Bad Morale: The Facts Now Known

Thanks to my friend at HCSO Blog that found and share this information.

A ton of interesting reading can be found at the National Institute of Ethics. One is a study on bad morale in law enforcement. I thought you might find the causes interesting.

National Institute of Ethics Anger & Frustration Research

The two-year study conducted by the National Institute of Ethics used a confidential survey to ascertain
the views of 2,552 law enforcement personnel from over 500 agencies in 23 states. The findings reveal
both overall views on what makes personnel angry/frustrated, and stratifies specific findings by gender,
supervisor versus non supervisor, and field training officers. The research goal was to identify what
circumstances cause officers throughout the nation to feel angry and frustrated about their job.
Understanding what prompts these feelings will be valuable for counteracting the reasons officers use to
rationalize their own misconduct.

The survey contained 52 factors to be rated from “0” place a number (0–5) that best describes to what
extent you feel you have been treated unfairly about that specific issue. The numbers were defined as
follows: 0-I don’t feel any anger or frustration; 1-Slightly angry or frustrated; 2-Somewhat angry or
frustrated; 3-Moderately angry or frustrated; 4-Substantially angry or frustrated; 5-Extremely angry or
frustrated.

Overall Findings (25 Greatest Causes of Anger)
Determining the causes of poor morale creates the opportunity to develop solutions. The findings reveal
the majority of the ten greatest sources of anger and frustration among officers have a crucial common
denominator, their administrators.

The overall greatest source of bad morale is the perception of
favoritism committed by administrators.

Overall Averages (2,552 surveys) 0-5 Scale

1. Administration plays favoritism 2.79
2. Staffing levels are low 2.70
3. Motivation and morale is bad 2.63
4. Communication is very poor 2.57
5. Administration is “out of touch” 2.54
6. Administration does not support us 2.49
7. Discipline is unfair and inconsistent 2.46
8. Fellow employees have bad attitudes 2.44
9. Accountability is unfair or inconsistent 2.29
10. Supervisors play politics 2.29
11. Employees aren’t listened to 2.29
12. Criminal Justice system is frustrating 2.26
13. Bias influences leaders decisions 2.20
14. Training (internal) is poor 2.16
15. Respect isn't demonstrated 2.07
16. Teamwork 3
17. Planning is non-existent 1.70
18. Safety is a low priority 1.63
19. Salary is not high enough 1.95
20. Criticism – there’s too much of it 1.93
21. Don't go to enough training seminars 1.86
22. Cooperation among workers is poor 1.85
23. Goals and objectives are never used 1.82
24. Supplies are inadequate 1.76
25. Sincerity - a lack of it is prevalent 1.76


Supervisor and Non-Supervisor Comparison
Comparison by Rank: Non-Supervisors, Supervisors and Field Training Officers
Of three major groups, field Training officers are the most angry.

Field Training Officers (732 surveys) 1.69 (0-5 Scale)
Non-supervisors (1,595 surveys) 1.62 (0-5 Scale)
Supervisors (698 surveys) 1.41 (0-5 Scale)

Non-Supervisors Supervisors FTOs
Administration does not support us 2.67 2.03 2.67
Staffing levels are low 2.76 2.53 3.02
Discipline is unfair and inconsistent 2.55 2.20 2.58
Fellow employees have bad attitudes 2.46 2.38 2.50
Administration plays favoritism 3.00 2.24 3.02
Administration is “out of touch” 2.67 2.16 2.77
Communication is very poor 2.64 2.33 2.75
Motivation n and morale is bad 2.47 2.32 2.83

To read the entire study that Neal Trautman, Ph.D. did click on the title of this post.