Abstract
The aim of the present study was to examine if work effort is associated with burnout among police officers and if job rewards and healthoriented leadership can mitigate the potential adverse effects of high work effort on officers’ mental health. Data were collected in a German police department (n = 573). The results indicated that high work effort was associated with higher levels of burnout while job rewards and health-oriented leadership were associated with lower levels of burnout. Additionally, health-oriented leadership buffered the effects of work effort on police officers’ burnout levels while job rewards showed no buffering effect. The results emphasize the importance of leadership for health promotion in policing.
Highlights
The job of police officers is regarded as especially stressful and demanding, since it is characterized by various operational and occupational stressors like confrontation withThe Police Journal: Theory, Practice and Principles XX4(0X7)violence, negative citizen encounters or shift work (Berg et al, 2006; Biggam et al, 1997)
The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between work effort and burnout among police officers and to identify protective factors against work-related psychological strain in the context of police work
While job rewards are regarded as an important resource that counteract health issues due to high demands at work in the wellestablished effort-reward imbalance (ERI) model, the current study aimed to enhance the model by focusing on the potential health promoting impact of health-oriented leadership in this process
Summary
The job of police officers is regarded as especially stressful and demanding, since it is characterized by various operational and occupational stressors like confrontation withThe Police Journal: Theory, Practice and Principles XX4(0X7)violence, negative citizen encounters or shift work (Berg et al, 2006; Biggam et al, 1997). The job of police officers is regarded as especially stressful and demanding, since it is characterized by various operational and occupational stressors like confrontation with. A syndrome that is triggered by high job demands and chronic work stress is burnout, which is considered as a serious health threat to police officers (Santa Maria et al, 2018; Stearns and Moore, 1993). It refers to a state of emotional exhaustion, accompanied by feelings of ineffectiveness and cynicism about the value of one’s work (Maslach et al, 2001). Burnout is a risk factor for developing depression (Hakanen et al, 2008), which is associated with at-work performance deficits (Lerner and Henke, 2008) and an increased risk for police officers to develop metabolic syndromes (Hartley et al, 2012)
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