Organizational Trust and Job Stress: a Preliminary Study Among Police Officers

Abstract

Trust is a vital part of society and is critical for organizations. The main forms of organizational trust are management trust, supervisor trust, and coworker trust, each of which allows organizations to function and operate efficiently. This is particularly true for police agencies. Yet, few studies have examined how organizational trust affects police officers. The job of a police officer can be demanding, often resulting in heightened job stress. It is unclear whether organizational trust can reduce job stress or, conversely, whether low or non-existent organizational trust contributes to job stress. The current study explored the effects of management trust, supervisor trust, and coworker trust on job stress among Indian police officers, while also assessing the effects of job autonomy, views on quality training, role overload, role underload, and perceived dangerousness of the job. A sample of 827 police officers was drawn from two districts in the state of Haryana in India. Supervisor and coworker trust had statistically significant negative effects on job stress, while management trust had nonsignificant negative effects. Job autonomy and views on quality training also had significant negative effects, while perceptions of the job as dangerous and role overload had significant positive effects. Role underload had nonsignificant effects. The results indicate that building coworker and supervisor trust, increasing job autonomy, improving views on quality training, and reducing role overload and perceptions of the job as posing a risk should reduce job stress for police officers.