Affective organizational commitment, work engagement and service performance among police officers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between police officers’ affective organizational commitment, work engagement, and (perceived) service performance. Design/methodology/approach – Participants included 114 police officers who completed a questionnaire that measured their affective commitment, social job resources, supervisor support, work engagement, and extra-role performance (i.e. offering service to colleagues). A dyadic design was used that related police officer commitment to the perceived service performance as rated by 165 crime victims (cross-over effect). Findings – Results of structural equation modeling revealed that commitment was positively related to seeking colleague support to increase social job resources. Furthermore, the results indicated that supervisor support mediated the positive relationship between commitment and work engagement/extra-role performance. In contrast, commitment was negatively related to the perceived service performance of police officers as rated by crime victims. Research limitations/implications – The results indicate that while affective commitment supports police officers’ work engagement and promotes the seeking and offering of colleague assistance, it also tempers external service performance ratings. Originality/value – This paper enhances the understanding of how the affective commitment of police officers can be related differently to internal and external outcomes. The results are discussed in relation to police culture and performance theory.