The Stress Levels of Employees in an Organization with Liminal Status: The Case of Gendarmerie in Turkey

Murat Kocanli,Aytul Kasapoglu

doi:10.4236/jss.2021.94009

Abstract

This study focuses on the stress levels as an expression of the difficulties experienced by the personnel working in a janus-faced mixed organization with both military and civilian characteristics. In order to overcome the “institution” and “occupation” distinction which is essential in military sociology studies, the focus has been on “uncertainties” rather than “essentialism” from a relational sociological perspective. In this context, both uncertainties in social relations (ambage) and uncertainties in values (ambiquity) have been tried to be analyzed by making use of sociology literature. The originality of this study is that it was conducted with a law enforcement force with military status trying to cope with foreigners coming as a result of irregular migration in their own country, instead of military personnel who were previously employed in a foreign society outside their own country (Azari et al., 2010). Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, an online survey study was carried out with 44 people, including officers and non-commissioned officers. With the advantage that one of the researchers is a senior officer and the other is a senior sociologist, the data were analyzed and interpreted with the SPSS/25 program. Analyzes using advanced statistical techniques revealed that there was no significant relationship between stress and tenure and status, in other words, perceived stress did not differ according to these independent variables. Factor analysis results revealed that while the staff working in an organization with liminal status were more affected by both “institutional” and” occupational” stress factors, they were in a more positive situation in terms of stress measured by scale items that could be considered personal. At the end of the research, some suggestions were made for the development of military sociology.

Highlights

Since the foundation of sociology, it can be said that sociologists have views that will contribute to the studies to be done directly or indirectly on the security forces
This study focuses on the stress levels as an expression of the difficulties experienced by the personnel working in a janus-faced mixed organization with both military and civilian characteristics
The following questions were tried to be answered by interviewing the personnel working in the gendarmerie units related to migration: a) What is the average stress level of the staff? b) What are the factors or predictors that lead to staff stress? c) What can be said about the relationship between the gendarmerie being a rooted institution that requires loyalty and being an occupation paid for the maintenance of life? In other words, what can be said about institutional loyalty, that is, the unity of moral values and occupational expectations, that is, liminality?

Summary

Introduction

Since the foundation of sociology, it can be said that sociologists have views that will contribute to the studies to be done directly or indirectly on the security forces. It is possible to see works that refer to the views of thinkers such as E. It is possible to determine some common points based on opinions that seem independent from each other. Classifying levels of analysis, for example, is a common tradition in sociology. Sociological studies in the military field were grouped first by Kummel (2006) by Soeters (2018). The common feature of both is that they classify military sociological studies according to their “level of analysis”. Kummel (2006) mentions three levels as individual/micro-meso and macro in military analyzes

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Conclusion