Inner strategies of coping with operational work amongst SAPS officers

Page 1 of 10 Original Research Inner strategies of coping with operational work amongst SAPS officers Authors: Masefako A. Gumani1,2 Mattheus E. Fourie1 Martin J. Terre Blanche1 Affiliations: 1 Department of Psychology, University of Venda, South Africa Department of Psychology, University of South Africa, South Africa 2 Correspondence to: Masefako Gumani Email: Postal address: PO Box 392, Pretoria 0003, South Africa Dates: Received: 10 May 2013 Accepted: 20 Aug. 2013 Published: 06 Nov. 2013 How to cite this article: Gumani, M.A., Fourie, M.E., & Terre Blanch, M.J. (2013). Inner strategies of coping with operational work amongst SAPS officers. SA Journal of Industrial Psychology/SA Tydskrif vir Bedryfsielkunde, 39(2), Art. #1151, 10 pages. http:// dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip. v39i2.1151 Copyright: © 2013. The Authors. Licensee: AOSIS OpenJournals. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License. Read online: Scan this QR code with your smart phone or mobile device to read online. Orientation: Identification of the inner coping strategies used by South African Police Service (SAPS) officers who do operational work is something the SAPS should consider to ensure the officers’ management of trauma and efficiency at work. Research purpose: The objective of this study was to describe inner coping strategies used by officers in the Vhembe district (South Africa) to reconstruct stressful and traumatic experiences at work. Motivation for the study: Most studies on coping amongst SAPS officers focus on organisational stress and not on the impact of the officers’ operational work. Research design, approach and method: An exploratory design was used and 20 SAPS officers were selected through purposive sampling. In-depth face-to-face and telephone interviews, as well as diaries were used to collect data, which were analysed using content thematic data analysis. Main findings: The results showed that the main categories of coping strategies that led to management of the impact of operational work amongst the selected sample were centred around problem-focused and emotion-focused strategies, with some use of reappraisal and minimal use of avoidance. Considering the context of the officers’ work, the list of dimensions of inner coping strategies amongst SAPS officers should be extended. Practical/managerial implications: Intervention programmes designed for the SAPS, including critical incident stress debriefing, should take the operational officers’ inner strategies into account to improve the management of the impact of their work. Contribution/value-add: This study contributes to the body of knowledge on the inner coping strategies amongst SAPS officers, with special reference to operational work in a specific setting. Introduction Problem statement The work environment for South African Police Service (SAPS) officers is generally considered violent (Pienaar, Rothmann & Van de Vijver, 2007). Consequently, much research on these officers has been focused on ill-health concepts such as stress, burnout and trauma (Minnaar & Mistry, 2006; Pienaar & Rothmann, 2003), rather than on how they reconstruct those negative experiences at work. Positive psychology, amongst others, looks at how quality of work life can be determined by positive work experiences (Rani & Kumar, 2012), but only a few researchers have investigated how SAPS officers are able to continue doing their work (Louw & Viviers, 2010; Rothmann, Jorgensen & Hill, 2011; Storm & Rothmann, 2003). Despite positive psychology’s emphasis on what makes workers thrive at work, current focus is still on how the officers’ work disadvantages them rather than on how it develops them. The main concepts that contribute towards this field’s positive tone, such as workers’ positive mood, work-related flow, work engagement and job satisfaction (Bakker & Daniels, 2012), are rarely looked at in the SAPS. These findings show that the SAPS officers’ commitment to work, specifically considering the operational effects of their work, is worth researching. Few studies that raised the need to shift focus from negative organisational effects to positive experiences at work include research on how SAPS officers manage to cope with the nature of their work (Madu & Poodhun, 2006; Pienaar & Rothmann, 2003). Thus, much research is still required in this regard. It appears that much of the research on coping amongst SAPS officers focuses on the organisational context rather than on the specific ways that officers cope with the effects of their operational work. http://www.sajip.co.za doi:10.4102/sajip.v39i2.1151 Page 2 of 10 For instance, Pienaar and Rothmann (2003) conducted a study on the coping strategies used by police officers in eight provinces in South Africa. The study focused on stress caused by the officers’ experiences of the organisational context of their workplaces. Madu and Poodhun (2006) concentrated on officers’ coping strategies to deal with organisational factors, such as salaries, the number of working hours and working relationships with superiors, amongst others, that led to high levels of stress amongst the officers. Pienaar et al. (2007) looked at whether or not suicide ideation amongst SAPS officers could be predicted by occupational stress, personality traits and coping strategies. Storm and Rothmann (2003) conducted a study focusing on officers’ organisational stressors that resulted in burnout. Louw and Viviers (2010) investigated how Moos’s hypothesised stress and coping model fitted a general sample of officers within the SAPS. Focus was also on burnout rather than vicarious traumatisation (VT), which is common amongst those who do operational work. Rothmann et al. (2011) studied the relationship between coping strategies and work engagement amongst SAPS officers. Again, focus was not specifically on officers who do operational work. It was, therefore, the current study’s objective to describe the inner coping strategies used by operational work officers within their context in the Vhembe district, Limpopo, to reconstruct their stressful and traumatic experiences when they help primary victims of trauma. Literature review Implications of the use of inner coping strategies Even though workplace programmes have been established to deal with VT amongst the police, literature shows the importance of using personal strategies to both identify and deal with this type of trauma. This is more important when stress management programmes cannot be equally applicable to individual police officers (Minnaar & Mistry, 2006), when police officers are not aware of such workplace programmes (Kgalema, 2002), as well as due to the stigma attached to debriefing (Jonas, 2003). Maladaptation tends to result if the programmes adopted by employers do not work (Kgalema, 2002). Generally, informal coping strategies tend to be opted for by police officers (Wright, Powell & Ridge, 2006). Caution is also given to not replac (...truncated)