Report

Stress is widely recognized as inherent in law enforcement work. Two main categories of stressors have been examined: operational stressors or those inherent to the job (e.g., danger, violence, and traumatic events), and organizational stressors (OrgStress), which arise from the work context (e.g., administrative burdens, workload, perceived fairness, etc.). Although operational stress (OpStress) was once viewed as most influential, recent research has shown that OrgStress more strongly relates to outcomes like poor health and well-being and to a lesser extent job performance. Despite these findings, existing theory and conceptual models lack integration of the factors, mechanisms, and pathways between OrgStress and a range of mediators and outcomes. In this study, we developed and tested an expanded OrgStress model using structural equation modeling (SEM).