MZ세대 초기경력 경찰공무원의 직업정체성 구성에 대한 합의적 질적 연구

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the process of constructing vocational identity based on the vocational awareness and experience of early career police officers of generation MZ. This study analyzed by applying consensual qualitative research-modified(CQR-M) based on open-ended questionnaires were received from 55 generation MZ police officers up to 5 years of experience. The process of constructing vocational identity of the research participants was revealed 5 areas, 10 categories, and 33 subcategories, and the results of the study are as follows. First, the research participants longed for the police and chose their vocation for reasons such as ‘police is my dream’,‘consideration of aptitude’,‘essential part of society’. Second, after becoming police officers, the professional pride of the research participants through ‘social recognition’,‘positive feedback of gratitude for help’, and ‘joy of family’ promoted the internalization of identity, on the other hand, the professional pride gradually disappeared as they suffered emotional exhaustion from the ‘negative public opinion about police’,‘the victim of criticism of civil petitioners’,‘police universalism’, and ‘high ethical standards for the police’. Third, through job experience, the research participants made ambivalent evaluations on the unique job characteristics of police officers and the advantages and disadvantages of civil servants. They showed experience conflict with vocational identity due to difficulties in adjusting to a hierarchical organization and an uncomfortable atmosphere. Fourth, even in the process of adjustment, the research participants gained strength through ‘helper′s salvation’, and experienced the process of compromise and acceptance while realistically adjusting their vocational identities through ‘improvement of adaptability and survival strategy’. Finally, the result of reconstructing the vocational identity as a police officer is ‘happy police officers as a person’ or ‘police officers serving the people’. They were drawing an optimistic future through efforts to do their best in each context of individual life and professional role, but to take in a balance way. The significance of this study is in that it deeply analyzed the process of constructing vocational identity by applying the characteristics of the generation MZ, which has been mainly studied as a discourse, to police officers. Based on the results of the study, implications for the mutual positive development of generation MZ police officers and organizations were suggested.