Factors Affecting the Quality of Work-Life in Police Officers: A Qualitative Content Analysis

Stressful experiences related to the workplace and organizational missions cause stress, psychological burden, and physical injuries in police officers. The continuation of these experiences will affect the quality of work-life of police officers. This study aimed to explain the concept of quality of police work-life and factors behind it based on the lived experiences of police officers.

This qualitative study was conducted in 2018–2019 the police organization using the conventional content analysis approach. Participants were police officers who were selected through purposeful sampling with maximum variation. Data were collected from 13 police officers through in-depth semi-structured face-to-face interviews. Interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed through the conventional content analysis method proposed by Graneheim and Lundman. MAXQDA software was used for analysis and organization.

The factors behind police officers’ quality of work-life were categorized into three main themes namely, "effective management and leadership", "working in bottleneck", and "accepting the working conditions". Each theme consisted of two to six subthemes.

Quality of work-life of police is a contextual, multidimensional concept affected by the type of management and leadership, existence of refreshment and supportive facilities, and the degrees the staff accept their working conditions. Authorities are responsible to improve the police staff’s quality of work-life so that they enjoy their organization and work. Improving the organizational atmosphere by creating pleasant working conditions can help improve the police staff’s quality of work-life despite their difficult working conditions.