The Effects of Perceptions of Organizational Structure on Job Involvement,Job Satisfaction,and Organizational Commitment Among Indian Police Officers

Abstract

Successful police organizations rely on involved, satisfied, and committed workers. The concepts of job involvement (i.e., connection with the job), job satisfaction (i.e., affective feeling toward the job), and organizational commitment (i.e., bond with the employing organization) have been shown to significantly affect intentions and behaviors of employees. The current study used multivariate ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis on survey results from a sample of 827 Indian police officers to explore how perceptions of work environment factors affect officers’ job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Organizational support, formalization (i.e., level of codified written rules and guidelines), promotional opportunities, institutional communication (i.e., salient work information is transmitted), and input into decision-making (i.e., having a voice in the process) significantly influenced the job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment of Indian police officers. Specifically, in the multivariate analysis, perceptions of formalization and instrumental communication had a positive relationship with job involvement; perceptions of organizational support, promotional opportunities, instrumental communication, and input into decision-making had positive associations with job satisfaction; and perceptions of organizational support, formalization, promotional opportunities, instrumental communication, and input into decision-making had positive relationships with organizational commitment.

Keywords

law enforcement Indian police organizational structure job involvement job satisfaction organizational commitment

The most important and expensive resource for most police organizations are their personnel. Officers perform numerous tasks for a police organization to meet its goals and objectives. Not only do police officers have significant effects on the organization, the organization greatly influences its officers through the effects of workplace factors on officers’ job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment (Johnson, 2012, 2015).

Lawler and Hall (1970) defined job involvement as the “psychological identification with one’s work” and “the degree to which the job situation is central to the person and his identity” (pp. 310-311). Job involvement is the psychological identification with a job and the type of work being done (Brown & Leigh, 1996). Simply, it refers to the level of central interest that the job plays in a person’s life and the importance the person places on the job in his or her life (Kanungo, 1982).

Locke (1976) defined job satisfaction as “a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job experiences” (p. 1300). Weiss (2002) defined job satisfaction as the summative positive and negative emotions arising from one’s job. Simply, it is the degree that people like their jobs (Spector, 1996).

While job involvement is the bond to the job, organizational commitment is the bond to the overall organization (Allen & Meyer, 1990). Two of the major types of organizational commitment are continuance and affective (Lambert, Kim, Kelley, & Hogan, 2013). With continuance commitment, the bond is formed because of various investments made by the person in the organization, such as pay, seniority, retirement plan, and lost opportunities (i.e., job opportunities with other organizations). Over time, these investments tie the person to the organization (Allen & Meyer, 1990). Research in other organizations has indicated that employees with high continuance commitment can feel trapped in the job, and, therefore, high continuance commitment can have negative effects on both the employee and the organization (Lambert et al., 2013). Affective commitment is a psychological bond with the organization, including loyalty to and identification with the organization (i.e., pride in the organization, internalization of its goals, and acceptance of its core values; Mowday, Porter, & Steers, 1982). Long-term positive organizational treatment of workers often results in higher affective commitment (Allen & Meyer, 1990). Of the two types of commitment, affective commitment is seen as a more powerful force and more important for an organization to develop. As Lincoln and Kalleberg (1990) noted, “the committed employee’s involvement in the organization takes on moral overtones, and his [/her] stake extends beyond the satisfaction of merely personal interest in employment, income, and intrinsically rewarding work” (p. 22).

Job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment have significant effects on salient intentions and behaviors of officers (Johnson, 2012, 2015); therefore, studying their possible correlates is important. For instance, job involvement has been linked with more productive work performance among officers (DeCarufel & Schaan, 1990). Job satisfaction has been observed to be associated with greater self-esteem, increased task engagement, higher levels of support for community policing, lower levels of cynicism, decreased at-risk alcohol consumption, lower chances of burnout, and reduced turnover intent (Allisey, Noblet, Lamontagne, & Houdmont, 2014; Kohan & O’Connor, 2002; Lee & Moon, 2011; Manzoni & Eisner, 2006; Pelfrey, 2004). Affective commitment has been reported to be negatively associated with cynicism, burnout, turnover intent, engagement in corruption, and ignoring wrongdoing by fellow officers (Haarr, 1997; James & Hendry, 1991; Manzoni & Eisner, 2006). Commitment has been reported to result in greater support for community-oriented policing practices (Ford, Weissbein, & Plamondon, 2003). While there is a growing body of research, there is a need for additional research because there are other workplace factors which have not been studied, particularly among officers in Nonwestern nations.

This preliminary study examined the relationships among perceptions of workplace factors and involvement, satisfaction, and commitment among Indian police officers. Individual’s perceptions of different aspects (i.e., dimensions) of the work environment can be divided into different areas, with job characteristics and organizational structure being two primary ones (Lambert, 2004; Oldham & Hackman, 1981). Job characteristics refer to factors such as supervisory support, job feedback, job variety, task identity, and task significance (Griffin, Hogan, & Lambert, 2012). Organizational structure refers to how an organization is assembled and operates. Major aspects of organizational structure are organizational support, formalization, promotional opportunity, instrumental communication, and input into decision-making (Lincoln & Kalleberg, 1990). While not often studied, there is support in the policing literature that perceptions of organizational structure play a role in shaping officers’ job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Positive perceptions of organizational support, for example, were reported to be positively associated with organizational commitment and job satisfaction (Currie & Dollery, 2006; Ford et al., 2003; Johnson, 2015). Perceived promotional opportunities were found to have a positive effect on job satisfaction and commitment (Bennett, 1997; Brunetto & Farr-Wharton, 2003).

In the current study, the influence of perceptions of organizational support, formalization, promotional opportunity, instrumental communication, and input into decision-making on job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment were explored among police officers in the Haryana state of India. This study contributes to the literature in several ways. First, very little research has examined how perceptions of organizational structural variables are associated with involvement, satisfaction, and commitment among the same group of officers. Perceptions of different types of organizational structural variables could vary in their effects on job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Second, past studies have included only a limited number of perceptions of organizational structure variables. The present study examined how five measures of perceived organizational structure are linked to involvement, satisfaction, and commitment. Some organizational structure variables may play more important roles than others in help to shape job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Third, most of the research to date on how the work environment affects these salient concepts has focused on officers working in Western nations, particularly the United States (Buker & Dolu, 2010). Thus, there is a need to explore how work environment factors may be connected with involvement, satisfaction, and commitment of police officers in Nonwestern nations.

The Republic of India (henceforth, India) is a large and important developing nation. While its landmass is one third the size of the United States, India’s population is almost 4 times as large (i.e., 1.2 billion). India has a vibrant and rapidly growing market-based economy, estimated to be the third largest economy in the world (Ranasinghe, 2014). It is the most populous democracy on Earth (Unnithan, 2009). Even though India is a highly populated nation with a growing and dynamic economy, little has been published in Western journals concerning how perceptions of organizational structure variables affect Indian police officers.

Brief Overview of Indian Police

While the federal government of India maintains several specialized agencies, the main responsibility for policing is assigned to India’s 28 states, each of which has its own police force. Each state police agency is headed by a Director General of Police, who is responsible for the operation and control of the police in the State. The state police are further divided into districts, with a police force under the direction of a Superintendent of Police. Districts are divided into subdistricts, subdistricts are broken down into police circles, and within police circles are police stations. Larger cities operate metropolitan police forces under a Director General. The seven union territories also have their own police forces, which are run by the Union government (Raghavan, 1999; Verma & Gavirneni, 2006). The state governments have a good deal of control through the hiring and training of officers (Verma & Gavirneni, 2006). The Indian Police Services officers are appointed (and removed) by the federal government, and, to that extent, the central government has some control. The majority of Indian police officers are of the rank of Constable, which is the entry level position for most officers and is a line position (Lambert et al., 2015).

Overview of the Haryana Police

The current study was conducted in the northern Indian State of Haryana. The state has an area of 17,070 square miles and a population of 25.4 million. The population density is 573 people per square kilometer (i.e., 1,485 per square mile), which is higher than the national average of 382 people per square kilometer. From 2001 to 2011, the population grew by 19.9%. In the 2011 census, approximately 35% of the population resided in what was classified as an urban area. Haryana is adjacent to the national capital of New Delhi, and is considered a relatively well-developed state (Census2011.co.in, 2015). The Haryana Police is a force of about 57,000 officers and is divided into 21 districts. The district unit is responsible for all policing activities including investigations, patrol, traffic, security of important government officials, and intelligence gathering. The present study was conducted in Sonipat and Rohtak districts, which have a force of about 3,000 total officers between the two. The two districts serve a total population of about 2.5 million. The Sonipat and Rohtak districts are each divided into 21 police stations (Haryana Police, 2014). Of the 3,000 officers in the Sonipat and Rohtak districts, 59% were Constables, 21% were Head Constables, 14% Assistant Sub-Inspectors, 4% Sub-Inspectors, and 1% Inspectors. The number of the Deputy Superintendent of Police and Superintendent of Police were 13 and 2, respectively, but these ranks were excluded from the survey sampling (Lambert et al., 2015).

Focus of Current Study

As previously mentioned, organizational support, formalization, promotional opportunity instrumental communication, and input into decision-making are major aspects of organizational structure. The perceived level of organizational support (also known administrative support) can differ not only across organizations but also within an organization. Employees are more likely to feel that they are respected and valued when organizational support is high. Support can help people be more successful in their jobs. A lack of support, however, can be stressful and make work more difficult (Garland, 2004). Perceived organizational support was, therefore, hypothesized to be positively related to involvement, satisfaction, and commitment among Indian police officers.

According to Taggart and Mays (1987), formalization is “the use of well-defined rules and regulations to govern the behavior of individuals so that actions within the organization become standardized” (p. 186). The level of perceived codification and enforcement of rules can vary among employees (Pandey & Scott, 2002). Formalization can give guidance and structure, helping with task completion by reducing ambiguity, as well as reducing harmful and arbitrary behaviors by supervisors and managers (Lambert & Paoline, 2008). A perceived lack of formalization can be a source of frustration. Higher levels of perceptions of formalization were postulated to result in greater involvement, satisfaction, and commitment.

A person’s perception regarding promotional opportunities does not mean that he or she will be promoted; rather, it means they believe there are potential opportunities for promotion (Lambert & Paoline, 2008). A feeling that there are opportunities to move ahead in the organization is likely to increase the positive views of the job and the organization (Lambert, Hogan, & Barton, 2002). Conversely, officers who perceive themselves to be in a dead-end job may feel strained. This frustration can affect their bond to the job and the organization, as well as the level of pleasure derived from the job; hence, perceptions of promotional opportunity were predicted to be positively related to involvement, satisfaction, and commitment.

Information that employees receive about their tasks, jobs, organizational processes, organizational issues, and concerns in general is called instrumental communication (Price & Mueller, 1986). It provides officers with clarity about what is occurring in the organization, what needs to be accomplished, and it sends a message that the organization cares about its members. Providing salient work-related information allows officers to be more productive and effective, which is likely to result in seeing the job and organization in a more positive light. A lack of information can be hampering, making officers to feel that they are “in the dark” about their jobs and unimportant in the organization (Lincoln & Kalleberg, 1990). This strain and frustration can ultimately weaken job and organizational bonds, as well as satisfaction from work. As such, increases in perceptions of instrumental communication were hypothesized to lead to greater involvement, satisfaction, and commitment.

Input into decision-making deals with the perceived degree of involvement in organizational matters (Price & Mueller, 1986). It means people feel that have a voice in the process (Lincoln & Kalleberg, 1990). Input into decision-making provides a sense of control over important work matters, as well as providing for a sense of belonging, which in turn increases the chances of a more positive view of work experiences. Conversely, lack of input into decision-making can be seen as being part of an impersonal, noncaring, dehumanizing organization, which can result in employees feeling of powerless and frustrated. Increases in perceptions of input into decision-making were postulated to result in higher levels of involvement, satisfaction, and commitment.

Method

Participants

After securing human subjects approval, a survey was administered to 1,000 of the 3,000 police officers in the Sonipat and Rohtak districts of Haryana state of India. There were about 1,500 officers in each district. A systematic random sample procedure was used where every third officer on the employment roster for each district was selected (i.e., 500 officers were selected from each district). The selected officers received a packet consisting of a cover letter, a consent form, a survey, and a blank envelope to return the survey. Prior to the creation of the survey, Indian police officials were asked for their input to make sure the survey questions and concepts were understandable by officers. The packet materials were in Hindi, the national language of India. The process of double translation (i.e., from English to Hindi and then from Hindi back to English) was used to ensure the meaning of the original survey items was retained. There were no observed translation problems (Harkness, Van de Vijver, & Mohler, 2003). The officers received an unmarked survey packet during morning roll call. A total of 829 officers returned surveys in the blank envelopes provided, representing a response rate of 83%. Table 1 reports the descriptive statistics for the officers in our sample.

Table 1.

Univariate Statistics.

Variable	Description	Minimum	Maximum	Median	M	SD
Age	Age in years	21	57	34	36.53	9.46
Gender	88% male (coded 1)	0	1	1	0.88	0.33
	12% female (coded 0)
Married	88% currently married (coded 1)	0	1	1	0.88	0.33
	12% not married (coded 0)
Post Loc	Posting location	0	1	0	0.50	0.50
	50% station (coded 1)
	50% other location (coded 0)
Tenure	Tenure in years in current position	0	30	1.5	2.44	3.05
Ed Level	42% college degree (coded 1)	0	1	0	0.42	0.49
	58% no college degree (coded 0)
Position	69% line officer (coded 1)	0	1	1	0.69	0.46
	31% other position (coded 0)
District	50% Rohtak District (coded 1)	0	1	0.50	0.50	0.50
	50% Sonipat District (coded 0)
Org Sup	2-item additive index	2	10	6	6.45	1.95
Formal	2-item additive index	2	10	8	6.76	1.83
Prom Opp	2-item additive index	2	10	8	6.66	2.12
Inst Com	5-item additive index, α = .90	5	25	17	17.37	5.29
Input DM	3-item additive index, α = .61	3	15	11	10.66	5.29
Job Inv	4-item additive index, α = .63	4	20	15	14.75	2.95
Job Sat	3-item additive index, α = .62	3	15	12	12.17	2.05
Org Com	4-item additive index, α = .68	4	20	16	14.94	3.24

Note. The total number of participants was 827, and ranged from 762 to 824 after removing participants with missing data. Post Loc = post location; Ed Level = educational level; Org Sup = organizational support; Formal = formalization; Prom Opp = promotional opportunity; Inst Com = instrumental communication; Input DM = input into decision-making; Job Inv = job involvement; Job Sat = job satisfaction; Org Com = organizational commitment; and α = Cronbach’s alpha.

Variables

Dependent variables

The three dependent variables examined for this study were job involvement, job satisfaction, and affective commitment. The items for each variable were summed together to form additive index for each. The items used to measure these concepts, along with the factor loading scores are presented in the appendix. Each endogenous variable represents a composite index measure and the coding schemes are listed in the appendix.

An index measuring job involvement was created using four items from Kanungo’s (1982) scale. The four items had an internal reliability Cronbach’s alpha of .63, and while this alpha value is low, the factor loading scores were higher (i.e., .57-.74). The general rule of thumb is to use factor loading scores of at least .40 or higher, and those above .50 are viewed as good (Kim & Mueller, 1978). Furthermore, the factor analysis results suggested that the items had convergent validity and unidimensionality.

Job satisfaction was measured using three items from Brayfield and Rothe (1951). The index for job satisfaction measured the affective feeling a person has for his or her overall job rather than specific facets. The three job satisfaction items loaded on a single factor. The index had a Cronbach’s alpha value of .62, with factor loading scores of .62 to .83.

The organizational commitment index consisted of four items from Mowday et al. (1982), which measured the respondents’ affective/psychological bond to the police agency. The four items had a Cronbach’s alpha value of .68, and all the items loaded on one factor. The factor loading scores were .66 to .74.

Independent variables

The independent variables of interest were perceptions of organizational support, formalization, promotion opportunity, instrumental communication, and input into decision-making. The items used to measure these concepts, along with the factor loading scores, are presented in the appendix. The factor loading scores for the independent variables ranged from .62 to .89.

Organizational support reflects employees’ perceptions regarding the level of support they receive from the organization for performing their job duties. Based on the work of Eisenberger, Huntington, and Hutchison (1986), two items were used to measure organizational support. As there were only two items, the Cronbach’s alpha value was not calculated (Eisinga, Grotenhuis, & Pelzer, 2013). The two items loaded on a single factor.

The perceptions of formalization variable were measured using two items from Oldham and Hackman (1981), and the two items loaded on one factor.

Promotional opportunity is another important work environment characteristic because it reflects an employee’s perception about their ability to move up in the organization. Perceived promotional opportunity was measured using two items adapted from Curry, Wakefield, Price, and Mueller (1986). The two items loaded on one factor.

An index for perceived instrumental communication was created using five items adapted from Curry et al. (1986). The index had a Cronbach’s alpha of .90, and the items loaded on a single factor in a factor analysis.

Input into decision-making was measured using a three-item index adapted from Lambert and Hogan (2009). The three items had a Cronbach’s alpha of .61, with factor loading scores ranging from .62 to .83.

Officer characteristics were included as control variables. Officer gender, marital status, post location, educational level, position, and district are dichotomous measures, whereas age and tenure are metric measures reflecting the actual number of years in one’s current position or of their age. Table 1 provides specific descriptions for how each of these characteristics was coded.

Results

A correlation matrix is reported in Table 2. The reported correlations indicate that all but one of the perceived organizational structure variables were significant and in the expected direction with job involvement. Only perceived promotional opportunities had a nonsignificant correlation. Gender and educational level were the only two personal characteristics to be significantly correlated, with men and those with a college degree reporting lower involvement.

Table 2.

Correlation Matrix.

Variable	1.	2.	3.	4.	5.	6.	7.	8.	9.	10.	11.	12.	13.	14	15.
1. Age	1.00
2. Gender	.20**	1.00
3. Married	.37**	.05	1.00
4. Post Loc	.05	.02	−.02	1.00
5. Tenure	.22**	.01	.13**	.00	1.00
6. Ed Level	−.32**	−.17**	.00	−.20**	−.11**	1.00
7. Position	−.68**	−.11**	−.17**	−.09**	−.14**	.18**	1.00
8. District	−.05	−.06	−.07*	.32**	.06	−.15**	.10**	1.00
9. Org Sup	.06	−.09*	.01	.01	.02	−.04	−.07*	−.02	1.00
10. Formal	.14**	.02	.11**	.00	.05	−.02	−.10**	−.16**	.26**	1.00
11. Prom Opp	−.04	−.07*	.07	.04	−.02	.06	.00	−.13**	.17**	.18**	1.00
12. Inst Com	.11**	−.07*	.05	−.03	.06	−.04	−.12**	−.25**	.46**	.32**	.26**	1.00
13. Input DM	.11**	.04	.10**	−.02	.04	−.04	−.07	−.05	.08*	.16**	.08*	.04	1.00
14. Job Inv	.02	−.12**	−.03	.06	.03	−.08*	−.02	.01	.20**	.22**	.04	.21**	.08*	1.00
15. Job Sat	.11**	−.04	−.03	.01	.02	.00	−.11**	−.02	.23**	.21**	.20**	.17**	.22**	.27**	1.00
16. Org Com	.15**	−.03	.07	.05	−.01	−.06	−.16**	−.18**	.31**	.37**	.34**	.36**	.22**	.31**	.55**

Note. The total number of participants was 827. With pairwise deletion, the number of participants ranged from 723 to 824 for the above correlations. For a description of the variables, how they were measured, and their descriptive statistics, see Table 1. Post Loc = post location; Ed Level = educational level; Org Sup = organizational support; Formal = formalization; Prom Opp = promotional opportunities; Inst Com = instrumental communication; Input DM = input into decision-making; Job Inv = job involvement; Job Sat = job satisfaction; and Org Com = organizational commitment.

p ≤ .05. **p ≤ .01.

As predicted, all five organizational structure variables had a significant correlation with satisfaction with the job. Age and position also had significant correlations, with increases in age being associated with higher satisfaction and line officers reporting lower satisfaction.

As hypothesized, all the perceived organizational structural variables had positive correlations with organizational commitment. In addition, age, position, and district each were significantly correlated with commitment. Age had a positive correlation. Line officers and officers from the Rohtak district tended to report lower levels of affective commitment.

Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression equations were estimated with job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment as the dependent variables. The independent variables for the three OLS regression equations were age, gender, marital status, post location, position, tenure, educational level, district, organizational support, formalization, promotional opportunity, instrumental communication, and input into decision-making. Multicollinearity was not a problem among any of the exogenous variables, as none of the variance inflation factor (VIF) scores exceeded 5, and none of the tolerance values fell below .20 (Tabachnick & Fidell, 1996). The issues of outliers, influential cases, normality, linearity and homoscedasticity of residuals, and independence of errors in the regression analysis were tested (Tabachnick & Fidell, 1996).

The results reported in Table 3 indicate only three of the independent variables were significantly associated with job involvement, and, together, they explained approximately 11% of the variance among our sample of Indian officers. Female officers, in general, reported higher levels of job involvement than their male counterparts. Perceived formalization had a significant positive association, which means that increases in this variable were related to higher levels of reported involvement in the job. Likewise, perceived instrumental communication produced a positive relationship with job involvement. Contrary to our hypotheses, the other organizational structure variables had nonsignificant relationships with the job involvement index.

Table 3.

Ordinary Least Squares Regression Results.

Variable	Job involvement		Job satisfaction		Org commitment
Variable	B	β	B	β	B	β
Age	.01	.03	.02	.10	.01	.04
Gender	−.75	−.09*	−.19	−.03	−.06	−.01
Married	−.53	−.06	−.64	−.09	−.08	−.01
Post Loc	.41	.07	−.01	−.00	.44	.07
Position	.26	.04	−.12	−.03	−.49	−.07
Tenure	.02	.02	−.01	−.02	−.06	−.06
Ed Level	−.26	−.05	.20	.05	−.21	−.03
District	.18	.03	.14	.03	−.57	−.09*
Org Sup	.10	.07	.14	.14**	.22	.13**
Formal	.33	.21**	.14	.12**	.41	.22**
Prom Opp	−.04	−.03	.16	.17**	.31	.21**
Inst Com	.06	.11*	<.01	<.01	.08	.13**
Input DM	.07	.06	.15	.16**	.19	.13**
F value (df)	6.06** (13,648)		8.24** (13,659)		22.21** (13,658)
R ²	.11		.15		.31

Note. The total number of participants was 827. With listwise deletion, the number of participants in the job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment regression equations were 661, 672, and 671, respectively. For a description of the variables, how they were measured, and their descriptive statistics, see Table 1. For the job involvement equation, tolerance scores ranged from .96 to .40, and VIF values ranged from 1.05 to 2.52. For the job satisfaction equation, tolerance scores ranged from .95 to .40, and VIF values ranged from 1.05 to 2.52. For the organizational commitment equation, tolerance scores ranged from .96 to .40, and VIF values ranged from 1.05 to 2.41. VIF = variance inflation factor. Org = organizational; Post Loc = post location; Ed Level = educational level; Org Sup = organizational support; Formal = formalization; Prom Opp = promotional opportunities; Inst Com = instrumental communication; and Input DM = input into decision-making. B represents the unstandardized regression coefficient; β = the standardized regression coefficient.

p ≤ .05. **p ≤ .01.

The job satisfaction model results are only slightly more robust, as four of the independent variables attained significance and accounted for about 15% of the variance. Unlike the job involvement model, none of the control characteristics had a significant association with the dependent variable. Perceived organizational support, formalization, promotional opportunity, and input into decision-making each produced a positive and significant association with job satisfaction, indicating increases in each were linked with increases in satisfaction from the job. Contrary to our hypothesis, perceived instrumental communication had a nonsignificant relationship with job satisfaction.

Finally, the independent variables in the organizational commitment model explained about 31% of the variance. Consistent with our hypotheses, all five of the perceived organizational structure variables significantly influenced officers’ commitment to the organization. Specifically, increases in perceptions of organizational support, formalization, promotional opportunity, instrumental communication, and input into decision-making were each associated with increases in commitment to the police organization. With regard to the control variables, only the district variable significantly influenced commitment, officers from the Sonipat district reported a higher level of commitment to the police agency.

Discussion and Conclusion

The results provide support for the claim that perceptions of organizational structure variables may influence the job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment among the surveyed Indian officers, although the nature and extent of the relationship varied between the variables examined. Formalization was the only independent variable to have a significant association with all three dependent variables. It appears that perceptions that there written rules and procedures which are followed has positive effects for officers. Codification can provide guidance and direction, making the job easier. In light of the results, efforts may be undertaken to increase positive perceptions of functional formalization, including listening to officers on areas which need additional formalization or clarification. Officers also need to be made aware of the different formalization resources and why formalization is important for both them and the agency. Police administrators, however, need to avoid excessive formalization, which refers to the creation of rules and procedures without ensuring their efficacy for meeting organizational goals and objectives (i.e., bureaucratic red tape; Bozeman & Scott, 1996; Pandey & Scott, 2002). In contrast, functional formalization refers to the creation of effective and efficient rules and regulations to ensure that officers understand and are successful in their jobs and meet organizational goals.

Perceived organizational support had significant positive relationships with job satisfaction and affective commitment in the multivariate analyses. This relationship is because support likely helps officers be more effective in their jobs and sends a message that they are valued by the organization. Managers and supervisors need to be aware of the need to provide support for the officers they supervise. This means listening to what officers have to say and providing them with explanations regarding their concerns. Acknowledging the positive work done by officers and providing feedback indicate to officers that they are valued and supported (Garland & McCarty, 2006). Transactional justice, which means being honest and forthright with subordinates and treating them with respect and dignity, may also help improve perceptions of organizational support (Lambert, 2003). Another method for possible improvement of perceptions of this form of structure is “management by walking around” where administrators and managers leave their offices and meet with line officers. This approach allows administrators to view social interactions in the workplace, see officers performing their jobs, and identify potential issues, as well as providing them organizational support (Garland & McCarty, 2006).

As predicted, instrumental communication had positive associations with both satisfaction and commitment in the multivariate analyses. As previously indicated, giving clarity of what is expected and how it is to be accomplished likely allows officers to be more productive in their work. Based on the current results, we recommend that efforts be made to improve both the flow of salient information in an organization and to make officers aware of these efforts. Administrators need to ensure that supervisors share information with officers, as well as obtain feedback on how to improve organizational communication. Administrators should listen to officers’ perspectives regarding the quality of instrumental communication and take note of where they perceive shortfalls in organizational communication. It is critical to recognize that information is a resource, and both managers and supervisors need to be made aware of the importance of instrumental communication and how to make sure salient information is making its way to officers and that officers understand the information transmitted to them.

Contrary to our hypotheses, the regression equations indicated that organizational support did not have a significant association with job involvement, and instrumental communication did not have a significant relationship with job satisfaction. Once the shared effects are taken into account, these two variables may not be significant predictors of the respective dependent variable. It is important to note that both organizational support and instrumental communication had a moderate-sized positive correlation with each other (r = .46, p < .001, see Table 2). It is possible that organizational support occurs because of information shared through instrumental communication. The current results suggest that communication helps build a stronger bond with the job but does not improve satisfaction. Providing information may allow officers to understand the important role they play, allowing for a stronger connection to the job. On the contrary, providing general information may not provide them specific information necessary for them to meet their needs from the job, such as being successful or greater pay or recognition. As noted earlier, job satisfaction is a psychological feeling toward the job which tends to be derived from an assessment of whether the job is meeting important needs and wants. Conversely, being provided organizational support is a form of recognition which sends a message of being valued, which could meet a need for recognition and respect. Support, however, may not improve job involvement because the nature of the job is probably what draws people to careers in law enforcement.

As hypothesized, perceived promotional opportunities was positively linked with both job satisfaction and affective commitment. It is important to note that the variable name perceived promotional opportunities does not mean all officers will be promoted but rather there is a perception that opportunities to be promoted exist. Officers need to be made aware of career growth opportunities and the skills and experiences needed to be promoted. In addition, efforts should be instituted to help officers be successful in their careers with a police agency, including making officers better candidates for promotion through training, supervision, and skill development, which may help improve promotional perceptions. While not tested in this study, perceptions of promotional opportunities may be tied to the theory of organizational justice. This theory holds that relevant organizational processes and outcomes, including those for promotions, needs to be fair and include transparency (Greenberg, 1990). If this is the case, promotion processes and outcomes need to be fair. If and how perceptions of promotional opportunities may be linked with perceptions of organizational fairness needs to be explored in future research. Contrary to our hypothesis, perceptions of promotional opportunities were not associated with job involvement. It is important to note that there was no significant correlation between these two variables (r = .04, p > .05, see Table 2). This indicates perceptions of this dimension of structure do not play a role in shaping the involvement among the surveyed Indian police officers. Being promoted may not be the main psychological reason of why those surveyed became a police officer and why they have a bond with the job. As Brown and Leigh noted, job involvement is the psychological identification with a job and the type of work being done (Brown & Leigh, 1996). Perceptions of promotional opportunities are unlikely to change why those surveyed became police officers or the work that they carry out each day on the job.

The final organizational structure factor examined here was perceptions of input into decision-making, and this characteristic was an important contributor to job satisfaction and organizational commitment, but not job involvement. As noted previously, allowing input allows officers some control over their work conditions, which may result in greater satisfaction. Moreover, a voice in decision-making allows officers to have a sense of belonging to the organization, as well as feeling valued, which in turn can help build a sense of commitment. Allowing officers to have a voice in the organization also likely improves the image of a person has of the organization. As noted earlier, past empirical research has shown that positive treatment by the organization increases the level of affective commitment. The results support this contention. Indian police administrators should explore ways to increase meaningful input by officers. As with all the organizational structure variables, officers should be asked their perceptions on input into decision-making and how input by officers can be realistically increased and implemented. It is important to realize that input into decision-making does not bind administrators to institute all changes suggested by officers. There may be some changes that are beyond the control of administrators or may not be in the best interest of the organization. Administrators must engage in instrumental communication and transactional justice by explaining to officers why their recommendations were not put into practice and to treat officers with respect and dignity when explaining decisions. At first glance, it may seem contradictory that both formalization and input into decision-making both have positive effects with satisfaction and commitment. It is sometimes incorrectly assumed that formalization reduces the degree of input into decision-making (Marsden, Cook, & Kalleberg, 1994). This is not accurate. As noted by Draft (1986), “rules define boundaries so that decisions can be made at a lower level without a loss of control” (p. 179). Perceptions of input into decision-making, however, did not have a significant association with job involvement in the regression analysis. It had a weak correlation with involvement (r = .08, p ≤ .05, see Table 2). Again, the lack of a relationship probably goes to the nature of job involvement, which is a focus on the type of work being done, as was noted for the lack of a relationship for perceived promotional opportunities.

The perceptional variables explained more than twice the amount of variance of the affective commitment variable as compared with the job involvement and job satisfaction variables. In addition, all the perceptions of structure variables had a significant positive relationship with commitment. Perceptions of structure most likely reflect the organization of those surveyed. It is easier to form a willing bond to the agency when you perceive it in a positive light, which is reflected in part by all the perceptional measures. Simply, perceptions of structure likely go to the heart of an organization, and commitment is a bond to the organization, while involvement is a bond to the job, and satisfaction is pleasure gained from the job.

Employees probably credit the organization as a whole for the structure variables, which makes it easier for them to bond with the agency. It could be that job specific characteristics, such as variety, autonomy, pay, and supervision, are more closely linked to levels of involvement and satisfaction. A second explanation is that the perceived organization structural factors have different effects on the three outcome variables, which would be expected. Job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment are different concepts, which means the effects of perceptions of various workplace variables may differ.

Gender was the only officer characteristic to have a significant association with job involvement. Female officers generally reported higher involvement. This finding may be the result of why female and male individuals seek employment as an Indian police officer. Male officers may seek employment to support their families, while female officers may seek employment because of the nature of work. This finding needs to be explored by future research to determine why female officers are more likely to bond with their job as compared with their male counterparts. None of the officer characteristic variables had a significant relationship with satisfaction in the regression model. District was the only characteristic to have a significant link to commitment in the multivariate analysis. Officers in the Rohtak district reported lower commitment than did their counterparts in Sonipat district. Based on a conversation with a high level police administration in the Haryana police agency, this is likely the result of the job demands made on officers in Rohtak. The Rohtak district is the hometown of the Chief Minister of the Haryana (i.e., position is similar to that of a U.S. state governor), and as such, the Chief Minister visits the Rohtak district more frequently, resulting increased work and hours for officers. In addition, there has been increased civil unrest in this district, placing greater demands on officers. Before a firm explanation can be provided, additional new research on this finding is needed. The lack of predictive power of officer characteristics is good news for Indian police administrators because these characteristics are often beyond their control or should not be manipulated. Conversely, improving perceptions of the various dimensions of organizational structure is within the power of administrators.

As with many studies, the current study has limitations. It was a single preliminary study among Indian officers in the Haryana State, and, therefore, the generalizability of the results is unknown. The results need to be replicated, not only with officers with the Haryana police agency but other police agencies in India. Also, because the study was cross-sectional, the effects cannot be attributed to causal relationships. To demonstrate causality, longitudinal data are needed, and future research should attempt to employ such a design to better understand the linkage of perceptions of organizational structure with officers’ level of commitment, involvement, and satisfaction. It is also important to mention that several of the index measures produced low Cronbach’s alpha values. While the factor analysis results indicated convergent validity and unidimensionality, the Cronbach’s alpha values of the indexes need to be increased in future studies. In addition, several of the indexes were measured with two or three items. Future research should use more items to measure these latent concepts. Another issue may be the use of concepts developed in the West, such as job involvement and formalization, when surveying officers in India. Even though we followed recommendations for conducting cross-national research, some of the meanings of the abstract concepts could have been interpreted differently by Indian officers compared with the officers in other nations surveyed in past studies. This issue needs to be further studied by future research to determine how Indian officers interpret abstract workplace factors. The R² values indicate that other variables also account for the involvement, satisfaction, and commitment of the surveyed officers. Future research should explore other variables in an effort to understand more completely how these important concepts are shaped and influenced. Only one form of organizational commitment, affective commitment, was studied. Future research should explore the association between perceptions of organizational structure and continuance commitment. Furthermore, research is needed to examine the association with perceptions of organizational structure with other outcomes, such as job stress, job burnout, organizational citizenship (i.e., going up and beyond what is expected at work), and workplace deviant behaviors.

Notwithstanding these limitations, our findings indicate that Indian police administrators should work to improve the perceptions of the organizational structure variables examined here. It appears that organizational commitment is highly contingent upon these factors and, while playing a lesser role, they are also important for job involvement and job satisfaction.

Our study explored the salient work concepts of job involvement, job satisfaction, and affective organizational commitment among Indian police officers, a group rarely reported in Western journals. In the end, too much is at stake to ignore how workplace factors influence job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment among police officers, including those in India, the most populous democracy in the world. At the very least, it is hoped that this current study will spur additional research on the job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment of police officers across the globe.

Footnotes

Appendix

Except for instrumental communication, the below index items were measured using a Likert-type response scale ranging from strongly disagree (coded 1) to strongly agree (coded 5). The instrumental communication items were measured using a scale ranging from not informed at all (coded 1) to very well informed (coded 5). After each item in parentheses is the factor loading score.

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Janet Lambert for proofreading and editing the article. In addition, the authors thank the editor and the anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions to improve the article.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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