Exposure to organizational stressors and health outcomes in a sample of Italian local police officers

Abstract

Exposure to organizational stressors is known to negatively affect police officers’ well-being in terms of mental and physical health and performance. In this study, we adopted the Health and Safety Executive’s Management Standards to identify specific associations between organizational stressors and health outcomes in a sample of local police officers employed in an Italian municipality (N = 111). Compared with benchmark data, participants were exposed to high risks in six out of seven organizational dimensions, and five of those (namely, Demands, Control, Managers’ Support, Relationships, and Role) displayed significant associations with psychological and physical problems, such as perceived stress, hypertension, gastrointestinal disorders, dermatitis, and musculoskeletal pain. While most stress-reduction interventions for police forces are designed at the individual level, the results of the present study also indicate the need for designing and implementing interventions aimed at addressing and preventing organizational stressors. Therefore, periodic in-depth stress assessments to identify key issues that should be the primary targets of such interventions are recommended.

Investigating the role of organizational stress in nurses' psychosomatic complaints: Evidence from a study in northeastern Italy

“…We investigated the associations between exposure to the seven organizational stressors of the HSE Management Standards framework, and a range of psychosomatic complaints among nurses in a medium-sized city hospital in northeastern Italy. Consistent with previous research, our results revealed significant associations between various organizational stressors and the prevalence of psychosomatic complaints [26] , [27] . Specifically, the Relationships factor emerged as a significant predictor of several psychosomatic complaints, including palpitations, irritability, anxiety, physical and mental tiredness, and headache.…”

“…For this purpose, the HSE has developed the HSE-Management Standards Indicator Tool (HSE-MS IT) questionnaire [21] . Several studies have already demonstrated its robust psychometric properties [22] , and how each scale is sensitive to different psychological and physical outcomes, including job satisfaction [23] , [24] , perceived stress at work [25] , job-related anxiety and depression, musculoskeletal pain, hypertension and gastrointestinal disorders [26] , [27] , and work ability [28] .…”

Analysis of Training and Work Performance on Career Development and Its Implications on Organizational Commitment and Job Satisfaction of Police Members of The HR Berau of Gorontalo Police: A Quantitative Analysis

“…Furthermore, studies have shown a connection between poor mental health outcomes in police officers and organizational stressors like long working hours, job pressure, and a lack of support. This underscores the necessity of stressorfocused interventions to protect officer wellbeing and organizational efficacy (Marcatto et al, 2021;Sullivan et al, 2022). Furthermore, the significance of coordinating HR strategies with career development initiatives for the best results is highlighted by the beneficial effects of developmental HR practices on career self-management and organizational citizenship behavior, which are mediated by transformational leadership and moderated by perceived organizational support (Purba & Demou, 2019).…”

Impact of job demands on police stress response—the roles of basic psychological needs and job autonomy

“…As perceptible work stressors, job demands may consume resources in the process of employees’ coping, which may also bring more stress and form a loss helix [ 16 ]. Some studies divide the stressors of the police officers into stress from operation and stress from organization[ 20 ], The police officers are accompanied by operational risks due to the high risk of their posts, and the stress from operations is related to the special duties of the police[ 21 ]. In terms of organization, under China’s police management system, “unified leadership and hierarchical management” has enabled public security organs to undertake many tasks outside their functions, and they are also facing double assessment standards and indicator stress.…”