Leadership climate prevents emotional exhaustion in German police officers

Police officers are exposed to a high amount of work effort in their everyday employment. This increases their risk of developing emotional exhaustion, the key symptom of the burnout syndrome. Previous research suggests that leadership climate is important for employees’ health and thus might be pro...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Authors: Engel, Sinha (Author) ; Kleiber, Dieter 1950- (Author) ; Renneberg, Babette (Author) ; Wörfel, Franziska (Author) ; Maria, Andreas Santa (Author) ; Wolter, Christine (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2018
In: International journal of police science & management
Year: 2018, Volume: 20, Issue: 3, Pages: 217-224
Online Access: Volltext (doi)
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Keywords:
Description
Summary:Police officers are exposed to a high amount of work effort in their everyday employment. This increases their risk of developing emotional exhaustion, the key symptom of the burnout syndrome. Previous research suggests that leadership climate is important for employees’ health and thus might be protective against emotional exhaustion. This study investigated whether a positive leadership climate prevents emotional exhaustion and buffers the negative impact of work effort in police officers. Data from a cross-sectional health survey in a German police department (N = 570) were used to test the assumptions. Results of the hierarchical linear regression analysis showed that high work effort was correlated with high levels of emotional exhaustion and positive leadership climate was associated with low levels of emotional exhaustion. Furthermore, both predictor variables interacted, indicating a buffer effect of a positive leadership climate under stressful working conditions. This is the first study to show both direct and indirect protective effects of a positive leadership climate in police officers. In police work, stressful working conditions such as high work effort are hard to avoid. Thus, it is crucial to promote preventive factors such as a positive leadership climate to protect police officers’ health. Suggestions of how police supervisors and departments might establish a positive leadership climate are presented.
ISSN:1478-1603
DOI:10.1177/1461355718786295