Organizational support mitigates the detrimental effects of police work stress on burnout and life satisfaction

Purpose The deleterious effects of work stress on police officers’ well-being are well documented. Despite this, little work exists that identifies stress mitigators in this population, such as vectors of support. We sought to examine the impact of work stress on officers’ well-being, in terms of burnout and life satisfaction, and whether officers’ ratings of organizational and community support had a moderating effect. Design/methodology/approach In partnership with departmental leadership, a wellness survey link was circulated via email to employees of a medium-sized police department. The survey, which was implemented through Qualtrics, incorporated standardized self-report psychometric measures and was completed by 167 sworn officers. Findings Controlling for gender and experience, multivariate analyses revealed that organizational support was a significant moderator of the work stress–burnout and work stress–life satisfaction relationships. Higher organizational support was associated with a diminished effect of work stress on both well-being criteria. No moderation effect was obtained for community support. Male gender was associated with greater burnout. Originality/value This study is among the first to test whether officers’ appraisals of organizational and community support moderate the work stress–wellness relationship. Results indicate that organizational support may mitigate the deleterious effects of work stress on officer well-being. We interface our findings with previous research, discuss implications for police department leadership and organizational practices and propose avenues for future research.