442809

11112442809JohnsonPolicy Quarterly
PQX15210.1177/10986

Policy Quarterly

Police Officer Job 15(2) 157­–176

© The Author(s) 2012
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DOI: 10.1177/1098611112442809
Multidimensional Analysis http://pqx.sagepub.com

Richard R. Johnson1

Abstract
The literature on police officers’ job satisfaction to date has focused primarily on
individual officers’ demographic characteristics, while a few recent studies have
demonstrated that officers’ job task characteristics are a principal source of job
satisfaction. The present study expanded on this prior research by simultaneously
analyzing three dimensions of correlates of job satisfaction: officers’ demographic
characteristics, officers’ job task characteristics, and officers’ organizational environment
characteristics. This was the first such study to include the dimension of organizational
characteristics in the study of police officer job satisfaction. The analysis of survey
data from a sample of patrol officers from 11 law enforcement agencies in the
southwestern United States suggested that the officers’ job task characteristics were
a principal source of job satisfaction. Organizational environment characteristics also
played an important, but weaker, role in the shaping of officer job satisfaction.

Keywords
police, job satisfaction, supervision, management, leadership

Police work environments tend to be very negative. In handling crime, police officers
often see the worst society has to offer in terms of violence, cruelty, and indifference
to the welfare of others. Police officers struggle to fulfill conflicting demands from the
public, and within their own organizations police officers face bureaucracy, internal
politics, and a militarist style of management that can seem unsympathetic to the
issues officers face. This negative work environment can breed cynicism, low morale,
and low levels of job satisfaction (Blum, 2000; Crank, 1998).

1
University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, USA

Corresponding Author:
Richard R. Johnson, Department of Criminal Justice, University of Toledo, 2801 W. Bancroft St., MS 119,
Toledo, OH 43606, USA
Email: Richard.Johnson4@utoledo.edu
158 Policy Quarterly 15(2)

Officers with extremely low levels of job satisfaction can create difficulties for law
enforcement organizations. Meta-analyses and reviews of research across a number of
occupations have consistently found a link between low employee job satisfaction and
high employee turnover and absenteeism (Gerhart, 1990; Mobley, 1977), low produc-
tivity (Podsakoff & Williams, 1986), and low organizational commitment (Jayaratne,
1993). Police officer job satisfaction, therefore, is an important issue for policing man-
agement that needs further investigation. Zhao, Thurman, and He (1999) noted that
insufficient research existed on determinants of police officer job satisfaction. What
little research existed, failed to make multidimensional assessments of the officer’s
work environment. Surprisingly, more than a decade later, this remains the case as
there continues to be a lack of research on police officer job satisfaction beyond the
effects of demographic attributes or simple work characteristics, maintaining a signifi-
cant void in the police administration literature.
The present study took a major step toward filling this breach by simultaneously
examining the impact of officer demographic characteristics, job task characteristics,
and organizational characteristics on the job satisfaction of a sample of patrol officers.
It is necessary to examine the work environment in a structured manner to determine
whether these major dimensions are equally important in helping shape officer satis-
faction, or whether one or more dimensions are more important. This information is
necessary so that policing scholars and police executives can better understand the
impact of the total police work environment on officer job satisfaction.

Job Satisfaction
Hopkins (1983) defined job satisfaction as “the fulfillment or gratification of certain
needs that are associated with one’s work” (p. 7). Over time, organizational psy-
chologists have offered differing perspectives on the nature of job satisfaction.
Herzberg (1968) theorized that job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction are separate
constructs. He hypothesized that job satisfaction was determined by the employee’s
ability to attain personal and organizational goals, and dissatisfaction determined by
the work environment conditions. Locke (1976) proposed that job satisfaction is a
product of the difference between the employee’s expectations about his or her job,
and the reality of the job. The more the worker’s expectations differ from the reality
of the job, the lower the employee’s job satisfaction. Hackman and Oldham (1976)
introduced a complex model for job satisfaction. They argued that there are five prin-
cipal task elements—variety, identity, significance, autonomy, and feedback—those
together influence three psychological states. These three states—experienced mean-
ingfulness, experienced responsibility for outcomes, and knowledge of the actual
results—then, in turn, influence job satisfaction.
More recently, Weiss (2002) defined job satisfaction as an attitude toward one’s job
resulting from the net sum of the individual’s positive and negative emotions experi-
enced at work. If the frequency of negative emotional experiences is greater than
the frequency of positive negative experiences, then low job satisfaction results.
Johnson 159

Nevertheless, no matter how job satisfaction has been theorized or operationalized,

common correlates of job satisfaction have been identified.
In the management and organizational psychology empirical literature, three dis-
tinct dimensions appear in the discussion of job satisfaction. The first dimension
involves the relationship between workers’ personal demographic characteristics and
their level of job satisfaction (Jayaratne, 1993). The second dimension emphasizes the
importance of the employee’s work environment characteristics (Herzberg, 1968).
The third dimension is the characteristics of the organization that employs the worker
(Griffin & McMahan, 1994; Jayaratne, 1993). The majority of the policing research to
date has focused primarily on one of these dimensions. Only a few studies of police
officer job satisfaction have conducted analyses across more than one of these dimen-
sions at a time (Zhao et al., 1999), and no policing study to date has simultaneously
analyzed characteristics from all three dimensions of police officer job satisfaction.

Officer Demographic Characteristics

In studies of fields outside of criminal justice, employee demographic characteris-
tics, such as sex, age, race, education, and tenure have all demonstrated inconsistent
and weak correlations with employee job satisfaction (Griffin & McMahan, 1994;
Jayaratne, 1993). The same has been the case in studies of police officer job satisfac-
tion. Some studies have found that female police officers were less satisfied with
their jobs than are male officers (Belknap & Shelley, 1992; Buzawa, Austin, &
Bannon, 1994; Love & Singer, 1988), yet these studies found the differences
between male and female officers to be small. Other studies, however, reported no
statistically significant differences between male and female officer levels of job
satisfaction (Dantzker & Kubin, 1998; Hunt & McCadden 1985; Love & Singer,
1988; Zhao et al., 1999).
Research on officer differences by race in levels of job satisfaction have found no
statistically significant differences between White officers and those who are members
of racial minority groups (Buzawa et al., 1994; Dantzker & Kubin, 1998; Zhao et al.,
1999). Empirical evidence has been consistent that an officer’s length of service is
associated negatively with the officer’s satisfaction with the job (Burke 1989; Buzawa
et al., 1994; Dantzker 1992; Hunt & McCadden 1985; Sheley & Nock 1979; Zhao
et al., 1999). Furthermore, officer tenure has consistently been the strongest correlate
of job satisfaction among officer demographic characteristics (Buzawa et al., 1994;
Dantzker 1992; Zhao et al., 1999).
The empirical link between officer job satisfaction and the officer’s level of educa-
tion has been equivocal. Dantzker (1992) found officer education level positively cor-
related with officer job satisfaction, while Lefkowitz (1974) found that officer
education level was negatively associated with job satisfaction. In both of these stud-
ies, however, the correlation coefficient was small. Furthermore, Buzawa and associ-
ates (1994) and Griffin, Dunbar, and McGill (1978) found that officer education level
had no significant influence on officer reported satisfaction.
160 Policy Quarterly 15(2)

Other officer characteristics have also been studied, such as psychological person-
ality characteristics and family ties. Ortega, Brenner, and Leather (2007), and Miller,
Mire, and Kim (2009) found that officer psychological personality characteristics,
such as extroversion, was positively correlated with job satisfaction, while officer neu-
roticism was negatively correlated with job satisfaction. In both studies, however,
these psychological characteristics had very little explanatory power. Finally, Howard,
Donofrio, and Boles (2004) investigated the influence of having a family on officer
job satisfaction, finding that officers who experienced work–family conflict had lower
levels of job satisfaction.

Job Task Characteristics

In various occupations, job task characteristics demonstrate a greater impact on job
satisfaction than worker demographic characteristics. Job characteristics can include
job variety, autonomy, stress, and role strain (Hackman & Lawler, 1971). The work
of patrol officers involves tremendous variety in work tasks and situations (Crank,
1998). The empirical research has demonstrated that as the variety of work duties
increases for an officer, so does the officer’s job satisfaction (Lawton, Hickman,
Piquero, & Greene, 2000; Miller et al., 2009; Zhao et al., 1999).
Job autonomy refers to the freedom to exercise professional discretion and operate
independently within the organization (Mowday, Porter, & Steers, 1982). It has been
suggested that implementation of community and problem-oriented policing strategies
have increased officer job autonomy over the last several decades (Trojanowicz &
Bucqueroux, 1990; Wycoff & Skogan, 1993). The policing research conducted since
the adoption of these new policing strategies has consistently found higher levels of
officer job autonomy correlated with higher levels of officer job satisfaction (Lawton
et al., 2000; Miller et al., 2009; Skogan & Hartnett, 1997; Wycoff & Skogan, 1993;
Zhao et al., 1999)
Job stress, defined as feelings of work-related anxiety related to one’s workload,
presumably, is high in policing (Crank, 1998). Job stress leads to a host of health prob-
lems such as migraine headaches, hypertension, heart attacks, gastrointestinal issues,
and strokes (Blum, 2000; McGrath, 1977). These stress-related illnesses can ultimately
affect job satisfaction, as employees who perceive their jobs to be high in stress are
generally less satisfied with their occupations (Griffin & McMahan, 1994; Jayaratne,
1993). Research has revealed a negative relationship between job stress and job satis-
faction in police officers (Anson & Bloom, 1988; Blum, 2000; Territo & Vetter, 1981;
Zhao et al., 1999).
Related to general job stress, yet unique, is job role strain. Role strain refers to the
internal tension the employee feels when required to do work tasks the employee dis-
likes or feels ill equipped to perform (Hackman & Lawler, 1971). Meta-analyses in
organizational psychology have documented a consistent negative correlation between
employee role strain and employee job satisfaction (Griffin & McMahan, 1994;
Jayaratne, 1993), and recent research in policing has found the same regarding police
officer role strain (Schaible & Geces, 2010; Violanti & Aron, 1993).
Johnson 161

Organizational Characteristics
Several organizational-level characteristics have been investigated for their relation-
ship to job satisfaction in areas outside of police work. These organizational-level
characteristics have included organization size, supervisor feedback, perceived orga-
nizational support, and employee cohesiveness (Griffin & McMahan, 1994; Hackman
& Oldham 1975; Jayaratne, 1993). Job satisfaction has been hypothesized to have a
positive association with organizational size, as larger organizations are believed to
provide better pay and benefits, better working conditions, and more chances for spe-
cialization or advancement. The empirical evidence to support this hypothesis, how-
ever, has been generally weak and inconsistent (Beer, 1964; Cummings & El Salami,
1970; Meltzer & Salter, 1962).
Supervisor feedback may help reduce role and performance ambiguity among
employees, assisting them in correcting performance deficiencies to meet the expecta-
tions of their supervisors (Komaki, 1986). Evidence of this has been found in the general
research on job satisfaction levels, as satisfaction was consistently positively correlated
with the degree of supervisor feedback employees receive (Jayaratne, 1993). Providing
useful feedback in a law enforcement agency, however, is complicated by three major
issues. First, articulating appropriate employee performance is a very subjective endeavor
in police work (Brehm & Gates, 1994), making determining the correct way of handling
any given incident very situation based. What was the right thing to do in one situation
may be a very inappropriate way to have handled another situation.
Second, police work involves a constant interplay between conflicting goals
(Lipsky, 1980). The contradictory nature of the goals of police work (protect the prop-
erty of citizens and seize property as evidence, or maintain peace through the applica-
tion of force) complicates efforts to provide officers guidance on how to perform their
jobs. Third, especially with regard to patrol officers, it is very difficult to supervise
officers at work (Brehm & Gates, 1994). Officers are highly mobile across vast areas
of the jurisdiction, patrolling independently, severely limiting direct observation of
their work product. The influence of supervisor feedback, therefore, may differ in its
effects in a police organization and has yet to be investigated.
The perception by employees that management supports them and cares about their
personal and professional welfare (known as perceived organizational support) appears
to bond employees to their organization and increase their levels of job satisfaction
(Rhoades & Eisenberger, 2002). There also may be significant barriers to fostering
perceptions of organizational support in law enforcement agencies. Wilson (1968)
suggested that differences in role orientations result in conflict between police officers
and police managers. Policing scholars have well documented the strained relation-
ships between “street cops” and “management cops” (Crank, 1998; Manning, 1977;
Reuss-Ianni, 1983). Police officers tend to have a profound distrust of management,
suspecting that supervisors look out for their own best interests at best, or are out to get
them at worst (Blum, 2000; Crank & Caldero, 1991; Seltzer, Alone, & Howard, 1996).
Fostering feelings of organizational support within law enforcement agencies, there-
fore, would appear difficult, and its effects on job satisfaction need investigation.
162 Policy Quarterly 15(2)

The bonds between coworkers increase employee levels of job satisfaction across
occupations (Andrews, Kacmar, Blakely, & Bucklew, 2008; Jayaratne, 1993). The
more employees like their coworkers, respect them, and enjoy being around them, the
more satisfaction employees report about the work they perform. This peer cohesion
does not appear to be a serious problem in the policing field as police officers have a
strong and well-documented subculture (Crank, 1998; Skolnick, 1966). Police officers
tend to bond together in a solidarity rarely found in other professions, as police offi-
cers have to be able to depend on each other at times for their very lives. Nevertheless,
the effects of peer cohesion on police officer job satisfaction have yet to be empirically
studied.

Method
The present study simultaneously examined the impact of these officer demographic
characteristics, job task characteristics, and organizational characteristics on the job
satisfaction of a sample of patrol officers. The data were gathered by Robin Haarr
(2003) as part of a longitudinal analysis of the evolution of police officer attitudes.
Haarr surveyed officers in four waves. First, when they began their training at a
regional police academy in Arizona, at the end of their academy training, at the end
of their field-training period, and after they had successfully completed their proba-
tionary year on their respective departments. Only the final wave of data was used as,
in this wave, all of the respondents were experienced police officers with at least 1
year of experience on the street. There is a body of literature indicating police offi-
cers’ work attitudes change during their academy and field training experiences and
then remain relatively stable after the 1st year on the job (Foley, Guameri, & Kelly,
2008; Garner, 2005; Van Maanen, 1973, 1974, 1975; White, Cooper, Saunders, &
Raganella, 2010). It was for this reason that only data in the final wave was used, after
the officers’ work attitudes had begun to solidify.
This wave consisted of 292 respondents employed by 11 different law enforcement
agencies around the Phoenix metro area. These data were appropriate for the present
study because they contained survey items that specifically measured many of the
variables of interest in the study, or survey items that could be fashioned into appropri-
ate proxy measures of the remaining variables of interest. While not recent data, these
data were collected long after the most recent changes in policing in America, specifi-
cally the unionization of police forces, and the adoption of community and problem-
oriented policing strategies (Langworthy & Travis, 2003).
Consistent with national statistics on police officer demographics (Hickman &
Reaves, 2006), the sample of officers was overwhelmingly male (90%) and mostly
White (81%). Forty-two percent of the officers held a baccalaureate degree and 52%
were married. Although all of these officers had only been employed with their current
agency for just over 1 year, many came to their present department with previous
police experience. The number of years of police experience ranged from 1 to 14, with
a mean of 2.87 years.
Johnson 163

Dependent Variable
The dependent variable, patrol officer job satisfaction, was created with five survey
items similar to those used by Hopkins (1983). The questions used were “I find
work stimulating and challenging;” “I find a sense of worthwhile accomplishment
in my work;” “I find opportunities for personal growth and development in my job;”
“I enjoy nearly all the things I do on my job very much”; and “I like the kind of
work I do very much.” The items were answered using a 5-point scale of strongly
disagree (coded as 1), disagree (2), uncertain (3), agree (4), and strongly agree
(5). These five items were standardized by converting them to Z-scores, and then
summed together to form an additive index, which had a Cronbach’s alpha reliabil-
ity coefficient of .74.

Independent Variables
The organizational-level independent variables in this study were supervisor feed-
back, perceived organizational support, peer cohesion, and agency. Supervisor feed-
back was based on three survey items (“My supervisors let me know how well I am
doing on the job,” “My supervisors often let me know how well I am performing,”
and “I always know what my immediate supervisor expects of me in terms of my
performance”), which were consistent with feedback measures used by Komaki
(1986). The questions were answered using a 5-point scale ranging from strongly
disagree (coded as 1) to strongly agree (coded as 5). These three items were standard-
ized by converting them to Z-scores, and then were summed together to form an addi-
tive index, which had a Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient of .79.
Perceived organizational support was measured using three items that tapped into
typical officer concerns about upper management, such as political favoritism on the
part of upper management, and the perception that management is willing to hang
officers out to dry just to please disgruntled citizens (Crank & Caldero, 1991; Manning,
1977; Reuss-Ianni, 1983). These survey items were “The average departmental com-
plaint is the result of pressure from top administrators for supervisors to give out com-
plaints (reverse coded)”; “The majority of special assignments on the department
depend on who you know, not merit (reverse coded)”; and “When a police officer is
the focus on an internal affairs investigation, he will be presumed guilty even when he
can prove otherwise (reverse coded).” These three items were standardized and
summed together to form an additive index, which had an alpha value of .63.
Peer cohesion was constructed with two survey items (i.e., “I like the employees
I work with a great deal” and “The example my fellow employees set encourages me
to work hard”). These two items were standardized and summed together to form an
index, which had an alpha value of .72. Finally, the validity of these three organizational-
level variables was checked through a factor analysis. The Varimax rotation factor
loadings revealed that for each variable, the survey items selected for that variable
loaded very high (> .7), and the other items loaded very low (< .2). This analysis
164 Policy Quarterly 15(2)

confirmed that the measures used to create them had validity, and the three separate
variables created measured three unique concepts.
The final organizational-level variables controlled for agency-wide differences.
The officers in the sample represented 11 law enforcement agencies ranging in size
from 49 officers to 2,600 officers. Each agency was assumed to have its own unique
culture, management issues, and policing environment. To control for these agency
differences, therefore, dichotomous dummy variables were created for each agency,
using the largest agency (Phoenix) as the reference category.
Five job characteristic measures were also employed. Job variety, the degree of
variation in one’s work (Price & Mueller, 1986), was measured with two survey items.
These survey questions were “My job is arranged so that I do not have the chance to
do an entire piece of work from beginning to end” and “My job assignment requires
me to use a number of complex and high-level skills,” similar to those used by Price
and Mueller (1986). These two items were standardized and summed together to form
an additive index, which had an alpha value of .72.
Job autonomy, the freedom to exercise professional discretion and operate indepen-
dently within the organization (Mathieu & Zajac, 1990), was measured with four sur-
vey items similar to those used by Ford, Weissbein, and Plamondon (2003). These
survey questions were “My job assignment permits me to decide on my own how to
do the job,” “My job gives me considerable opportunity for independence and freedom
in how I do my work,” “I feel I have enough authority in my job,” and “I have enough
discretion in my job to make effective decisions.” These four items were standardized
and summed together to form an additive index, which had an alpha value of .79.
Job stress was measured with three items (i.e., “I am dissatisfied with the amount
of work I am expected to do”; “The amount of work I am expected to do makes it dif-
ficult for me to do my job well”; and “My workload is seldom too heavy” [reverse
coded]). These were standardized and summed together to form an additive index,
which had a Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient of .72. Out of concern that the
dependent variable and job stress measures may be tapping the same attitudinal con-
struct, a factor analysis was conducted on all eight, survey items to investigate the
reliability of one or two clusters. This analysis confirmed the appropriateness of the
variables as constructed. On Factor 1 of the rotated factor matrix, the five variables
used to create the dependent variable all loaded higher than .5, while the three remain-
ing variables used to create the organizational support independent variable all loaded
at less than .5. On Factor 2 of the matrix, this pattern was reversed. This test confirmed
the validity of the separate measures used.
A measure of employee role conflict was included. Employee role conflict can be
described as the feeling of psychological discomfort when the behaviors required for
a given job are inconsistent with the employee’s beliefs or attitudes (Rizzo, House, &
Lirtzman, 1970). Constrained by the data, only a proxy measure of role conflict was
available to measure the degree to which the officer embraced a legalistic enforcement
philosophy. Persons who lack authoritarian personality traits tend to find it more dif-
ficult to impose rules on others (Frankel-Brunswick, Levinson, & Adorno, 1993).
Johnson 165

Officers who are uncomfortable with strictly and aggressively enforcing the law may
experience more role conflict in their jobs. This measure was created using two survey
items (i.e., “All laws should be enforced at all times, otherwise citizens lose respect for
the law [reverse coded]” and “Police officers should remember that enforcing the law
is their most important responsibility [reverse coded]”), which were standardized and
summed together in an additive index that had a modest alpha coefficient of .55.
Finally, a proxy measure of officer cynicism was created, expecting that cynicism
also influenced job satisfaction (Hickman, Piquero, & Piquero, 2004). Niederhohher
(1967) argued that among police officers the conflicting norms and values they expe-
rienced at work gave rise to cynical attitudes. Regoli (1976) further developed
Niederhoffer’s hypothesis and measurement scales, identifying five distinct dimen-
sions of cynicism. Survey questions were available in the existing data that approxi-
mated one of these five dimensions; cynicism toward relations with the public. This
proxy measure of cynicism consisted of five items (i.e., “Most people do not respect
the police”; “The relationship between the police and the public is very good [reverse
coded]”; “Citizens will never trust police enough to work together effectively”; “The
public shows a lot of respect for law enforcement officers [reverse coded]”; and “The
public is more apt to obstruct law enforcement than to cooperate”). These items were
standardized and summed together in an additive index, which had an alpha coeffi-
cient of .79.
As was done with the organizational-level, composite measure variables, factor
analyses were also conducted with these five job task-level variables. The loadings in
the Varimax rotation component matrix revealed that the survey items associated with
each independent variable with a loading coefficient of greater than .7, while the sur-
vey items not assigned to that variable had loading coefficients below .3. This factor
analysis confirmed that each of the job-task composite variables was independent.
Measures of officer demographic characteristics were also employed. Measures of
gender (1 = male, 0 = female), years of police experience, education (1 = baccalaure-
ate degree, 0 = no degree), and marital status (1 = married, 0 = not married) were
included in the analyses. Race was measured multicategorically as three dichotomous,
dummy variables were constructed for African American officers, Hispanic officers,
and other non-White officers. White officers were the reference category. The descrip-
tive statistics for the dependent variable, and all of these independent variables, are
reported in Table 1.

Results
As Table 1 demonstrates, there was considerable variation in both the dependent and
independent variables, and the variables appeared to be normally distributed. Bivariate
Pearson’s r correlation coefficients were calculated between the independent vari-
ables and the dependent variables. These bivariate correlations and their significance
levels are displayed in Table 2. In examining the bivariate correlations, it was revealed
that organizational characteristics, job task characteristics, and officer demographic
166 Policy Quarterly 15(2)

Table 1. Variable Descriptive Statistics (N = 292)

Min. Max. Mean SD
Dependent variable
  Job satisfaction, α = .75 –16.98 4.38 0.00 3.50
Employee characteristic variables
 Male 0 1 0.90 0.30
  African American 0 1 0.03 0.18
 Hispanic/Latino 0 1 0.10 0.30
  Other non-White 0 1 0.04 0.21
 Experience 1 14 2.87 2.12
  College degree 0 1 0.42 0.49
 Married 0 1 0.52 0.50
Job characteristic variables
  Job variety, α = .72 –6.27 3.30 0.00 1.46
  Job autonomy, α = .79 –14.64 6.25 0.00 3.09
  Job stress, α = .72 –6.28 5.58 0.00 2.09
  Role conflict, α = .55 –4.09 5.06 0.00 1.61
  Cynicism toward the public, α = .79 –16.95 7.56 0.00 3.66
Organizational characteristic variables
  Supervisor feedback, α = .79 –10.62 4.38 0.00 2.52
  Perceived organizational support, α = .63 –7.55 5.20 0.00 2.26
  Peer cohesion, α = .72 –6.79 2.87 0.00 1.76
  Avondale PD 0 1 0.10 0.30
  Chandler PD 0 1 0.04 0.20
  Colorado River Tribal PD 0 1 0.02 0.14
  Gilbert PD 0 1 0.02 0.15
  Glendale PD 0 1 0.03 0.17
  Maricopa County SD 0 1 0.07 0.25
  Peoria PD 0 1 0.02 0.14
  Scottsdale PD 0 1 0.06 0.24
  Tempe PD 0 1 0.04 0.19
  Yuma PD 0 1 0.01 0.10

characteristics had significant correlations with job satisfaction. Specifically, the

organizational characteristics of supervisor feedback, perceived organizational sup-
port, and peer cohesion all were correlated with job satisfaction at the p < .05 level of
statistical significance. All three of these variables were positively correlated with job
satisfaction at the bivariate level. Only one of the agency dummy variables, Gilbert
PD, displayed a statistically significant correlation with job satisfaction.
Among the five job characteristic-level variables, all of them were correlated with
job satisfaction at the p < .05 level of statistical significance. Job variety and job
autonomy had positive correlations with job satisfaction. Job stress, role conflict,
and cynicism toward the public had negative correlations. Only two of the five
Johnson 167

Table 2. Pearson’s r Bivariate Correlations With Job Satisfaction (N = 292)

Independent variables Pearson’s r Sig.

Male .06 .301
African American .12 .045
Hispanic/Latino .07 .261
Other non-White –.03 .600
Experience –.11 .049
College degree –.03 .586
Married –.04 .467
Job variety .20 .001
Job autonomy .37 .000
Job stress –.24 .000
Role conflict –.13 .033
Cynicism toward public –.14 .015
Supervisor feedback .25 .000
Organizational support .11 .043
Peer cohesion .27 .000
Avondale PD –.01 .838
Chandler PD .06 .304
Colorado River Tribal PD .00 .987
Gilbert PD .12 .048
Glendale PD .00 .940
Maricopa County SD .00 .960
Peoria PD .00 .992
Scottsdale PD .07 .219
Tempe PD –.01 .859
Yuma PD .04 .521

demographic characteristic variables, African American officer and years of police

experience, were correlated with job satisfaction at a statistically significant level,
with African American officers having higher job satisfaction than White officers, and
more experience resulting in less satisfaction. Other officer races, sex, college educa-
tion, and marital status had no statistically significant influence on job satisfaction.
The full bivariate correlation matrix (not displayed in tabular form) suggested that
there was no issue with colinearity as none of the independent variables was correlated
with each other with a coefficient greater than .50. This was confirmed by the variance
inflation factors (VIF), later calculated in the multivariate analyses. The VIF values of
the independent variables all ranged from 1.22 to 1.93, all well below the conservative
conventional threshold of 5.0. These two test methods both confirmed the lack of
colinearity among the independent variables.
After the bivariate correlations were analyzed, three multivariable ordinary least
squares (OLS) regression equations were computed with the job satisfaction indices as
168 Policy Quarterly 15(2)

Table 3. Ordinary Least Squares Regression on Officer Job Satisfaction (N = 292)

Model 1 Model 2 Model 3

Coefficient Coefficient Coefficient

Variable (SE) β Sig. (SE) β Sig. (SE) β Sig.

(Constant) –.48 (.72) .499 –.02 (.67) .972 .01 (.71) .987
Employee characteristics
 Male .92 (.69) .08 .185 .35 (.65) .03 .588 .24 (.68) .02 .721
  African American 2.78 (1.14) .15 .015 2.16 (1.05) .11 .041 2.14 (1.08) .11 .049
 Hispanic/Latino .73 (.68) .06 .279 .07 (.64) .01 .918 .09 (.66) .01 .893
  Other non-White –.46 (.99) –.03 .645 –.49 (.93) –.03 .601 –.85 (.96) –.05 .379
 Experience –.19 (.10) –.12 .058 –.19 (.09) –.12 .039 –.21 (.10) –.13 .027
  College degree .13 (.42) .02 .755 .03 (.39) .01 .934 –.23 (.45) –.03 .601
 Married –.34 (.42) –.05 .425 .02 (.40) .00 .961 –.06 (.41) –.01 .894
Job characteristics
  Job variety .28 (.14) .13 .041 .22 (.14) .09 .125
  Job autonomy .35 (.07) .31 .000 .28 (.08) .24 .001
  Job stress –.18 (.10) –.11 .070 –.19 (.10) –.11 .059
  Role conflict –.24 (.12) –.11 .048 –.26 (.13) –.13 .027
  Cynicism toward public –.01 (.06) –.01 .935 –.01 (.06) –.01 .913
Organizational characteristics
  Supervisor feedback .09 (.09) .07 .328
  Perceived organizational .17 (.10) .11 .053
support
  Peer cohesion .27 (.13) .14 .033
  Avondale PD .43 (.68) .04 .525
  Chandler PD 1.59 (1.00) .09 .112
  Colorado River Tribal PD 1.14 (1.41) .05 .420
  Gilbert PD 1.86 (1.30) .02 .153
  Glendale PD .38 (1.14) .02 .742
  Maricopa County SD –.56 (.81) –.04 .486
  Peoria PD .50 (1.33) .02 .709
  Scottsdale PD .81 (.91) .06 .378
  Tempe PD .44 (1.04) .03 .671
  Yuma PD –1.48 (2.34) –.04 .527
  F test 1.762 .095 6.007 .000 3.437 .000
  R-squared .042 .206 .245  

the dependent variable. The first model included only the officer demographic charac-
teristics as independent variables, while the second model added the job characteris-
tics and the third added the organizational characteristics in a step-wise fashion. The
results of the OLS regression analyses are reported in Table 3.
The officer demographic characteristics in the first model only accounted for
approximately 4% of the observed variance in job satisfaction. Only one of the indi-
vidual officers’ demographic characteristic was statistically significant at the p < .05
level. The African American officers in the sample generally had higher levels of job
satisfaction than did White officers. Officer experience was statistically significant at
the relaxed p < .10 significance level. The remaining demographic characteristics were
not statistically significant.
Johnson 169

The second multivariate model included the officer demographic characteristics

and the job task characteristics. The addition of the job task models dramatically
increased the strength of the model as it accounted for approximately 21% of the
observed variance in job satisfaction. Among the job task characteristics, three of the
five measures had statistically significant effects at the p < .05 level, and one more was
significant at the relaxed p < .10 level.
Job autonomy was positively correlated with job satisfaction, with higher levels of
individual officer discretion associated with higher levels of job satisfaction. Job vari-
ety was another statistically significant predictor of job satisfaction, as higher levels of
job variety were associated with higher levels of job satisfaction. The measure of role
conflict over enforcing the law was statistically significant. As the officer’s discomfort
with legalistic enforcement increased, job satisfaction decreased. Finally, higher lev-
els of officer job stress were associated with lower levels of job satisfaction. Cynicism
toward the public was the only job characteristic variable not statistically significant
in this multivariate model.
After the inclusion of the job task characteristics in Model 2, the same two officers’
demographic characteristics remained significant. African American officers were
associated with higher levels of job satisfaction, and the longer the respondent had
been a police officer, the lower the respondent’s job satisfaction. The remaining demo-
graphic characteristics were not statistically significant after controlling for the com-
bined effects of all of the other variables in the model.
The third OLS regression model accounted simultaneously measured the influence
of officer demographic characteristics, job task characteristics, and organizational
characteristics. The inclusion of the organizational characteristics in Model 3 increased
the model strength further, as approximately 25% of the observed variance in job sat-
isfaction was explained by the variables in Model 3. Only one of the organizational
characteristic indices (peer cohesion) had a statistically significant impact on officer
job satisfaction at the p < .05 level, and another (perceived organizational support) was
statistically significant at the relaxed significance level of p < .10. Neither supervisor
feedback, nor any of the police agency dichotomous variables, approached statistical
significance.
Among the job task characteristics in Model 3, three of the five measures had sta-
tistically significant effects. Job autonomy was positively correlated with job satisfac-
tion, with higher levels of individual officer discretion associated with higher levels of
job satisfaction. In fact, the standardized coefficient (β) indicated that this variable was
the strongest predictor in the model. Role conflict influenced job satisfaction, as the
officer’s discomfort with legalistic enforcement increased, job satisfaction decreased.
The last statistically significant job characteristic was the measure of job stress. Higher
levels of job stress were associated with lower levels of job satisfaction. Job variety
and cynicism toward the public had no statistically significant influence on officer job
satisfaction after controlling for the net effects of the other variables in this last model.
As for the individual officers’ demographic characteristic, the same variables that
were statistically significant in the first two models (African American and experience)
remained statistically significant in the final multivariate analyses. The remaining
170 Policy Quarterly 15(2)

demographic characteristics were not statistically significant after controlling for the
combined effects of all of the other variables in the model.

Discussion and Conclusion

The findings reported above have important practical and research implications. First,
they indicated that police officer job satisfaction is multidimensional. The analyses
from the regression models showed that job task characteristics and organizational
attributes both explain between-officer variation in job satisfaction. Furthermore, as
the total multivariate model only explained approximately 25% of the variation
between officers (a value similar to previous studies of police job satisfaction), clearly
there are other correlates of police officer job satisfaction that are yet undiscovered.
Second, as the findings suggested that job satisfaction was intrinsic to a police offi-
cer’s job task and organizational environments, and not so much the ascribed charac-
teristics of the officer, actions can be taken to improve officer satisfaction. These
results highlight the importance of autonomy as a source of job satisfaction. This find-
ing suggested that police officers like to work in an environment where they enjoy
considerable discretion to decide how best to handle situations. This finding was also
consistent with other previous studies of officer satisfaction (Wang, 2006; Zhao et al.,
1999). While the traditional model of policing emphasizes a top-down management
style and limited discretion among the lowest ranks, one tenant of problem-oriented
policing is that officers need more autonomy to develop unique, tailor-made solutions
to repeat problems of crime and disorder (Goldstein, 1990). The consistent finding
about the influence of officer autonomy suggests that the adoption of problem-oriented
policing strategies by a law enforcement agency can measurably improve the job
satisfaction among the agency’s officers.
Sources of officer stress and role conflict were also significant contributors to low
job satisfaction. This underscores the importance of easily accessible counseling ser-
vices for police officers and training in stress management techniques. It is impractical
to seek ways to eliminate stressful circumstances in policing, as stress is an inherent
part of the job. More effort could be made, however, to train officers how to deal with
their work stress and feelings of emotional discomfort from performing their job
(Blum, 2000; Violanti & Aron, 1993). Perhaps mandatory counseling, officer support
groups, and routine stress management seminars could both improve officer personal
mental health and raise officer job satisfaction. Role conflict may be addressed through
preemployment screening, ensuring that police recruits have enough authoritarian per-
sonality traits that they will be able to psychologically adjust to enforcing the law, yet
not so much authoritarianism that they lack the ability to use discretion.
The organizational characteristics of support from peers and management were also
important, although weaker, predictors of officer job satisfaction. The existence of a
police officer subculture or subcultures has been well documented (Crank, 1998;
Manning, 1977), although much of this literature has focused on its negative aspects,
such as the unwillingness to report the misconduct of fellow officers. The police subculture
Johnson 171

has positive aspects as well, such as camaraderie and protection for officers. The more
officers on an agency bond and get along with each other, the higher their job satisfac-
tion. If the positive aspects of teamwork, cooperation, and camaraderie can be fos-
tered, while controlling some of the more deviant aspects of the police subculture,
higher officer job satisfaction could result without the negative externalities for
society.
Fostering perceptions of organizational support may be more daunting. It is well
documented that police officers generally hold negative and cynical views toward
their managers (Crank & Caldero, 1991; Manning, 1977; Reuss-Ianni, 1983). The
variation between officers in levels of perceived organizational support, however, sug-
gested there are varying degrees of negativity. Recall that perceived organizational
support was operationalized with statements regarding pressure from top administra-
tors for supervisors to give out complaints, special assignments based on politics
rather than merit, and the presumption of guilt when complaints are filed against offi-
cers. The common theme across all three of these statements was the perception of
procedural fairness, or lack thereof, on the part of top administrators. The fair, impar-
tial, and transparent administration of personnel decisions and misconduct investiga-
tions, therefore, may help police managers increase the job satisfaction of their
officers.
As with the previous literature on job satisfaction, employee ascribed characteris-
tics had very little explanatory power. That being said, two demographic variables
were revealed as statistically significant across models. As tenure increased, job satis-
faction declined. This was an interesting finding when one considers the limited
amount of tenure across this sample. Apparently, the effects of job burnout show up
very early in the police career. Second, African American police officers has slightly
elevated levels of job satisfaction in comparison to White and Hispanic officers. This
finding was inconsistent with the previous literature on police job satisfaction. While
some qualitative studies have suggested that African American police officers tend to
hold lower levels of job satisfaction than do White officers (Kuykendall & Burns,
1980; Leinen, 1984), empirical studies have consistently found that officer race was
not a statistically significant predictor of job satisfaction (Buzawa et al., 1994;
Dantzker & Kubin, 1998; Zhao et al., 1999). The sample in the present study seems
unusual in this regard. Perhaps this was due to sampling error, as only 3% of the
sample was African American, or maybe the agencies in the sample had work environ-
ments that successfully empowered African American officers. The present study
lacks sufficient information to draw any firm conclusions. In general, the findings
emphasized the importance of a multidimensional approach to the study of officer job
satisfaction, and the importance of officer immediate work environment characteris-
tics to satisfaction. This study, however, was not without its limitations. First, the data
for this study came from officers representing 11 law enforcement agencies located in
one metropolitan area in the southwestern United States. Although this sample both
included large and small agencies, as well as urban and suburban agencies, these findings
may have limited generalizability because of the region’s distinctive environment.
172 Policy Quarterly 15(2)

There may be aspects of police culture or working environments that are correlated
with the Phoenix area that may have influenced the results. Second, as this study
involved a secondary analysis of data collected for another purpose, the measures used
to create the indices in this study were not originally designed for that purpose. There
is a risk, therefore, that these measures are lacking in validity. Third, because the data
consisted of the fourth wave of a longitudinal survey, the potential risk of a maturation
effect (Campbell & Stanley, 1963) or disengagement was present as the respondents
took the same survey for the fourth time in 2 years.
In conclusion, the findings of this study suggested that further, multidimensional
study of police officer job satisfaction is warranted. Future research should expand the
investigation of job task and organizational environment characteristics, exploring
new variables that have yet to be tested. Future studies need to account for and look at
the possibility differences exist in the correlates of job satisfaction across specific job
positions, such as detectives or supervisors versus patrol officers. Furthermore, longi-
tudinal studies are needed to investigate the possibility that the correlates of job satis-
faction change over the career of an officer.
As the total multivariate model only explained approximately 25% of the variation
between officers (a value similar to previous studies of police job satisfaction),
clearly there are other correlates of police officer job satisfaction that are, as yet,
undiscovered. As job task characteristics have been the most fruitful thus far in
explaining officer job satisfaction, perhaps expanding the analysis of job task charac-
teristics would create a more efficient model. For example, other job task character-
istics, such as shift preference, patrol district preference, availability of backup, level
of citizen cooperation in the area, amount of required paperwork, types of calls han-
dled, and complexity of department policies, should be investigated as job task cor-
relates of job satisfaction. As organizational characteristics contributed to explaining
individual officer variation in job satisfaction (albeit less of a contribution than job
task characteristics), the analysis of organizational characteristics should be expanded
further. For example, characteristics such as officer pay, benefits, promotion and
transfer opportunities, layers of command, supervisor to officer ratio, and agency
prestige could be investigated for possible associations with police officer job
satisfaction.

Author’s Note
Data for this study were obtained from Haarr, Robin N., Impact of Community Policing
Training and Program Implementation on Police Personnel in Arizona, 1995-1998
[Computer file]. ICPSR version. Phoenix, AZ: Arizona State University West [producer],
2001. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium of Political and Social Research [dis-
tributor], 2003.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship,
and/or publication of this article.
Johnson 173

Funding
The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article.

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Bio
Richard R. Johnson received his doctorate in criminal justice from the University of
Cincinnati. His current research interests involve police supervision and management issues.