Motivation in the Swedish Police Department : A qualitative study that investigates how the applied leadership tools correspond to Police Officers’ motivation factors.

For an organization to become successful, creating an attractive environment with an atmosphere that both encourages, as well as motivates its employees, is vital. Furthermore, when wanting the employees to reach their optimal performance, good leadership is crucial. A leader’s visions and goals should be communicated to the employees to obtain maximized results within the organization. The research focuses on the motivation within the Swedish Police Department and its existing leadership. This paper aims to analyse and investigate the main motivational tools that are used by the Police Chiefs within the Swedish Police Department for motivating their subordinates. There will also be an investigation of whether the tools used correspond to the officers’ underlying motivation factors.In this paper, three different divisions of the Swedish Police Department were investigated: Field Operations, Criminal Investigations, and Crime Preventions. The reason for using different departments in this study was primarily to better reflect the Swedish Police Department. To answer the research question, a qualitative research method was used along with a data-collection consisting of interviews with a total of twelve respondents. The results showed that the used leadership tools do not fully correspond to police officers' motivation factors