Police organizational culture and commitment: The relationship between the individual's perception of organizational culture and continuance, instrumental, and normative commitment in police personnel

This cross-sectional multivariate correlational survey study explores the issues associated with organizational culture and commitment in police agencies. It identifies, from the perspective of the individuals, the perception of organizational culture and organizational commitment, empirically illustrates their existence and relationships, and considers implications for the practice of police administration.A total of 488 respondents from six small- to mid-size municipal police departments in the same state and geographic location of the Rocky Mountain region voluntarily participated in this study. Three dimensions of organizational commitment--Continuance, Instrumental, and Normative--were measured. Factor analysis of scores measuring the individual's perception of the organization's value characteristics defines five components of organizational culture: Progressive, Coordinative, Outcome-oriented, Details-oriented, and Certainty-oriented.The results from multiple regression analyses demonstrate that a sizable part of the instrumental and normative dimensions of organizational commitment can be explained by the individual's perception of organizational culture, while much less of the continuance commitment can be so explained. The individual's perception of the agency as having a strong "Liberal" values (estimated by the sheaf coefficient of the Progressive and Coordinative components of organizational culture) is related to lower levels of continuance and instrumental commitment and higher levels of normative commitment. Similarly, the perceived high Certainty-oriented values are associated with lower levels of Instrumental commitment and a high level of Normative commitment. The individual's job level, however, appears to moderate these relationships.The findings of this study have two clear implications for police administration: first, a direction for an organization's diagnosis, change, and development efforts and second, the need for an understanding of the individuals within the workforce. Since there has been relatively little research done on either police organizational culture or the individual's organizational commitment in relation to the administration of a police organization per se, this study provides needed practical and theoretical understandings of these issues.