year. Participants with past history of chronic physical and psychiatric illness, belonging to other lower posts or designation, and with history of substance use were omitted from the study. The data were collected by providing a sociodemographic profile, Cohen’s Perceived Stress Scale,[11] Job Satisfaction Scale,[12] and Oxford Happiness Questionnaire[13] to the subjects. After that, the researcher read out the instructions regarding the questionnaires and addressed all the possible doubts and queries of the subjects. The subjects in the sample were given adequate time to respond and to bring back the questionnaires to the researcher. The scoring procedure was undertaken after collecting all the questionnaires from the subjects. All the questionnaires were scored as per the guidelines provided in the manual. After that, all the scores obtained for all the subjects were neatly noted.

Statistical analyses

Analysis of the data was done using IBM SPSS version 20. Mann–Whitney U test was used to find any significant differences in perceived stress, job satisfaction, and happiness of the police personnel posted in the field as compared to those in the office.

RESULTS

The purpose of the current study is to find out whether any difference exists between the police personnel posted in the field and office with respect to three variables: perceived stress, job satisfaction, and happiness.

In this present study, the total number of participants was 60. From both the field and office, males and females participated. The results of Table 1 indicated that 38.3% of males from the field and 35% of males from the office were taken as participants, whereas 11.66% of females from the field and 15% of females from the office participated. Their education was graduation 5% (field), 3.3% (office) and postgraduation 45% (field), 46.6% (office). Moreover, Inspectors and Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) were the participants, from which 48.33% of Inspectors participated from the field, 45% from the office, 1.6% ACP from the field, and 5% from the office took part in this study.

Table 1:

Analysis of sociodemographic variables between the police personnel posted in the office and field

Variables	Level	Field frequency	Office frequency	Field percentage	Office percentage
Gender	Male	23	21	38.3%	35%
	Female	7	9	11.66%	15%
Education	Graduation	3	2	5%	3.3%
	Postgraduation	27	28	45%	46.6%
Family structure	Joint	18	5	30%	8.3%
	Nuclear	12	25	20%	41.6%
Designation	Inspector	29	27	48.33%	45%
	IIC and above	1	3	1.6%	5%

The result of Table 2 shows that the police personnel posted in the field at police stations have a higher stress level (Mdn = 40.68, N = 30) than the police personnel posted in the office (Mdn = 20.32, N = 30), P < .01. It also shows that the police personnel posted in the police station have less job satisfaction (Mdn = 24.75) than those posted in office (Mdn = 36.25), P < .05. The result also indicated that police personnel posted in police stations have low happiness (Mdn = 25.38) than those posted in office (Mdn = 35.42), P < .01.

Table 2:

Mann–Whitney U test performed on police personnel working in police stations and offices respective to perceived stress, job satisfaction, and happiness

Variables	Group (police personnel)	Median	Mann–Whitney U	Z	P
Perceived stress	Police station	40.68	144.500	-4.533	0.000
	Office	20.32
Job satisfaction	Police station	24.75	277.500	-2.553	0.011
	Office	36.25
Happiness	Police station	25.38	302.500	-2.181	0.029
	Office	35.42

DISCUSSION

The first objective of this study was to find out the level of stress, job satisfaction, and happiness among police personnel posted in the field and offices. Mann–Whitney U test was used to find out the differences between the level of stress, job satisfaction, and happiness of police personnel who had a high level of stress, job satisfaction, and happiness.

The findings of this current study show a statistically significant difference with respect to perceived stress among police personnel deployed in the field and in the office. Policemen who had field duty reported experiencing a higher level of stress than those posted at the office. Lipp’s study revealed that high-ranking Brazilian police officers perceived their profession as being extremely challenging. A significant portion (43%) of police officers were found to exhibit significant stress symptoms.[14] Selokar et al.[15] identified that a significant proportion of personnel experienced stress due to various factors such as critical feedback from superiors, excessive workload, inadequate recognition of abilities and commitments, and a lack of satisfaction from their work. Another researcher found that the source of stress among police officers was predominantly related to organizational factors rather than physical hazards encountered during their duties.[16] Another cross-sectional study demonstrated that urban police personnel faced a high level of stress.[17]

In the present research on job satisfaction among police personnel, it was discovered that those assigned to office duty experience a higher level of job satisfaction in their profession. Another study highlighted heightened levels of role conflict were associated with less satisfaction.[18] The research examined the problem of identifying job satisfaction predictors in the context of police forces, focusing on a specific population of state police officers in active service (ages 20–52), and revealed a strong association between job task characteristics and police officer job satisfaction.[19] Another researcher found from their study that the “work environment is an essential feature of police officers’ job satisfaction”.[20]

The current study result showed that the police personnel posted in the office experience a high level of happiness. Another research aimed to examine the impact of high job stress on various dimensions of life happiness among a sample of 201 randomly selected policemen from Bangalore, India. The study found that while the policemen had higher scores in all dimensions (stress, work-related burnout, and range of responses) of subjective well-being inventory, except social contact, there were no significant effects of job stress on other aspects of subjective well-being.[21] Adegoke’s study indicated that work stress, frustration, and depression significantly impacted the psychological well-being of police workers. The conclusion was that work stress encompassed not only situations where the workload exceeded the coping ability but also where the worker’s knowledge and skills were not adequately utilized, which caused problems for them.[22]

In the present study, police officers stationed in offices work within designated schedules with a moderate workload, allowing for holidays and time with their families. Their daily routines are maintained due to specific duty hours, resulting in fewer interactions with the public regarding cases. In contrast, field police officers may experience high caseloads, frequent transfers, and demanding working conditions, leading to higher stress levels.

Limitations

Although great care has been exercised in the execution of the study, it is still not without any limitations. Some of these limitations include the small sample size used in the research, which may not accurately reflect the characteristics of the population. The time constraint under which the study was conducted made implementing a random sampling method difficult. As a quantitative research endeavor, the influence of social desirability and fixed response biases must always be considered.

CONCLUSION

The present research has yielded results indicating that work stress considerably impacts job satisfaction and happiness. Notably, it has been identified that occupational stress constitutes a significant problem in the realm of workplace health and safety, with particular relevance to the lives of police officers. For this reason, a comprehensive analysis of the study’s results could prove vital to police organizations, resulting in the development of effective interventions to reduce stress levels among police officers in the workplace.

Declaration regarding the use of generative AI

The authors used ChatGPT during the preparation of this work only in the writing process to improve the readability and language of the work. After utilizing the tool, the authors thoroughly reviewed and edited the content as necessary and assumed full responsibility for the entire content of the manuscript, including the parts generated by the AI tool.

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts of interest.

Funding Statement

Nil.