Voluntary resignations from the police service: the impact of organisational and occupational stressors on organisational commitment

ABSTRACT

The numbers of police officers in England and Wales who resigned voluntarily from the service have been increasing rapidly in recent years. Despite this, there has been scant attention paid to this issue academically or organisationally. Using the guiding framework of organisational commitment with its focus upon active institutional identification, this paper considers police officer decisions to resign voluntarily from the police service. It does this through an analysis of a survey distributed to police officers from one English force who had resigned voluntarily between November 2014 and June 2019. The findings demonstrate that resigning police officers highly value the occupation they have joined, the nature of their work, the opportunities for fulfilling public service ambitions and the satisfaction of working with policing colleagues as part of a team. The findings also indicate however that they are ultimately frustrated by the perceived inability of the organisation to manage the demands upon them and by a sense of organisational ‘injustice’ emanating from perceptions of a lack of ‘voice’, leadership, autonomy and support. This damages the exchange-based working relationship between officers and managers, causing a decline in affective organisational commitment. Consequently, these factors have a negative personal impact upon their physical and mental health and an impact upon their caring responsibilities and personal relationships outside of their working environment.

KEYWORDS:

• Police resignations
• police leavers
• organisational commitment

Introduction

The Global Financial Crisis of 2007–2008 resulted in one of the deepest recessions since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The impact of this was seen in both rising levels of crime and falling levels of policing services worldwide (UNODC 2011, PERF 2013). In combination with a reduction in police officer numbers, a more complex pattern of emerging crime and the knock-on effect of budgetary cuts to public services elsewhere, it would appear to suggest challenging times for policing services, requiring the knowledge and expertise of experienced staff.

However, in May 2020, the Home Office in England announced that the ‘retention of experienced police officers has emerged as a concern’ and they were considering plans to incentivise retention in some areas (Home Office 2020, p. 9). Concerns over rising levels of voluntary resignations in police forces across the country, amidst a challenging and expensive target of recruiting 20,000 new officers over a three-year period, appears to have prompted this new focus upon retention. At first glance, this appears to be in marked contrast to the buoyant recruitment days of a decade ago when Tom Winsor, the then newly appointed Chief Inspector of Constabulary attempted to reframe policing away from the ‘job for life’ culture with the introduction of short term contracts (2012, p. 293). This was supplemented by a Workforce Futures Programme proposal from the National Police Chiefs’ Council which expressly stated that they saw ‘healthy churn as a positive’ and would be supporting staff by ‘encouraging them to leave to develop new skills and potentially returning to policing’ (NPCC 2016, p. 8). Whether in relation to these shifts of emphasis or not, police officers heeded the advice and the numbers of voluntary resignations from the police service between 2011/2 and 2018/19 rose by 87.8% (Home Office 2016, 2019). With a volte-face on the notion of ‘healthy churn’, a renewed focus from the Home Office on retention, increasing numbers of voluntary resignations and a more complex policing landscape requiring knowledge and experience, it is more important than ever to provide an insight into a relatively under-researched aspect of policing which is why police officers resign prematurely from the police service through what could be argued to be avoidable turnover.

Policing in England and Wales is organised into 43 separate police forces, each led by a Chief Constable (or Commissioner in the Metropolitan Police Service and City of London Police) who is responsible for the delivery of police services and part of a governance web with publicly and locally elected Police and Crime Commissioners and the UK Government Home Office department. The vast majority of the current 132,392 police officers join at the most junior rank of Police Constable and can seek promotion to higher ranks through national examinations and local promotion processes (House of Commons 2020). The compulsory retirement age for those below the rank of Superintendent is 60 with the potential for all officers to retire with maximum benefits at the age of 50 with 25 years of service. The results of previously generous final salary pension arrangements and job security have meant that the majority of police officers have served long careers with only 8% of ordinary retirees serving less than 26.5 years’ service and the majority of police exits through retirement rather than resignation (IFS 2016).

There has however been limited attention paid to the issue of officers voluntarily leaving the police service. During periods of healthy recruitment, this may not immediately appear problematic but with some UK police forces receiving fewer applications than vacancies (NPCC 2018), and with the cost of training a police constable to be fully competent standing at £80,000 over two years (Boyd et al. 2011), the issue of retention comes more to the fore. The largest group of police ‘leavers’ are those retiring as expected, which accounts for between 50 and 60% of leavers annually (Home Office 2019). However, the focus for this paper is on voluntary resignations which makes up the second largest group of ‘leavers’ (after retirement and before transfer, medical retirement, dismissal and death). Despite claims from the Home Office that the retention numbers are stable (Home Office 2020), the numbers of police officers resigning voluntarily from the service have been increasing rapidly. There were 2175 voluntary resignations in England and Wales in the year ending March 2019, a rise of 87.8% on the 1158 officers who did the same in the year ending March 2012 (Home Office 2016, 2019). This represents a rise every year with the exception of a fall of 40 officers in the year ending March 2018 (Home Office 2019). Rates of voluntary resignations amongst BME officers (although not stated) and amongst female officers were at a higher rate than their white and male colleagues. In the year ending March 2019, 34% of female leavers were voluntary resignations compared to 22% of male leavers (Home Office 2019).

This paper considers police officer decisions to resign voluntarily from the police service using the guiding framework of organisational commitment with its focus upon active institutional identification. It does this through an analysis of a survey distributed to police officers from one English force who had resigned voluntarily between November 2014 and June 2019. With limited current or historical research relating directly to those who have left the police service, this paper will analyse this new data using the framework of organisational commitment. This discussion will then set the scene for a focussed analysis of the data collected for our research from police leavers themselves considering issues of leadership, social exchange factors and the attractiveness of the organisation.

Literature review

This narrative literature review converges around the topic of organisational commitment with its focus upon active institutional identification. Organisational commitment is widely regarded to be a prerequisite to remaining within an organisation. It is this active institutional identification which promotes an inclination to remain within an organisation and its antecedents are therefore critical to an understanding of premature resignation. However, as this review will emphasise, theories of organisational commitment tend to be applied to turnover intentions rather than actual turnover and it is these gaps within the literature that this research attempts to fill. This review will first analyse the conceptual knowledge on theories of turnover and organisational commitment and in particular in its relationship with job satisfaction. It will do this to provide the framework for the sparse but existing global empirical knowledge (and where relevant practical knowledge) which has been generated through analyses of leaving and leave intention amongst police officers.

Turnover and organisational commitment

High levels of voluntary turnover can have a damaging effect on an organisation’s knowledge and effectiveness (Hom and Griffeth 1995), a negative effect upon organisational performance (Hur 2013) and extensive costs are involved in the recruitment and training of replacement staff. Voluntary (or avoidable) turnover refers to an employee’s choice to leave the organisation whilst involuntary (or unavoidable) turnover would reflect the forced removal of an employee either at the instigation of the employer or through external factors such as illness (Price 2001, Lynch and Tuckey 2008). Turnover is a complex process rather than a simple cause and effect and represents ‘voluntary and involuntary separation from an organization’ (Allisey et al. 2014, p. 753). Generally, the process of withdrawing encompasses changes to working conditions which in turn impact upon attitudes towards work which can then prompt the instigation of turnover intentions, a reliable indicator of actual turnover (Allisey et al. 2014). Turnover intentions are influenced by organisational variables (e.g. job satisfaction), demographic variables (e.g. gender) and external variables (e.g. availability of alternative employment) (Cotton and Tuttle 1986, Ahmad et al. 2019). The antecedents to turnover, the mediating factors which could prevent avoidable turnover, are the key areas of employee dissatisfaction which need to be more fully analysed. Much of the published literature in this area has taken one of the most reliable predictors of organisational withdrawal to be related to organisational commitment (Cooper-Hakim and Viswesvaran 2005) and it is this area of literature that this paper now turns.

There are many different dimensions in the commitment to one’s work. McElroy et al. (1999) have suggested these be the commitment to the work itself as an activity to be valued, the commitment towards one’s own personal career, the commitment to the job itself and finally the commitment to the organisation or employer. It is this latter form of commitment, known as organisational commitment, which has received the most attention within the turnover literature, a body of work informed by the fields of psychology and human resources management (Parsons et al. 2011). Porter and Smith define organisational commitment as

the strength of an individual’s identification with and involvement in a particular organization, [which is] characterized by three factors: a strong belief in, and acceptance of, the organization’s goals and values, a readiness to exert effort on behalf of the organization, and a strong desire to remain a member of the organization. (1970; in Mowday et al. 1982)

This is not therefore a passive loyalty but rather an active involvement with the organisation and an appreciable contribution to achieving its goals (Dean 1983). Organisational commitment therefore takes the form of a psychological attachment to a whole organisation, rather than elements within it. That attachment provokes an intention to stay with the organisation (Meyer 1997).

Organisational commitment is likely to be enhanced by strong leadership, social exchange factors and the perceived attractiveness of the organisation (He and Brown 2013). Related to the idea of the psychological contract (Rousseau 1995), social exchange factors are important here. Social exchange theory argues that when individual ‘A’ acts in such a way to favour individual ‘B’, then individual ‘B’ would be right to expect a return of that favour from individual ‘A’. Although this can be framed in economic terms, social exchange theory focuses upon socioemotional aspects of exchange (Blau 1964). In organisational terms therefore, individuals who perceive an organisation to be supportive of them and their goals will enter into a reciprocal relationship with that employer by showing higher levels of organisational commitment (Rhoades et al. 2001). Conversely however, low levels of organisational commitment or the perceived violation of the psychological contract are associated with role conflict and ambiguity (Mattson and Dubinksy 1979), decreased loyalty (Turnley and Feldman 1999), low levels of job satisfaction (White et al. 2010) and entrenched negative attitudes which can become highly damaging for new organisational members (Van Maanen 1975).

Further conceptual definitions of organisational commitment have been regularly highlighted in the literature, mainly on the Meyer and Allen model of affective, continuance and normative involvement or attachment to the organisation (1987). First, affective commitment describes an emotional attachment to an organisation and a sense of loyalty and enjoyment which are associated with that membership. High levels of affective organisational commitment are directly related to employee performance (Marique et al. 2013), trust in supervisors (Sholihin and Pike 2010) and job satisfaction and inversely related to turnover intentions and actual turnover (Mathieu and Zajac 1990, Jaramillo et al. 2005). Whilst organisational commitment provides the cognitive impetus for performance, affective organisational commitment provides the motivation to drive that performance (Bergami and Bagozzi 2000). Second, continuance commitment describes a level of organisational commitment which is based upon the more negative calculation of the perceived costs of leaving the organisation rather than on the actual perceived advantages of remaining. Finally, normative commitment describes an obligatory commitment to an organisation based upon loyalty and a perception of one’s commitment being the ‘morally correct’ behaviour to exhibit (Allen and Meyer 1990). Employees do not belong to a particular type of commitment group, they can be attached to each and all of these states during their employment. These three components of commitment are linked but in very different ways.

There has also been limited attention paid to the issue of turnover within the police from the academic literature. This is likely to be a combination of the difficulties of accessing those who have left the service combined with a historically low number of those doing so. However, some research data has been gathered (particularly in Australia, the USA and the UK) which has considered the reasons for turnover intentions if not turnover itself. Matz et al. (2014) in their systematic review and meta-analysis of the turnover literature in criminal justice organisations suggest that the variables identified within the literature concerning the reasons for turnover intentions or actual turnover can be categorised into three main areas – personal characteristics, the work environment, and job attitudes. Although it must be stressed that the decision to resign voluntarily from the police is a complex and reflective process with many interwoven variables, for the purposes of this review of the literature, these three categories will inform the following discussion.

Personal characteristics

Personal characteristics include such variables as gender, ethnicity, length of service and education. While official statistics indicate that women and those who are BME resign at higher rates than their white and male colleagues (Cooper and Ingram 2004, Home Office 2019), these demographic variables do not appear directly significant when analysed against intentions to leave (Matz et al. 2014). It should be borne in mind however that discrimination results in occupational stress (Brown et al. 1995) which indirectly might prompt leave intentions (Haarr 2005). However, although relevant on the individual level, on aggregate the evidence appears to show that gender is not a driving force behind turnover (Matz et al. 2014).

Although the majority of the research on organisational commitment amongst police officers cited earlier in this paper suggested that this decreases with tenure, research on tenure and leave intentions is inconclusive. While Gächter et al. (2013) found that an officer’s intent to leave increases as length of service increases, other research found that it was in fact early stage officers who were statistically more likely to leave or express an intention to leave policing (McElroy et al. 1999, Coopers and Ingram 2004).

The evidence on the impact of level of education on intentions to leave has an important significance for policing in England and Wales. Entry to the rank of police constable is now only accessible with a previously attained relevant degree or via a policing degree apprenticeship programme delivered by police forces in collaboration with higher education institutions. Research is currently inconclusive in this area with some evidence indicating that graduates are more likely to prematurely leave the policing organisation (Carter et al. 1989, Haarr 2005) but other evidence suggests that once there are a critical mass of degree holders, this is no longer the case (Jones et al. 2005).

Work environment

Work environment and job attitudes (considered in the next section) appear to have stronger associations with intentions to leave the policing organisation than personal characteristics (Matz et al. 2014). Work environment variables are concerned with the perceptions that individual police officers have about their working environment. This includes autonomy, management support and opportunities for promotion.

A perceived lack of promotion opportunities appears to play a considerable role in increasing levels of organisational dissatisfaction and influences intentions to leave the policing organisation (Brunetto and Wharton 2003, Bradford et al. 2012, Boag-Munroe et al. 2017). This perceived lack of opportunity for advancement is connected with a lack of ‘voice’ and autonomy at all ranks of the police service. Evidence is available which indicates that a lack of job autonomy is directly related to turnover intentions (Dick 2011, Jabeen et al. 2020).

Leadership and management in any organisation is often fraught with tensions but in the rank-oriented and historically single-entry system of policing in the UK, the apparent communicative gulf between the rank and file and police managers has been well documented (Davis and Silvestri 2020). Perhaps unsurprisingly therefore, research into police leavers appears to indicate that perceptions of a lack of management and supervisory support is a significant factor in the decision to leave the organisation, at both junior and mid management levels (Holdaway and Bannon 1997, Brough and Frame 2004b, Cooper and Ingrams 2004, Parsons et al. 2011, Howes and Goodman-Delahunty 2015). Conversely, high levels of perceived organisational support were related to reduced levels of withdrawal behaviours (Rhoades and Eisenberger 2002)

Job attitudes

Matz et al. (2014) suggest that job attitudes are the strongest category of variables affecting the individual’s decision to leave. These variables incorporate the broad categories of organisational commitment, job satisfaction and stress. According to the limited published research in this area, it is police officers who have weak organisational commitment, low levels of job satisfaction and who suffer with high levels of stress, strain and low morale who are the most likely to voluntarily leave the organisation or express an intention to leave (Brough and Frame 2004b, Jones et al. 2005, Allisey et al. 2014, Boag-Munroe et al. 2017). According to a Police Federation survey of police leavers, over half of respondents cited low morale as their reason for leaving (Police Federation 2018).

Work on organisational commitment within policing has suggested that although organisational commitment increases with rank (Metcalfe and Dick 2000, Dick 2011), operational level police officers exhibit low levels of organisational commitment which is heavily influenced by how officers feel they are managed and supported (Dick and Metcalfe 2001). Contrary to research within other organisations, commitment did not appear to increase with the length of service within policing organisations but actually decreased (Van Maanen 1975, Savery et al. 1991, Wilson 1991, Wilson and Beck 1995, Beck and Wilson 2000, McElroy et al. 1999, Brunetto and Farr-Wharton 2003; see Metcalfe and Dick (2000) for the only research in opposition to this). Therefore, in research within policing organisations, it appears that the longer an employee was working within the police, the lower the levels of organisational commitment. On entry to the organisation, commitment was high but this decreased dramatically (Beck and Wilson 1997). This has important ramifications for premature resignations.

As discussed earlier in this paper, high levels of affective organisational commitment can have strong and positive indicators for a range of work-related issues including performance, trust and satisfaction coupled with a desire to remain within the organisation (Allen and Meyer 1990). Weak affective organisational commitment is directly and consistently associated with employee turnover or turnover intentions (Meyer and Allen 1987, Mathieu and Zajac 1990). These weaknesses in commitment are often preceded by low levels of job satisfaction (Jaramillo et al. 2005, James and Hendry, 1991). What is of concern for policing in England and Wales is that only 1% of police officers (up to Chief Inspector rank) reported feeling completely satisfied with their jobs compared to 18.7% of the general population (Elliott-Davies 2018).

Stress amongst police officers is high with recent research indicating that mental health problems including PTSD, depression and anxiety were found to twice exceed that of the general population (Syed et al. 2020). In a Police Federation survey, 79.3% of respondents acknowledged feelings of stress, low mood, anxiety or other difficulties with their mental health in the previous 12 months, 94.2% of these respondents indicating that these difficulties were caused or exacerbated by their work (Elliot-Davies 2018). This compares with 26% of the general population attributing their difficulties to work. In an analysis of clinical data from police officers undergoing therapy for stress and intending to leave the organisation, emotional exhaustion was a key feature of the findings (Dick 2000). It is highly likely that forthcoming research will evidence rising levels of stress amongst police officers working through the COVID-19 world pandemic (Stogner et al. 2020). Job stress has been closely linked with intentions to leave the policing organisation (Allisey et al. 2014).

It should not be presumed however that it is the nature of police work that is the antecedent of stress. There would appear to be no available evidence of reasons to leave policing being focused upon working with the public or relationships with the public. Research indicates that organisational stress (e.g. staff shortages, poor supervisory support) may be more prevalent amongst police officers than occupational stress (James and Hendry 1991, Biggam et al. 1997, Holdaway and Bannon 1997, Brough 2004a, Chan and Doran 2009, Dick 2011). These organisational stressors have been found to have far more impact on individual police officers than the symptoms of trauma associated with their role (Brough 2004a). Reducing stress or working within a policing environment which is not associated with stress clearly has organisational benefits in terms of turnover. Research from Brunetto et al. (2012) found that as stress levels amongst police officers were reduced and wellbeing increased, this was found to be accompanied by increased job satisfaction and organisational commitment and a reduced likelihood of turnover intentions.

As discussed during this review of the literature, the decision to voluntarily leave the police service is a multi-faceted one, with interlinked variables impacting upon one another in a nonlinear fashion. The decision to leave is likely to be influenced by a build-up of negative experiences rather than being attributable to one decisive moment. All of the variables which have been considered, including the primary focus for this review of organisational commitment, will have an impact on the turnover intentions of police officers with some featuring more prominently on an individual basis. However, as this review has emphasised, theories of organisational commitment tend to be applied to turnover intentions rather than actual turnover and it is these gaps within the literature that this research attempts to fill. As stated at the outset of this paper, the focus for this article is on police officer decisions to resign voluntarily from the police service and it uses organisational commitment with its focus upon active institutional identification as its guiding framework. It seeks to do this through an analysis of a survey distributed to police officers from one English force who had resigned voluntarily between November 2014 and June 2019. This paper will now move to consider those decisions to resign voluntarily from the police service by assessing the attitudes of police leavers towards the policing organisation and the nature of police work and to evaluate the key and influential motivations behind the decision to resign from the police service.

Method

An online survey was sent to the last known home address of 254 police officers who had resigned voluntarily from one medium-sized police force in England between November 2014 and June 2019. Nationally, the proportion of officers leaving the police force in 2018 was 1.77% of all police officers (Home Office 2019). Whilst the detailed figures cannot be stated here as this would then remove the anonymity of the force this data relates to, it can be said that the figures for this particular police force are higher and were approximately 7%.

Due to the limited data held on those leaving the police service, only postal addresses of these officers were available. A letter was sent to their previously known address which contained both information about the research project and a weblink to an online survey. The difficulties of using a last known postal address (for many, this was some years ago) and participants having to manually type the online survey address into a web browser are acknowledged. However, despite this, there were 46 completed surveys, which initially corresponds to a 18.1% return rate. However, on the online survey platform (JISC OS), the recorded response rate was 46%. This means that 100 ex police officers would have at least read the online participant information sheet. Then, 46 of these 100 decided to proceed and complete the full survey (response data is only retained by JISC OS, when the ‘submit responses’ button is pressed at the end of the survey). It is acknowledged that the response rate could be higher but the dataset still contains a valuable insight into the decision-making process amongst those voluntarily resigning from the police service.

Participants were asked to complete a total of 24 questions (10 demographics), which both fixed answer (8) and open-ended questions (6) which provided the opportunity to categorise the data according to fixed categories and explore the views of the participants in more depth. For example, participants were asked: What have been the positive aspects of leaving the police service? and also: To what extent did the following influence your decision to leave the police? (list of 28 possible reasons). Questions were developed from reviewing previous literature and also following discussion with officers who had left. There were 5 main thematic areas the survey covered, which is a structure that the Findings section also replicates.

By collecting both quantitative and qualitative data, participant responses have been able to be analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics, and also an abbreviated version of thematic analysis has been used. In total, 46 participants fully completed the online survey: 39 full time and 7 part-time police officers at the time of leaving. There were 26 males (56.%) and 20 females (44.5%) respondents. The majority of the participants described their ethnic background to be ‘White’ (95.7%). Of the 46 participants, 38 (82.6%) were a Constable, five (10.9%) were a Sergeant, and the remaining three participants were of higher rank. Length of service ranged from one to more than twenty-five years. Just over half the participants had carer responsibilities at home (52.2%) and 39.1% of the sample (males n = 8; females n = 10) had children under the age of 16 at home. In terms of the qualifications held by participants at the time of leaving the police, 20 participants held a Bachelor’s degree or higher (43.5%), and the remaining 26 participants (56.5%) did not.

Data analysis strategy

The completed surveys were exported from JISC OS into SPSS 26 for analysis of the quantitative data. Data were initially analysed descriptively, to explore patterns of responses. Next, inferential data analysis was conducted, to evaluate how fixed survey responses may have differed as a function of participant characteristics. Only significant findings have been presented below, to highlight where relationships between characteristics and survey responses appear to be present. The free response data was analysed using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) approach to thematic analysis which encompasses elements of researcher reflexivity during the coding process of the qualitative data. However, importantly, all of these issues have been independently raised by participants with no prompting. Quotations from the participants are used to illustrate the points being made.

Findings

The relevant findings for this paper are organised into five areas: Factors which most influenced a participant’s decision to leave the police, levels of satisfaction regarding work conditions at the point of leaving the police, the positive and negative implications of leaving the police, factors which would most make a participant reconsider their decision to leave and finally, the relationship between participant characteristics and survey responses.

Factors which most influenced a participant’s decision to leave the police

Participants were asked to rate the extent to which certain factors influenced their decision to leave the police, selecting either Major, Minor or No effect.

As can be seen from Table 1, almost two thirds of participants (65.1%) said that the impact of the job on their personal life was a major influencing factor, and 87% of participants reported that the job impacted their personal life in some way. Morale and satisfaction in the job were also cited as being strong reasons for making their decision to leave. Table 1 also clearly shows that the impact on psychological health and stress arising from doing the job were also key reasons that individuals left.

Table 1. Factors which most influenced participants’ decisions to leave the police.

Factors	% Major effect	% Some effect	% No effect
Impact of job on personal life	65.2	21.7	13.0
Morale	60.9	26.1	13.0
Satisfaction in job	60.9	19.6	19.6
Impact of job on psychological health	56.5	23.9	19.6
Stress of the job	56.5	21.7	21.7
Number officers available to meet demand on unit	56.4	26.1	17.4
Support from senior leadership	54.3	26.1	19.6
Mismatch expectations and reality	50.0	13.0	37.0
Working hours	41.3	30.4	28.3
Overall workload	39.1	39.1	21.7
The role	39.1	26.1	34.8
Opportunity for promotion	34.8	21.7	43.5
Better opportunities elsewhere	32.6	4.3	63.0
Opportunity for development	30.4	32.6	37.0
Shift pattern	30.4	32.6	37.0
Support from line manager	30.4	26.1	43.5
To help public as much as they would like	28.3	41.3	30.4
Less demanding jobs outside the police	26.7	24.4	48.9
Changes in family/personal circumstances	26.1	17.4	56.5
Impact of job on physical health	26.1	34.8	39.1
Discriminatory behaviour from managers	24.4	15.6	58.7
Desire for new challenge	23.9	21.7	54.3
Better paid jobs outside the police	19.6	13.0	67.4
Pension	19.6	34.8	45.7
The experience of working with the public	15.2	23.9	60.9
Discriminatory behaviour from colleagues	10.9	2.2	87.0
Basic pay	6.5	21.7	71.7
Relationship with colleagues	6.5	10.9	82.6

As well as responding to these fixed response questions, participants were then asked to outline in an open text box their top three reasons for leaving the police. All of the comments provided by participants were coded and organised into themes and then progressively abstracted into four meta-themes which were: Organisational factors, Organisational ‘injustice’, Personal factors and External/Other factors.

Organisational factors

Exactly half of the overall comments related to this first category of organisational factors. The most often mentioned theme both overall in answer to this question and within this meta-theme was of perceived poor leadership and management (36.0%). Comments from the participants referred to management at all levels, whether immediate line management, middle management or senior management within the organisation. This related to both levels of supervision and levels of support.

The force regularly forcibly moved you between teams and roles. This was through no fault of your own, but through poor demand planning

Lack of robust supervisory support

There were many comments around the theme of increased workload and the difficulties associated with working a shift system (26.0%).

Unrealistic demands on fewer officers

The workload was horrendous, I was working regular 12–15 h shifts

Smaller numbers of former police officers also referred to other organisational factors which contributed to their decision to leave the police service. 16% of those who cited organisational factors as one of the top three reasons for leaving the police service cited the mismatch between the expectations of the job and the subsequent realities of the job.

Organisational ‘Injustice’

Throughout the research, the survey participants provided responses which indicated a sense of perceived ‘injustice’ as to their treatment by other staff or by the ‘organisation’ more generally. Almost a fifth of the comments (24.0%) related to factors which fitted within this meta-theme. The most frequently mentioned of these (with regard to the question which asked participants to list their top three reasons for leaving the police service), related to a perceived lack of promotion and progression opportunities (45.8%).

Absolutely no prospect of lateral career progression or promotion

The talent management and progression in policing is very poorly developed

In relation to this, and a strong theme throughout the research, was a sense of participants having little or no control or autonomy over their job, their role or their future. Nearly a third of those citing organisational ‘injustice’ as a reason for leaving the police service referred to a perception that they lacked a ‘voice’ within the organisation (29.2%).

Total lack of value by organisation as an individual or interest in individual strengths or experience

I was told I was being replaced in my current role by a civilian

However, where the first two of these ‘injustice’ themes refer to participants feeling that they ‘lack’ opportunities or autonomy, the third theme relating to ‘organisational injustice’ instead focuses upon the presence of unwanted bullying and harassment, all of which were said to be from line managers or other managers within the organisation (25.0%).

Discriminatory line managers not giving a care to the welfare of their officers

I was severely bullied by my sergeant during my career … . I witnessed other members of staff be treated appallingly by their peers and subsequently leave. This left me feeling no emotional attachment whatsoever to a career I had dreamt of

Personal factors

Personal factors were cited by a quarter of participants as being one or more of their top three reasons for leaving the police service.

A large proportion of 48.4% of the sample (of those citing personal factors as influencing their decision to leave the police service) referred to the difficulties of managing their caring responsibilities alongside their career in the police service and the impact that this had upon their personal life. After poor leadership and management, this was the second most cited reason for leaving the police service within this particular question.

Relentless working hours – expectation as a single parent to leave my children at home alone all weekend to fit in with the working pattern

Having my first baby … made to feel like it would be too tough to come back into a Detective role

Nearly a third (29.0%) of those citing personal reasons for leaving referred to the impact upon themselves as an individual, either physically or mentally.

My mental health suffered tremendously during my career in the police

The impact of the job on my psychological health

Additionally, over a fifth of participants (22.6%) citing personal reasons for leaving the police service referred explicitly to stress.

The immense stress caused by huge workloads

No time to do the strategic thinking or the things I should have been doing at my rank – it was all reactive … .looking after your staff who were breaking.

External/Other factors

External/Other factors made up the smallest proportion of answers relating to the top three reasons for leaving the police service. These split fairly evenly between those who felt there were better opportunities outside of the police service (42.9%) and those who felt that ‘politics’ on a national level had impacted upon their decision to leave (57.1%). Other answers which were not considered to be sufficient enough in volume to be assigned a theme included dissatisfaction with the job, a lack of honesty/integrity, lack of skills, a ‘toxic’ environment and not feeling a sense of worth.

Participants were also asked ‘was there a particular moment or decisive event which prompted your decision to leave the police service?’ Out of 46 participants, 37 responded ‘Yes’ to this question (80.4%). The largest proportion of responses in answer to this question was in relation to perceptions of organisational ‘injustice’ (47.2%). Within that category, the main focus was on a perceived lack of autonomy and lack of voice within the organisation with decisions being made about participants’ work of which they felt they had no control.

I was told I was going to have to work some weekends 50 miles from home

my line manager told me I just had to ‘fit in’ with my flexible working pattern, which would mean my children would be home alone Friday to Sunday, twice a month

The second largest group of answers which considered the particular moment or decisive event which prompted the decision to leave the police service was related to personal factors (22.2%). This related to the impact of a policing career on the respondent’s physical/mental health or in relation to caring responsibilities and the impact upon their personal life:

feeling scared to go to work

trying to commit suicide after a night shift as a custody sergeant

Nearly a fifth of responses (19.4%) in answer to the question of ‘was there a particular moment or decisive event which prompted your decision to leave the police service?’ were in relation to organisational factors which were all related to perceptions of poor leadership/management.

a senior line manager who delighted in humiliating and bullying me

I was working overtime on a case, when my wife called to tell me that my son was ill and may need to go to hospital … . my line manager denied my leave … this was the defining moment … . I knew I had to go

Levels of satisfaction regarding work conditions at the point of leaving the police

Participants rated a list (10 items) of various elements of their job, and the extent to which they were satisfied with that aspect of the job. Higher scores reflect higher satisfaction. Table 2 shows that survey participants rated ‘job security’ the highest for job satisfaction whereas ‘the opportunity for career enhancement’ was rated the lowest out of all the statements.

Table 2. Average satisfaction levels regarding work conditions at the point of leaving the police*.

Work condition	M	SD
Job security	3.61	1.26
Good companionship with co-workers	3.52	1.17
The Interesting and varied work	3.22	1.29
Salary	3.20	1.17
The opportunity to work in an active outdoors-type environment	3.20	1.09
The opportunity to enforce the law	3.17	1.25
The opportunity to help people in the community	3.17	1.22
Job benefits (e.g. pension)	3.11	1.39
The opportunity to obtain transferable skills and experience	2.83	1.14
The opportunity for career advancement	2.15	1.10

*A score of 1= Very dissatisfied, 5 = Very satisfied.

The positive and negative implications of leaving the police

In an open-ended question, participants were asked about the positive aspects of leaving the police. Answers fell fairly evenly into three groups which could be categorised into three themes, personal (35.9%), professional (35.9%) and work/life balance (28.3%). Of the answers that related to personal issues, these could be further categorised into answers relating to improvements to physical/mental health (69.7%) and improvements to other relationships (30.3%).

Of the reasons for leaving the police service related to professional issues, these could be further categorised into answers relating to extrinsic issues (defined here as having a direct personal gain e.g. career enhancement, salary, autonomy) which made up 69.7% of these comments. Answers relating to intrinsic issues (defined here as factors relating to professional values e.g. being appreciated, lack of fear, public service role, improved working relationships) made up the remaining 30.3% of these comments. The following quotes provide an illustration of widely stated views:

A weight lifted off me as I walked out the door!

Am finally rewarded for my effort and not micromanaged to a degree where you feel undervalued

I now lead a happy and valued life

I have got my life in order regards to the work life balance

Participants were also asked what the negative aspects of leaving the police service were. Answers fell into three groups which could be broadly categorised into three themes, intrinsic aspects (54.7%), extrinsic aspects (26.4%) and the simple answer of ‘none’ (18.9%).

The largest group of responses within this question were categorised as intrinsic and constituted 54.7% of comments made by participants. Intrinsic aspects in this regard refer to factors which do not materially benefit the individual but are more concerned with wider notions of job satisfaction and fulfilment. Of these 54.7%, these could be further categorised into answers relating to missing colleagues (31%), missing the job (34.5%), missing the teamwork (17.2%) and a sense of failure/disappointment (17.2%).

In the comments coded as extrinsic, (this has been defined here as factors relating to personal gain e.g. finances), these could be split between 64.3% referring to the financial disadvantages of leaving the police service and the remaining 35.7% of responses which were categorised as ‘extrinsic – other’ and related to issues such as job security and the difficulties in starting a new career. The following quotes provide an illustration of widely stated views about what was missed through leaving the police service:

Losing day to day interaction with highly capable and committed officers

Coming to terms with the fact that my potential for doing good (in terms of helping officers and the public) would not be fulfilled

The variety and excitement. The camaraderie. The huge sense of fulfilment from getting justice for victims or from preventing harm and keeping people safe

I don’t feel as proud of myself as when I was wearing the uniform

Factors which would most make a participant reconsider their decision to leave

Of the 46 participants, 26 (56.5%) said they would not consider returning, nine said maybe (19.6%) and 11 (23.9%) said they would reconsider. Table 3 indicates elements of the job that if addressed, could make a police leaver reconsider their decision. For each factor, participants could respond either ‘Would make me reconsider’, ‘Might make me reconsider’, ‘Would not make me reconsider’ or ‘Not applicable to me’.

Table 3. Factors which may make participants reconsider their decision to leave.

Factors	% would	% might	% wouldn’t	% n/a
Improvements in welfare	45.7	21.7	26.1	6.5
Better career opportunities	43.5	13.0	34.8	8.7
Better work-life balance	43.5	32.6	19.6	4.3
A different organisation culture	41.3	23.9	23.9	10.9
More opportunity for flexible working	33.3	17.8	35.6	13.0
Lower workload	30.4	30.4	32.6	6.5
More opportunities to changes roles	28.3	30.4	28.3	13.0
A different line manager	23.9	8.7	54.3	13.0
Improved pension provisions	23.9	26.1	41.3	8.7
A different senior leadership team	21.7	23.9	43.5	10.9
More opportunities for training	19.6	23.9	45.7	10.9
Transfer to a different team	19.6	21.7	43.5	15.2
A more interesting and varied workload	17.8	13.3	17.8	51.1
Higher salary	17.4	28.3	52.2	2.2
Improved technology or equipment	17.4	10.9	60.9	10.9
More opportunities to help vulnerable people	15.2	15.2	52.2	17.4
Improved relationships with co-workers	2.2	15.2	63.0	19.6

Table 3 clearly shows that improvements in welfare, better career opportunities, better work-life balance and a different organisational culture were all considered factors (by over 40% of the participants) that if addressed could make them reconsider their decision to leave the Police.

The relationship between participant characteristics and survey responses

A number of statistically significant relationships between five participant characteristics (Gender, Caring Responsibility, Length of Service, Qualifications and their specific Job Role) and quantitative survey responses have been identified. For the purposes of this paper, gender, caring responsibilities and qualifications will be considered. The data collected on reasons for leaving the police was analysed using Mann–Whitney non-parametric tests (the most appropriate tests due to the ordinal level response data collected, and the small to moderate sample size). Only relationships that were found to be statistically significant at the p<.05 level have been represented in Tables 4–6. Mean Rank scores have been presented in all Tables 4–6, with higher mean rank score reflecting a greater strength of opinion. For example in Table 4, it can be shown that female participants had stronger views on four reasons to leave when compared to the male participants in this study.

Table 4. Gender: significant differences identified between male and females.

	Mean Rank Males (n = 26)	Mean Rank Females (n = 20)	p
Reasons to leave
Basic pay	20.31	27.65	.020
Working hours	19.12	29.20	.007
Impact of job on personal life	20.58	27.30	.046
Change in personal circumstance	20.38	27.55	.044

Table 5. Caring responsibility: significant differences identified between carers and non-carers.

	Mean Rank Carers (n = 24)	Mean Rank Non Carers (n = 22)	p
Reasons to leave
Impact of the job on personal life	28.67	17.86	.001
Impact of your job on your psychological health	28.40	18.16	.004
Discriminatory behaviour from managers	26.58	18.90	.025
Reconsider decision to leave
A different senior leadership team	24.18	17.32	.047

Table 6. Qualification Level: significant differences identified between participants with and without a degree.

	Mean Rank Degree (n = 20)	Mean Rank No degree (n = 26)	p
Reasons to leave
Basic pay	27.33	20.56	.031
Opportunities for development	28.33	19.79	.023
Opportunities for promotion	29.65	18.77	.003
Better paid jobs outside of the police	28.43	19.71	.008
Better opportunities elsewhere	28.98	19.29	.004
Reconsider decision to leave
Higher salary	28.08	18.94	.010
Better work life balance	27.18	18.60	.017
Better career opportunities	26.40	17.05	.007
More opportunities to change role	25.47	16.00	.007
A different organisational culture	25.32	17.27	.021

A series of Mann Whitney tests were carried out to explore differences in views between male and female participants. All results which were statistically significant have been presented in Table 4.

Table 4 shows that female participants were more likely to state that they left due to issues with basic pay, working hours, and the impact of the job on their personal life. Female participants were also more likely to decide to leave due to a change in their personal circumstances when compared to male participants. A series of Mann Whitney tests were carried out to explore differences in views between participants who were carers (of children, adults or both) compared to participants who were not carers. All results which were statistically significant have been presented in Table 5.

Table 5 shows that carers were significantly more likely to state that they left the police due to the impact of the job on their personal life, their psychological health and because of discriminatory behaviour from managers (when compared to the views of participants who were not carers). Carers were significantly more likely to reconsider leaving if there was a ‘different senior leadership team’ compared to participants with no caring responsibilities. A series of Mann Whitney tests were carried out to explore differences in views between participants who had a degree (or higher qualification) compared to participants who did not have a degree. All results which were statistically significant at the p<.05 level have been presented in Table 6.

Table 6 clearly shows that police leavers with a degree or higher qualification were more likely to want to leave for differing reasons than participants who did not have a degree. Participants with a degree were more likely to explain their decisions to leave due to issues around pay and opportunity.

Discussion

Organisational commitment is characterised by a strong belief in and acceptance of an organisation’s goals, a willingness to exert oneself on behalf of the organisation and not just an intention to remain within an organisation, but a desire to do so (Porter and Smith 1970; in Mowday et al. 1982). The challenge for policing organisations is that unlike most other organisations, research appears to indicate that organisational commitment decreases amongst employees as length of service increases (Beck and Wilson 1997, 2000). A distinction must be made however between different types of organisational commitment within the police. Whereas a reduction in organisational commitment may be strongly related to a vertical commitment towards the organisation’s values and leadership, there appears to be a very strong sense of horizontal commitment or attachment to immediate colleagues which is strengthened over time and is a key determinant of job satisfaction (Charman 2017). The research on those leaving the policing organisation examined in this paper appears to indicate that this horizontal commitment to immediate colleagues was a source of job satisfaction, was the least influential factor in deciding to leave the organisation and was the aspect of the job that they missed the most on leaving.

However, organisational commitment necessitates an attachment to the whole organisation which in turn, provokes an intention to remain working within the organisation (Meyer 1997). This is likely to be enhanced by strong leadership, social exchange factors and the perceived attractiveness of the organisation (He and Brown 2013). The data from this survey of police leavers would appear to suggest a perception of an absence of at least two of these three contributory factors which would have led to a sufficient level of organisational commitment to remain within the organisation. It is important now to discuss each of these three contributory factors in turn and in more detail in relation to the specific findings of this research.

Poor leadership and management was cited as the most regular theme in answer to why officers left the police service. This was directed at all levels of supervision and importantly support, whether immediate line management, middle management or senior management within the organisation. This finding is very much in line with previous research on police leavers (Holdaway and Bannon 1997, Brough and Frame 2004b, Cooper and Ingrams 2004, Parsons et al. 2011, Howes and Goodman-Delahunty 2015) and highlights a persistent problem with the policing organisation that has yet to be resolved (Davis and Silvestri 2020). However, perceptions of management are not aided by the inescapably powerful occupational cultures within policing which are characterised, amongst other things, by cynicism and categorisation (Charman 2017). Both categorisation between the ‘us’ and the ‘them’ and cynicism are mechanisms which are utilised to minimise any differences within their own in-groups and exaggerate the differences from the out-groups. The out-groups can be the public, the media, or frequently, police managers. By doing this, the occupational identity of the group can thus be reinforced. Cultural influences aside however, perceptions of poor leadership and management within the police still remain as the most often mentioned reason amongst officers choosing to resign voluntarily from the police service.

Organisational commitment can be enhanced through social exchange factors which are triggered through a perception of feeling supported and valued. It is in this area of organisational commitment where the results of this research appear to demonstrate a deficit. Police officers who had left the organisation felt an overriding sense of organisational ‘injustice’, to such an extent that that the delicate balance between employer and employee had been breached. It was also this sense of ‘injustice’ which proved to be the ‘final straw’ for those leaving the police service, with almost half of respondents referring to features relating to injustice such as a lack of autonomy and a lack of ‘voice’ being the ‘decisive moment’ which led to their resignation.

Within policing, as in all organisations, there is a complex set of norms, roles and relationships which contribute to a sense of legitimacy and order. This working relationship between police leaders and police officers (taking much from social contract theory) operates on the basis of trust, compromise and consensus, even in a hierarchical organisation such as the police service. This institutional pattern of interaction is essential to the stability of the organisation and works to enhance the organisational identification which precedes commitment. When key elements of this reciprocal, exchange-based relationship are perceived to have been abandoned, for example, access to progression and the ability to maintain a reasonable work/life balance, then a police officer may no longer feel the required commitment to remain within the organisation.

The evidence collected for this research indicates that there were perceptions of a lack of access to promotion and progression opportunities and an unsustainable workload which precluded the ability to maintain a reasonable work/life balance. This was stated to have impacted negatively on both their physical and mental health and on their ability to fulfil their caring responsibilities. Officers cited stress and the impact of the job on their psychological health as particularly pertinent factors relating to their decision to leave the police service. This complements existing research, notably from the Police Federation (Elliot-Davies 2018), of high levels of stress amongst police officers. Evidence from our research data would also appear to confirm existing research that the stress is more likely to be organisational stress rather than occupational stress (Biggam et al. 1997, Brough 2004a). These negative factors within officers’ working lives were exacerbated by a lack of autonomy in order to alter these conditions and a lack of voice in which to have these concerns heard.

Female respondents were significantly more likely to refer to their working hours and changes to their personal circumstances as fundamental to their decision to leave the police service with female respondents and those with caring responsibilities significantly more likely to refer to the impact of their job on their personal lives. Previous policing research, as referred to earlier, has stressed the importance of opportunities for progression and promotion as crucial for maintaining organisational satisfaction (Brunetto and Wharton 2003, Bradford et al. 2012). Our research data showed significant findings in relation to the reasons for leaving for degree level qualified police officers. Participants who held an undergraduate degree or higher were significantly more likely to explain their decision to leave as being connected to promotion and progression opportunities. The evidence from our research data which stresses the importance of opportunities for autonomy and ‘voice’ also confirms previous work in this area (Dick 2011, Jabeen et al. 2020). Wider organisational research has also shown a clear link between ‘exit’, ‘loyalty’ and ‘voice’ which appears to be confirmed here (Hirschman 1970). This would all therefore suggest an imbalance of the crucial social exchange factors leading to a decrease in organisational commitment which is so necessary to cement a bond between employer and employee.

He and Brown (2013) suggest that the perceived attractiveness of the organisation has the potential to enhance organisational commitment. It is here where our research data suggests a more positive picture. As already referred to, police officers demonstrated a strong sense of commitment to immediate colleagues and an enjoyment of the job itself, both aspects which they missed after resigning. There is evidence therefore of an affective commitment towards the organisation which is driven by an emotional attachment to both people and role. Indeed, these work factors which derive the highest levels of satisfaction are broadly similar to the reasons expressed for wanting to join the police service in the first place such as working with the public, working in a team and the work variety (Charman 2017). This is very much in line with previous policing research which indicates that it is actually internal organisational issues that are far more relevant to intention to leave decisions than external factors (James and Hendry 1991, Holdaway and Bannon 1997, Dick 2011). When considering the data on levels of job satisfaction at the moment of leaving the police service, all of the elements referring to the job itself and other associated financial benefits were at the higher end of satisfaction (mean of 3.11 or above where 1 was very dissatisfied and 5 was very satisfied) revealing reasonable levels of satisfaction about the nature of the role officers are performing and the rewards given, even at the point of resigning from the organisation. This finding is very much in line with Allisey et al.’s (2014) conclusions that it is organisational stressors which appear to be more relevant to the decision-making process than occupational stressors. There is also an indication that despite changes to police pensions, the financial recompense of belonging to the police service remains a valued feature of the job and clearly contributes to a form of continuance organisational commitment.

The results of this research are limited by sample size, collecting data remotely, and by the use of only one police force. The recruitment strategy also had its challenges, which has also been acknowledged earlier. However, despite these limitations, this is an important addition to a sparse set of research data. Whilst there are of course issues with collecting survey data anonymously, the qualitative data we collected showed that participants felt comfortable enough to give detailed and frank accounts of their reasons for leaving.

Conclusion

The three different forms of organisational commitment outlined earlier in this paper provide a useful framework for understanding the intricacies of our research data. Allen and Meyer have noted that ‘Employees with strong affective commitment remain because they want to, those with strong continuance commitment because they need to, and those with strong normative commitment because they feel they ought to do so’ (1990, p. 3, emphasis in original). It is likely therefore that police officers with normative organisational commitment will remain within the organisation for the duration of that organisational identification. A perceived breakdown in the delicate reciprocal working relationship discussed above might be enough to fracture that social contract. Those officers with continuance organisational commitment will remain within the organisation until presented with a more favourable alternative. While the financial rewards are deemed satisfactory and while reasonable alternatives remain restricted, this may provide the impetus for remaining within the organisation. In neither of these cases however, can the organisation have any significant impact upon the decision-making process. It is therefore those employees with diminishing affective commitment who are most of interest when trying to analyse and mitigate the factors relating to an individual's decision to leave the police service. Once a police officer decides that they no longer have the necessary affective commitment to the organisation, their path to turnover may begin. This affective commitment, as has been seen in this paper, has the potential to be irreparably damaged.

With policing in England and Wales undergoing one of the biggest recruitment drives in modern history and the focus for the Home Office firmly back in favour of retention, an understanding of what contributes to a decline in organisational commitment and ultimately to avoidable turnover within policing is crucial. This research has endeavoured to understand this relationship and its findings have important implications for the police service in England and Wales. Additionally, it is also important to better equip the organisation to allow re-entry after resignation, to promote and encourage career break opportunities and to challenge the cultural antagonism towards both. Almost half of our respondents said that they might or would reconsider their resignation if there were improvements in welfare, better career opportunities and an improved work/life balance yet there were no organisational systems in place with which to initiate that. With policing in England and Wales still struggling to recruit and retain sufficient female police officers to be representative of the population and evidence from this research indicating the inherent difficulties for both male and female police officers in combining caring responsibilities with a policing career, it is unclear how much genuine progress can be made in diversifying the population of police officers who remain with the organisation long enough to rise through the ranks. Ongoing research on the homogeneous and gendered career patterns of senior leaders in policing in England and Wales point to this very predicament (Alexander and Charman, forthcoming) which then impacts clearly upon the current quality of police leadership and management. The frustrated career promotion and progression opportunities which were highlighted by respondents in this research, most notably by graduates, also have important implications. In light of the new professional framework for police officers and staff in England and Wales (Police Education Qualifications Framework) which will include a substantial increase in the number of police officers who will hold degree level qualifications in the future, these results need to be taken very seriously and further research in the area conducted.

The results of this research are limited by sample size, collecting data remotely, and by the use of only one police force. The recruitment strategy also had its challenges, which has also been acknowledged earlier. However, despite these limitations, this is an important addition to a sparse set of research data. Whilst there are of course issues with collecting survey data anonymously, the qualitative data we collected showed that participants felt comfortable enough to give detailed and frank accounts of their reasons for leaving. What our findings appear to indicate is that police officers who resign voluntarily from the police service value highly the occupation they have joined. They appreciate the nature of the work they are involved with, the opportunities that that work holds for fulfilling ambitions for public service and the satisfaction of working with policing colleagues as part of a team. The findings also indicate however that they are ultimately frustrated by the perceived inability of the organisation to manage the demands upon them and by a sense of organisational ‘injustice’ emanating from perceptions of a lack of ‘voice’, a lack of leadership, a lack of autonomy and a lack of support. Consequently, these factors have a negative personal impact upon their own individual physical and mental health and an impact upon their caring responsibilities and personal relationships outside of their working environment. While there are also relevant external factors, particularly in relation to ‘excessive’ workloads, which do clearly impact on levels of dissatisfaction, the focus for change would appear to be in a consideration of how the social exchange factors, which are so crucial to an enhanced sense of affective organisational commitment can be rebalanced equitably to take account of both the individual needs of staff in addition to organisational demand.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).