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Sociological Analysis of Occupational Stress and Job Satisfaction of Police in Selected Rural and Urban Parishes in Louisiana

NCJ Number
72097
Author(s)
J E D Phillips
Date Published
1976
Length
117 pages
Annotation
The study was designed to be an empirical, cross-sectional analysis of factors influencing occupational stress and job satisfaction among uniformed police officers in one urban and two rural parishes in Louisiana.
Abstract
A systems model is used to analyze various communities, permitting localized emphasis of pertinent institutions and interactional influences. It is hypothesized that stress and job satisfaction are related to organizational location, numbers of roles played, complexity of decisionmaking, police perception of the public's attitude, police perception of their supervisors, and their income. Data were collected by personal, indepth interviews with 100 patrolmen and 21 supervisors in 11 separate organizational units. Scales were constructed for the two major dependent variables of roles and decisionmaking. No signifcant relationship was found between the numbers and types of roles performed and stress. Sheriff deputies were found to experience higher amounts of stress than city police officers. Rural officers were significantly less satisfied with their pay than were urban officers. No significant differences were found in amounts of job satisfaction between urban and rural police officers, but lower amounts of job satisfaction were found among those who perceived their supervisors and the public negatively. The complexity of decisionmaking had no significant influence on amounts of occupational stress or job satisfaction. The findings may have implications for rural police training and the improvement of police-community relations. Internal footnotes are included by chapter. A total of 81 tables is included. A bibliogrdaphy of about 50 citations and four appendixes are also included.