Sources of job satisfaction among police officers: A test of demographic and work environment models

Abstract

Knowledge about police officers' job satisfaction to date has been limited to empirical inquiry based on individual officers' educational level, ethnicity, gender, and rank/years of service. This study explores the effect of the agency work environment on officers' job satisfaction in addition to the usual demographic variables. Until now, the police work environment primarily has been viewed in a pejorative context, synonymous with workers' stress, job burnout, cynicism, and alienation. Analysis of survey data from a medium-sized police department in the northwestern United States suggests that a police agency's work environment is a principal source of job satisfaction, regardless of the measure of the dependent variable employed.