Police Officer Job Satisfaction and Officer-Sergeant Educational Levels: a Relational Demography Perspective

One immediate component of officers\u27 work environment that has the potential to have a significant influence on officers\u27 job satisfaction is front-line supervision. Frontline supervisors have been found to impact officers\u27 attitudes in general (Engel, 2000). Additionally, Van Maanen (1983) found that supervisors may impact officers by rewards or punishment. Although it has been researched that supervisors impact officers\u27 attitudes or behavior (Terrill, 2001; Davis & Mateu-Gelabert, 1999), Walker (2007) concluded that there is still little research on the impact of supervisors on officer job satisfaction. As aforementioned in this thesis, police officers\u27 job satisfaction has largely been studied in terms of basic demographics, such as educational differences Although basic demographic characteristics are very important part of officers\u27 job satisfaction, it neglects the broader environment where officers\u27 work, especially with respect to front-line supervision. Thus, this thesis focuses on including supervision into the study of officer education and job satisfaction