The local police department in Somewhere, USA faces high officer turnover due to various issues identified in exit interviews, including lack of support, recognition, clear communication, and advancement opportunities. The overall job satisfaction, which influences job performance, indicates a need for a supportive work environment and acknowledgment of employee needs. To address the turnover problem, it is recommended to implement improvements in communication, recognition, and employee support, emphasizing the importance of a positive organizational culture.

1. Each answer 250 words minimum
Question 1:
What assumptions and implications can be drawn from the
information gathered from the exit interviews?
Question 2:
Recommend a solution to the turnover problem based on
evidence and information presented on job satisfaction.
Motivation and Job Performance in Public Safety
Problem:
The local police department in Somewhere USA has been losing
officers at an alarming rate. This medium sized city offers a
competitive salary and funds recruits to train at the local
community college. The total cost of recruiting and training a
new hire was estimated to be $12,000. The leadership was
alarmed and conducted exit interviews to determine the reasons
for such high turnover. The major issues cited were lack of
support for personal issues, no recognition for good
performance, no punishment for those violating rules, poor
communication, favoritism, lack of opportunity for
advancement, and inflexible scheduling. The leadership
desperately wanted to turn this around.
Motivation and Job Satisfaction related to Job Performance
Job performance has been portrayed as a combination of ability
and motivation. Because motivation is a personal force, the
level of motivation of others cannot be readily measured.
Scholars recognize that employees’ attitudes and perceptions
toward their jobs strongly affect their job performance.
However, motivation may be difficult to measure and may not
be directly linked to an increase in performance. One fact
research has uncovered is that the organizational environment in

2. which people work has a significant influence on their attitudes.
Without a positive, supporting environment dissatisfaction will
occur. Performance has been linked to motivation, ability, and
working conditions. Satisfaction has been positively related to
job performance. The Hawthorne studies at Western Electric
was a major contribution to the field because it discovered
evidence that productive worker are satisfied worker, not that
happy workers were productive workers. Thus, organizational
attitudes and cultures were seen as a more important aspect than
individual workers.
Many motivational and job satisfaction theories have emerged
in organizational research. Work motivation has internal and
external forces that affect behaviors at work to determine
intensity and duration. It deals merely with events associated
with attitudes while at work. There are numerous definitions for
job satisfaction including an individual’s positive or negative
attitude toward their job, positive feelings about one’s job based
on their evaluation of the job characteristics, or the collection
of feelings and beliefs that individuals have about their jobs.
Job satisfaction is defined from the employee’s standpoint as a
positive emotional state that results from appraising one’s job.
There are different approaches to study motivation. Because
motivation is a phenomenon that cannot be directly measured,
researchers must measure attitudes that motivate. These can
either be quantitative or qualitative in nature depending on
whether a scale or nominal variable is used. Motivation can also
be measured as an individual’s need for achievement. This
would need to measure relationships between variables over
time in a longitudinal study to predict what is successful.
Theories of motivation can be put into two basic categories;
content theories and process theories. Content theories involve
satisfying individual needs, while process theories are
concerned with the means and process by which individuals are
motivated to act.
Content Theories of Motivation
One of the first studies that was a building block for content

3. theories was Maslow’s theory of hierarchy of needs. Maslow
identified five categories of individual needs, physiological,
security, social needs, self-esteem, and self-actualization. He
felt each level needed to be satisfied before one could move to
the next level. The Hertzberg hygiene theory is a seminal work
building a model explaining factors that motivate individuals.
According to this theory there are both motivating factors and
restraining factors. Hygiene issues are restraining factors. Even
when completely met, hygiene factors do not create job
satisfaction, but rather limit dissatisfaction. Monetary
compensation falls within the category of hygiene factors, along
with such variables as working conditions, and relationships
with supervisors. Motivating factors are a higher order such as
achievement, recognition, rewarding work, responsibility, and
promotion. Herzberg concluded that these lead to job
satisfaction because they fulfilled the employees’ need for
meaningful, personal growth. The theory advanced that the
hygiene issues must be addressed, but in no particular order.
The motivators that promote job satisfaction can be addressed at
the same time. Unlike Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, one does
not necessarily need to achieve one task before moving to the
next.
Process Theories of Motivation
Process theories are based in psychology and assume that a
stimulus will produce a response. Of the most influential have
been the equity theory and expectancy theory. The equity theory
of motivation advances that individuals feel that the outcome of
exchanges must be equitable and fair. Each worker thus feels
they deserve adequate compensation and fair working
conditions.
The expectancy theory of motivation by Valence created a
model having three distinct parts; expectancy, instrumentality
and valence. The link between perception and achievement is
the expectancy. The link between performance and reward is
instrumentality. The third, valence refers to the extent the
reward is desired. The nature of the reward contributes to the

4. employee’s perceptions. An intrinsic reward such as
compensation is related to how a job is designed.
Nadler and Lawler began to view motivation from an
organizational perspective. They felt the traditional theories of
motivation were too narrow and their approaches to what
motivates individuals assumes that all individuals had the same
attitudes, and all situations are were similar, and there was
structured ways to motivate workers, it was later extended to
include leadership actions to ensure extrinsic rewards were
equitably distributed.
The goal setting theory developed in 1979 by Edward Locke and
Gary Latham centered on an individuals’ need to set achievable
goals for themselves. Goals are put in two categories; a
directional goal and an accuracy goal. Directional goals point to
achievement of specific outcomes, while accuracy goals are
concerned with making predictions based on expectations and
reaching a desired achievement.
Clyton Alderfer’s ERG theory was a modification of the goal
setting theory where three sets of needs were identified;
existence, relatedness, and growth. However in the ERG theory,
no hierarchy is necessary. Thus two sets of needs can be in play
at the same time. There are several more content theories of
motivation and all have the same theme to apply to work
situations. They suggest that workers should be encouraged to
strive to better themselves through work relationships. These
theories value intrinsic motivators, such as meaningful
employment and responsibilities as more effective than extrinsic
motivators such as salary and benefits.
Throughout many period of evolution, motivational theories
have taken a multi dimensional approach to include organization
theory. Scientific management has given way to the human
resource movement. The Hawthrone studies in 1927 investigated
relationships between workers, the work environment, and
productivity. The study found the importance of group
interactions. Also during this time, Mary Parker Follett
discovered a link between motivation and group problem

5. solving. Herbert Simon furthered the idea that decisions were
made in human organizations by choosing the best alternative
that satisfied the problem from their viewpoint known as
“bounded rationality” (Greene, 2005).
Measuring Job Satisfaction
The University of Minnesota instrument known as the
Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire or MSQ stemmed from
research that concluded that job satisfaction stems for twenty
separate factors. Also, a well-tested instrument known as the
Job Descriptive Index developed at Cornell University assessed
job related satisfactions. According to a recent study, there are
four basic variables that determine levels of job satisfaction.
They are personality, values, the work situation, and social
influence. Individuals who exhibit a highly extroverted
personality exert typically a higher level of positive emotions
and are found to have a higher level of job satisfaction. This
would indicate that in a survey design the variable of
introverted and extroverted personality traits should be
stratified. Additionally, intrinsic versus extrinsic values of
individuals may make a significant difference. For example,
some workers view their jobs as a means to attain their life’s
goals and expectations. When this does not occur, those workers
are likely to be dissatisfied. In establishing survey questions,
determining participants’ orientation toward intrinsic or
extrinsic values is of importance. The work situation is another
factor that determines job satisfaction. This includes the type of
work, interactions with coworkers and administration, and
management policies. The last variable, social influence,
involves how an individual’s behavior is affected by others.
There are patterns that have emerged that indicate certain types
of jobs tend to have more satisfied workers than others. For
example, administrative and professional workers show a higher
level of satisfaction than blue collar workers. Also, older
employees show more satisfaction with their jobs than do
younger employees. There are dimensions of generational
cohorts that have a particular level of satisfaction. For example

6. individuals in their thirties tend to be more satisfied with their
jobs as they level off, but it levels off as they reach their
forties. It rises again as individuals reach their fifties and
sixties as they approach retirement.
Public Safety Profession
Knowledge has evolved in job satisfaction research over the
years that help to generalize the theories to different
occupations. Since the public sector, especially the public
safety sector has significantly different aspects, there are
variables that must be considered when attempting to apply
theory to this sector. Internalization as the process where we
become members of the society. While public safety officers are
members of a larger society they also internalize the sub
cultural values of the paramilitary organizations for which they
work. This is important to study as the “blue bond” and the
brotherhood that is so influential in this sector. Motivators are
likely to be more focused on preserving the group values.
However, there has been a drop in interest in public safety
careers in the past decade. Has there been a paradigm shift
because of generational attitudes? According to Kuhn (1996) “a
paradigm is what the members of a scientific community share
and conversely, a scientific community consists of men who
share a paradigm”. If the new recruits of a new generation share
a different paradigm, how does this affect the entire profession?
What motivates an individual to enter and remain in the career?
There is a crisis in recruiting and retaining officers because of
low job satisfaction. The Florida Department of Law
Enforcement conducted a Criminal Justice Attrition Study,
which found that of the 1,963 officers hired by local law
enforcement agencies in 1990, 1,115 had left by 1999. This
loss amounted to 56.80% over the period reviewed and
ultimately cost the local governments thousands of dollars. New
officers, recently graduated from college and new to the work
force are often faced with ‘culture shock’ as they enter a
profession such as law enforcement. Often they expect easier
work, are opposed to the paramilitary form of leadership, and

7. are not as career minded as their predecessors. Still another
problem affecting the retention of police officers is local
governments’ failure to recognize the importance of the role
they play. It is one thing for government to say that they
appreciate their officers, but quite another to support that
position with adequate pay and benefits for the job performed.
Participants in an FBI Academy symposium ranked the top five
things most important to new employees. They were salary,
benefits, job security, career development opportunities and job
satisfaction. At the symposium members also listed important
factors in a healthy work environment, that if fulfilled would
most likely lead to better retention of law enforcement officers.
The factors listed were: adequate staffing levels, fairness, two-
way communication up and down the chain of command,
supportive supervisors and managers, consistent work
environment, adequate budget to provide resources, continual
training, educational incentives and career development
programs.
According to a Meyers, Norris, & Penny research study, there
are ten top reasons why employees become dissatisfied and
leave an organization. The list includes:
· Unmet expectations
· Inappropriate fit for the role
· Lack of fit with company culture
· Lack of sufficient opportunities for growth and development
· Inadequate recognition and appreciation
· Problems with a manager or supervisor
· Dissatisfaction with compensation
· Stress
· Lack of work/life balance
· Lack of confidence in the company and/or leadership
Evidence indicates that an important moderator of the
satisfaction-turnover relationship is the employee’s level of
performance. This causes a catch-22 situation. Low performers
will receive fewer opportunities for promotions and rewards,

8. thus increasing their dissatisfaction.
Question 1:
What assumptions and implications can be drawn from the
information gathered from the exit interviews?
Question 2:
Recommend a solution to the turnover problem based on
evidence and information presented on job satisfaction.