Organizational and Operational Stress in Relation to Psychological Well-being among Police Personnel

Description

Page: 514-517

Nalini Malhotra and Manpreet Kaur (Department of Psychology, Punjabi University, Patiala, Punjab)

Psychological well-being is one of the central concepts of positive psychology. Psychological well-being describes a combination of affective and cognitive components, characterizing the state in which an individual is psychologically well-equipped to realize his/her true potential. Policing is one of the highest rated professions for occupational stress. The organizational structure and dynamics of police occupation and the inherent aspects of police work contribute to stress. Police occupational stress has a negative impact on the police officer as well as the organization of policing. Stress among police personnel is accompanied by chronic negative emotions viz; anger, anxiety and depression which may result in psychological burnout or emotional exhaustion and physiological diseases. The police stress originates from characteristics of police work (constant exposure to danger) and the structure and policies of police occupation (competition for promotional opportunities).The sample comprised 400 (200 males & 200 females) police personnel in the age range of 25-40 years randomly selected from various districts of Punjab state. The present study utilized a correlation and regression analysis. The results showed a significant negative relationship between psychological well-being and the elements of police stress namely, organizational stress and operational stress. Further, the result of stepwise regression analysis for total psychological well-being revealed that 14.9% of the variance in total psychological well-being was explained by police stress (organizational stress & operational stress). This proves the hypotheses formulated and understanding of the result of the present study can help future researches.