RT Article
T1 Leadership climate prevents emotional exhaustion in German police officers
JF International journal of police science & management
VO 20
IS 3
SP 217
OP 224
A1 Engel, Sinha
A2 Kleiber, Dieter 1950-
A2 Renneberg, Babette
A2 Wörfel, Franziska
A2 Maria, Andreas Santa
A2 Wolter, Christine
LA English
YR 2018
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1764719840
AB 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.
K1 Policing
K1 Burnout
K1 Emotional exhaustion
K1 hierarchical linear model
K1 leadership behaviour
K1 leadership climate
K1 Leadership Style
K1 Work effort
DO 10.1177/1461355718786295