Change and stability in public workforce development: a 10-year study of new officers in an urban police department

ABSTRACT

Workforce development is central to public management theory and practice. However, little is known about the impact that organizations have on public workforce development. This paper contributes by examining the attitudes, identities, and motivations of an entering cohort of police officers over a 10-year period. Analysing survey responses, the paper shows little evidence that the department radically remade entrants or that the fit between entrants and the department was a key determinant of attrition. Because police socialization is particularly intense, these findings suggest that public workforce development may be more determined by pre-entry selection and recruitment than by post-entry influences.

KEYWORDS:

• Organizational socialization
• police
• attrition

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Zachary W. Oberfield

Zachary W. Oberfield, an associate professor of political science, is the author of two books: Becoming Bureaucrats: Socialization at the Front Lines of Government Service (University of Pennsylvania, 2014) and Are Charters Different? Public Education, Teachers, and the Charter School Debate (Harvard Education Press, 2017).