Policing, Emotional Intelligence and Turnover Intentions

Abstract

Retention of police officers in most countries has been a critical issue. Police officers in many OECD countries are experiencing an increasing level of occupational stress due to their heavy workload and the emotional nature of policing (such as dealing with people and having to make speedy decisions that could have serious physical, health, social or other impacts on the community). There is also an increase in the level of accountability being placed on policing by the community and the government, as a result of the implementation of new public managerial reforms. The current study examines the effect of emotional intelligence upon the job satisfaction, wellbeing and engagement of police officers in explaining their organizational commitment and turnover intentions. Survey responses from 193 police officers in Australia were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Path Modeling. As predicted, the emotional nature of policing leads to emotional intelligence, which leads to job satisfaction and wellbeing. These paths also have a positive relationship leading to employee engagement and organizational commitment. These relationships resulted in lower turnover intentions. Organizational commitment was found to partially mediate the causal relationship between employee engagement and turnover intentions. The findings of this research have important theoretical and practical implications for police officer retention.