Police Officers Perceived Levels of Organizational Stress, Operational Stress, and Coping Strategies in San Jose, Antique, Philippines

Abstract

Police service is considered difficult and commonly regarded as a high-stress profession. Police officers deal with numerous complex daily challenges and must make split-second judgments. Thus, it is vital to investigate and assess law enforcement officers' operational stress, organizational stress, and coping strategies, as they are linked to their performance in the police organization. In this research, a descriptive-correlational study was employed using a purposive sampling method with police officers from the Municipal Police Station of San Jose de Buenavista in the Province of Antique, Philippines. The findings revealed that police officers could handle work-related issues caused by various stressors, whether in their operational or organizational functions. Furthermore, police officers can cope moderately with stress, indicating they can manage and deal with it effectively. Additionally, demographic groups perceive similar work stress for operational and organizational functions, including coping strategies. Finally, police officers' coping mechanisms often become influenced by operational and organizational stress. With this, the present study's findings strongly support the notion that operational and organizational stressors are fundamental to policing; as a result, police officers may adopt more effective coping strategies to combat the impacts of stress and enhance their work-related well-being. Police personnel may benefit from interventions and programs to reduce the effects of occupational stress.

Prevalence of work-related burnout and associated factors among police officers in central Gondar zone, Northwest Ethiopia, 2023

“…This finding was corroborated with studies in Scotland ( 101 ) and Trinidad and Tobago ( 30 ). This may be the result of problematic organizational aspects of working as a police officer, such as staff shortages, inadequate resources, time constraints, work overload, excessive administrative tasks, frequent organizational or policy changes, lack of communication among organization members, and staff shortages or inconsistent leadership styles, which are major contributing factors to burnout ( 7 ). In addition, organizational stressors, such as insufficient help from superiors and a lack of cooperation with coworkers, are more likely to persist for officers, which may increase the likelihood that they will experience burnout ( 102 ).…”

“…There are numerous professional challenges that make police work vulnerable to work-related burnout. Their job is one of the most demanding and stressful jobs in the world ( 7 ), characterized by long working hours, demanding schedules, irregular shift work, and frequent night shifts, which revealed burnout ( 8 ). In addition, on a daily basis, they face challenging and potentially dangerous situations, such as the occurrence of murder, and violent crimes are frequent.…”