Coping with competing demands: interruption and the type A pattern.

Abstract

Police dispatchers play a critical role in police effectiveness in screening complaints from citizens, deciding whether to send a patrol officer, and choosing which officer to send on calls. Numerous studies have indicated that policing is a high-stress occupation, and surveys of police officers have identified a variety of potential job stressors, including poor equipment, long hours and shift work, and role overload (Davidson & Veno, 1980; Kroes, 1976). Beyond general survey research with police officers, however, there has been little systematic study of the dispatch role per se. Moreover, researchers have not yet examined the objective demands of police dispatching or how objective demands interact with personal disposition in determining job stress. The present investigation was conducted toward these ends. Specifically, this study examined the effects of externally imposed interruption and the Type A pattern on role overload stress. Role overload, defined as having too much to do in the time available (Kahn, Wolfe, Quinn, Shock, & Rosenthal, 1964), has important implications for employee health and quality of work. Previous research in organizational settings has demonstrated a significant relation between load and heavy smoking, elevated serum cholesterol, hypertension, and increased heart rate (Caplan & Jones, 1975; Cobb & Rose, 1973; French & Caplan, 1972). Because each of these factors is associ