Great expectations: The rhetoric and reality of police officers’ job expectations, satisfaction, engagement, and turnover intentions

Drawing on (anticipatory) psychological contract (APC) theory, this paper compares the job expectations of early career police officers (up to two years of experience) with the ‘lived experiences’ of established officers (three of more years of experience). With a focus on retention factors (antecedents) and their relationships with officers’ job satisfaction, engagement, and turnover intentions, the quantitative study examines the extent to which the expectations of early career officers are realistic and are being fulfilled for established officers. Five decades ago, Bittner (1974, p. 17) asserted that policing is one of the ‘best known but least understood’ institutions. In the present increasingly volatile and uncertain world, this assertion perhaps holds even more truth. Government and public services are facing unprecedented challenges relating, for example, to financial and resource pressures (having to do more with less), complex and fast changing macro and meso-level political environments, and evolving technological capabilities, which, on the one hand, shape and assist the roles of public servants, while on the other hand, increase the range and scope of cyber-related crime and the complexity of police work. Retention challenges within UK police forces are of concern (e.g., Charman and Tyson, 2023; Hoel and Dillern, 2022; Williams and Sondhi, 2022). A high number of resignations raises important questions concerning the state of and extent to which the psychological contract (PC) of police officers is fundamentally being altered over time through job expectations and the employment relationship. PC theory (Rousseau, 2001) offers insight into to the ways in which the implicit employment relationship and social exchange (Blau, 1964) between employer and employee is understood and managed. The anticipatory psychological contract (APC) (De Vos et al., 2009) concerns the pre-employment or early career expectations that one forms or holds true about an occupation, organisation or role. These expectations are generally formed by assumptions about, or actual promises made by the organisation. An important aspect of this research is the potential significance – and consequence – of a perceived breach or violation of the PC. A breach occurs when an individual perceives that the organisation has not met one (or more) of their implied or promised expectations and obligations (Robinson and Morrison, 2000). Where this is perceived to be more than a simple breach, a violation of the PC causes emotional distress and/or anger (Morrison and Robinson, 1997), potentially resulting in withdrawal (lack of engagement) and may influence an individual’s intention to remain or quit (Yun et al., 2015). As such, this paper is concerned with the extent to which expectations are being met over time, and the associated impact on job satisfaction, engagement and, ultimately, turnover intention. Within the context of a UK police force, we therefore address the following research questions: 1)Is there a difference between early career officers’ job expectations and the lived experiences of established officers?2)To what extent do early career officers and established officers report PCB?3)Does a perceived PCB impact outcomes such as job engagement, job satisfaction and/or turnover intentions?This paper is part of a larger mixed methods study, and here we draw on survey data from police officers within a UK police force. The survey tool was developed following an extensive literature review and using mainly pre-existing validated scales. A link to the survey was placed on the police force’s staff intranet, and participation was encouraged via e-mail prompts to all police officers. After data cleansing, the final sample consisted of 1,297 useable responses, representing a 10.8% response rate. Our framework was informed by both a literature review and qualitative (interview) study and included scales spanning four job and workplace antecedents as well as measures of PC breach, job satisfaction, engagement, and turnover intention. Initial analysis included descriptive statistics, frequencies and correlation analysis and was conducted in SPSS. There were notable differences between early career officers’ job expectations and the lived experiences of established officers across all four antecedents. Early career officers reported more favourable perceptions of police culture, management and leadership, and training and career progression. Differences were less noticeable with regard to perceptions of work environment, particularly around issues like workload and resources, though other aspects of the work environment, including external reputation (ECO: 3.10 compared to EO:2.28), prosocial impact (ECO: 3.65 compared to EO: 3.32) contact with citizens (ECO: 2.83 compared to EO: 2.59) and the levels of red tape (ECO: 3.47 compared to EO: 4.10 ) were perceived more favourable by early career officers compared to their more experienced colleagues. Equally, perceptions around wellbeing showed greater levels of agreement between early career officers and established officers, though the aspect of clear boundaries between work and home life was perceived differently and more favourably by early career officers (2.82) when compared to experienced officers (2.00). Overall, and responding to RQ1, these findings suggest a stark difference between the expectations of early career officers and the lived expectations of experienced career officers, alluding perhaps to misalignment of expectations and the realities of the profession.To address RQ2, PCB was measured using Robinson and Morrison’s (2000) scale. The results show, early career officers showed lower levels of PCB (2.95) compared to established officers (3.53) with significant differences between the groups’ perceptions across all items of the scale. This is particularly important when considering the possible impact of PCB on workplace outcomes. The results regarding RQ3 show that PCB is significantly correlated with all outcome variables, i.e., PCB is negatively related to job satisfaction and engagement and positively related to turnover intention. When considering the satisfaction averages broken down by respondents’ perceptions of PCB, there were stark differences in the response patterns. Among those respondents who experienced no PCB, the vast majority (91%) indicated satisfaction with their work, and only 5.1% were dissatisfied with their work. Amongst those who experience PCB, only 36.7% expressed satisfaction with their work and 34.8% expressed dissatisfaction. These trends are supported by the correlation analysis, which reported a significant negative correlation between PCB and satisfaction (r=-.446, pp<0.01). Taken together, this suggests that experiencing PCB negatively impacts on police officers’ job satisfaction.In terms of engagement, and accounting for officers’ different perceptions of PCB, most respondents who reported no PCB also reported higher levels of engagement (79.5%). For those who experience PCB, the results were more varied; 34.8% reported low engagement levels, 41.7% reported medium engagement levels, and only 23.4% reported high engagement level. This shows that there is a stark contrast to those officers who do not perceive PCB and indicates that experiencing PCB might negatively impact officers’ engagement with their work – a result that is further supported by the correlation analysis, which revealed a significant negative relationship between PCB and engagement (r=-.439, p<0.01).In terms of turnover intention, there are different patterns of turnover intentions depending on the perceived level of PCB. Amongst those who did not perceive a PCB, 76.9%, and therefore most of the group, had low turnover intentions, while 12.2% reported high levels of turnover intention. Contrary to this, among those who had perceived PCB, only 20.5% reported low levels of turnover intention, and the majority (52%) reported high levels of turnover intentions and are therefore much more inclined to look for other jobs. Correlation analysis shows that there is a strong and significant correlation (r=.440, p<0.01) between PCB and turnover intentions, further confirming the pattern.Using Quinn and Shepard’s (1974) scale, officers were also asked how well they would say their job measures up to the sort of job they wanted initially. Early career officers rated their job closer to the job they wanted (average 3.08) than established officers (average 2.82), indicating that expectations were not being met for the established group. There was a wide spread of answers, with the largest group (24.1%) in the middle category, 42% indicating that their job is not like they expected, and 33.8% indicating that their job is much like they wanted it when they first became a police officer. This is also mirrored in a second question on whether they would decide to become a police officer again given the choice. Results were spread relatively evenly across the entire range of answers, with a slightly lower percentage towards the higher end, from 22.3% of respondents who would definitely decide not to take the job again, to 14.7% of officers who would take the job again without hesitation. Early career officers, on average, rated this positively (3.62), whereas established officers’ average is in the negative range (2.78). This means that, on average, established officers would not choose to become a police officer again.The study shines a light on several areas of dissonance (rhetoric-reality gaps) that the police force – and wider public servants/Government bodies – should be aware of. Where the eventual job does not match up to early career officers’ (high) expectations around the four antecedents (i.e., leading to a PC breach or violation), these officers are likely to be at greater risk of voluntary turnover. From a Human Resources perspective, the police force needs to take account of the ch