Understanding police officers’ responses to moral injury: the aggravating effect of employee silence

The importance of this study is provided in the context of the role of police officers, namely the increasing demands of this frontline role. Grounded in the conservation of resources (COR) theory, we examine police officers’ responses to moral injury. We posit that experiencing morally wrong activities is negatively related to perceived prosocial impact of police officers and additional employee outcomes such as engagement, job satisfaction and intention to leave. We also hypothesise a moderating effect of employee silence on the relationship between moral injury and perceived prosocial impact. Data collected from 371 police officers in Australia across two waves largely confirm our proposed theoretical framework. Specifically, our findings reveal that employee silence strengthens the indirect negative effect of moral injury on police officers’ engagement and job satisfaction, as well as the indirect positive effect on their intention to leave via perceived prosocial impact. These findings contribute to a paucity of literature on employee silence demonstrating that it exacerbates the negative effects of moral injury on employees’ prosocial behaviours through the lens of resource depletion.