Georgia Southern University Digital Commons@Georgia Southern Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate Studies, Jack N. Averitt College of Fall 2011 Job Satisfaction and the Internship in State Level Law Enforcement Catherine J. Sapp Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.edu/etd Recommended Citation Sapp, Catherine J., "Job Satisfaction and the Internship in State Level Law Enforcement" (2011). Electronic Theses and Dissertations.edu/etd/379 This dissertation (open access) is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Studies, Jack N.
Averitt College of at Digital Commons@Georgia Southern. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons@Georgia Southern. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@georgiasouthern. JOB SATISFACTION AND THE INTERNSHIP IN STATE LEVEL LAW ENFORCEMENT by CATHERINE J.
SAPP (Under the Direction of Teri Denlea Melton) ABSTRACT It was the hypothesis of the researcher that exposing criminal justice students to the career field through the completion of a criminal justice internship will increase job satisfaction for the individual in state level investigative law enforcement and the field as a whole. Increased job satisfaction, in turn, produces higher retention rates which may lead to making the state level investigative law enforcement field a more stable environment. Therefore, the purpose of this correlational study was to discover if there was a difference in the score on Spector’s Job Satisfaction Survey between state level investigative law enforcement personnel who completed an internship and those who did not. Data were collected by electronically delivering the Job Satisfaction Survey, along with demographic questions, to the personnel from state level investigative law enforcement agencies in Georgia, Tennessee, and Oklahoma through SurveyMonkey©.
The participants from Oklahoma were omitted due to the insignificant response. The results were statistically investigated. The findings for those who completed an internship and those who did not were compared across the demographic questions concerning age, gender, experience, and race/ethnicity to determine if these demographics have an impact. Further, scores for those who completed an internship and i those who did not were compared across the four sub-scales related to an internship.
These sub-scales were: operating conditions, coworkers, nature of work, and communication. It was determined that there was no significant difference in job satisfaction between those who completed an internship and those who did not. Further, it was determined there were no significant differences relating to the demographic questions nor the sub-scales related to an internship; however, mean scores calculated for the sub-scales were highest for nature of work and lowest for operating conditions. INDEX WORDS: State level law enforcement, Internship, Job satisfaction, Job retention, Criminal justice internship ii JOB SATISFACTION AND THE INTERNSHIP IN STATE LEVEL LAW ENFORCEMENT by CATHERINE J.
SAPP Bachelor of Arts, Georgia Southern University, 1990 Master of Public Administration, Georgia Southern University, 2003 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Georgia Southern University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF EDUCATION IN EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION STATESBORO, GEORGIA 2011 iii © 2011 CATHERINE J. SAPP All Rights Reserved iv JOB SATISFACTION AND THE INTERNSHIP IN STATE LEVEL LAW ENFORCEMENT by CATHERINE J. SAPP Major Professor: Teri Denlea Melton Committee: Randall Carlson Linda M. Arthur Electronic Version Approved: DECEMBER 2011 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I would like to commend my family for coping with the many nights and weekends involved in completing my doctoral degree.
They never (hardly ever) complained, supported my “homework days,” and cooked many meals without me. I wish to thank the professors and staff of Georgia Southern University for guiding me through this lengthy process, in particular, my chair professor, Dr. Without her guidance and persistence, this process would have been even longer. She has assisted by answering questions, has tolerated my work schedule, and has mentored to me when I was in doubt.
I swore I would never return for further education once I completed my Master’s degree, but once I decided this was the correct path, she was diligent in assisting to achieve my goal. TABLE OF CO TE TS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vi CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………… 5 Problem Statement……. 11 Significance of the Study…………………………………………….
15 Definitions of Key Terms……………………………………………… 16 Limitations and Delimitations…………………………………………. 17 Chapter Summary……………………………………………………… 17 II. REVIEW OF RESEARCH AND RELATED LITERATURE…………… 20 Internships……………………………………………………………. 20 Benefits of an Internship…………………………………………….
22 Negatives of an Internship…………………………………………. 37 Investigative Law Enforcement Retention Rates…………………… 38 Law Enforcement Internship………………………………………. 39 Job Satisfaction……………………………………………………… 40 Chapter Summary…………………………………………………… 44 III.…………………………………………… 47 Sample and Response Rate…………………………………………. 48 Instrumentation and Data Collection………………………………… 48 Data Analysis………………………………………………………….
REPORT OF DATA AND DATA ANALYSIS…………………………. 55 Introduction…………………………………………………………… 55 Research Design………………………………………………………. SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND IMPLICATIONS………………. 67 Summary……………………………………………………………… 67 Analysis of Research Findings……………………………………….
67 Discussion of Research Findings……………………………………. Letter to Gatekeeper…………. Letter to Participants…. Job Satisfaction Survey…………………………………………………….
87 2 LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1: Herzberg’s Factors for Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction………………….1: Internal consistency reliabilities based on a sample of 2,870……………….2: Items assigned to subscales………………………………………………….1: Internal consistency reliabilities based on a sample of 2,870……………….2: T-test for completion of an internship………………………………….4: Mean scores for sub-scales and total satisfaction scores…………………….…………67 3 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4.2: Ranges of years of service……………………………………….62 4 CHAPTER I I TRODUCTIO In the past, earning a college degree meant a guaranteed path to employment and career advancement. Not so in the current battle for a career. “In 2000, more than 1.2 million people received bachelor’s degrees in the United States. This year [2010], that number is expected to rise 30 percent to more than 1.
Completing a college degree has become the necessary step to obtain employment or career advancement. This is true in the field of law enforcement, as well as a variety of other fields. Today’s law enforcement is much different than the agencies of 100 years ago, or even 15 years ago. With advancements in technology, both on the law enforcement side and the criminal side, today’s police officers must possess many more skills and be much more versatile than those officers of just 15 years ago.
Officers must possess the skills to communicate with the public, with other agencies, and with computers and other technology. These skills are not necessarily confined to seasoned officers; they also apply to new recruits fresh out of the training academy embarking on a new career (Dale, 1996). Unfortunately, during the beginning phase of their careers, most law enforcement officers discover the “true” meaning of the career field they have chosen. Television programs, books, magazines and the like have glamorized the field so far from the true aspects of the career that new employees are, in effect, entering an unknown area when walking through the door of their career future.
When new officers realize that they have 5 not been hired to perform a job that is glamour-filled or they realize the position requires long hours, much paperwork, and being thrust into dangerous and stressful situations, law enforcement agencies suffer retention issues, morale issues, and work ethic issues (Dale, 1996; DeShaw, 2006). Exposure to the career field prior to an individual’s lifetime commitment may help to minimize retention, morale, and work eithic issues. A student internship provides such an opportunity by allowing the student to witness, first hand, the reality of the career field for which he or she has been studying. The very nature of an internship is to expose higher education students to the field for which they have been studying throughout their college careers (Garner, 1999).
This exposure will enable the student to apply the academic theories and basics learned thus far to a “hands-on” environment. Students choosing law enforcement as their future career choice spend time delving in textbooks, and studying procedures and applicable laws. While this academic approach provides a foundation for the student, it does not encompass practical aspects of the field. The completion of an internship program allows the student the opportunity to become more-well rounded in his or her education.
Students are given the opportunity to apply the techniques and theories they have only studied to this point (Govekar & Rishi, 2007; Harmus, Cauthen, & Levine, 2006; Penn, 2003). Currently, criminal justice internships are a voluntary path some students choose to take. Students are not required to complete an internship prior to graduation from most higher education institutions. This demonstrates several negative aspects--potential lack of experience and professionalism on behalf of the student, a potential lack of representation for the higher education institution within the community or career field, 6 and, in current budget strife, a lack of potential workers to fill in a gap currently being experienced by many law enforcement agencies across the country.
Internships should be an important aspect of completing a degree in higher education, specifically in the criminal justice field. As stated previously, often the media glamorizes law enforcement. The over-dramatization can range from being unrealistic in glamour (CSI) to stupidly comedic (Reno 911) to dramatically notorious (The Shield). Students do not and cannot have a realistic picture of what the career field entails.
Law enforcement is a very “hands-on” career with many aspects of the career based on performance of duties. These duties can be described in a classroom setting but cannot be fully understood until one is immersed in the environment. Statistics (Digest of Education Statistics, 2009) show the increasing popularity of careers in law enforcement. Bachelor’s degrees conferred for criminal justice students rose from 2,045 in 1970-71 to 40,235 in 2007-08, an increase of 1,867%.
During the same timeframe, business degrees rose 190%, engineering degrees rose 52%, health related degrees rose 341%, and education degrees fell 441%. Unfortunately, for most law enforcement agencies, after an employee discovers the reality of the position, he or she also realizes law enforcement is not the career field for his or her future. By this time, law enforcement agencies have invested tens of thousands of dollars in training and equipment for each officer only to have to begin anew with another person. Hopefully, this person will not come to the same conclusion as his or her predecessor.
The completion of a criminal justice internship, in turn, should have a profound effect on job satisfaction in law enforcement. The completion of the internship program allows a student the opportunity to experience the potential career for which he or she is 7 studying. This opportunity enables the student to answer questions concerning a career path that normally would go unanswered. David Hubbard (2008) of the Eustis, Florida, Police Department, interviewed police academy recruits at five different training academies in Florida.
His findings indicated that once recruits graduated from the training academy and began a career in law enforcement, 31% of those recruits were applying for other jobs within their first two years of employment. Hubbard also determined through his interviews that 30.8% of the new recruits chose law enforcement as a career for the excitement factor. This percentage demonstrates the inadequate perceptions of new law enforcement personnel. Once the new hire realizes there is more than excitement to a law enforcement career, his or her job satisfaction decreases, resulting in a career change (Hubbard, 2008).
College graduates, fresh from the academic mindset, often present future law enforcement employers with little, if any, career experience. More often than not, the graduate offers little to an employer in the way of enhancement to the future employer. These graduates do not present experience, knowledge, or maturity in the career field for which they have studied. The completion of an internship may remedy this lack of knowledge of the chosen career field, thus bringing a sense of job satisfaction.
Job satisfaction has been an overlooked issue within the law enforcement field. The primary research conducted thus far focuses on job satisfaction as it relates to gender, ethnicity, stress, and compensation (Bennett, 1997; Bromley, Cochran, & Halsted, 2000; Brough & Frame, 2004; Hubbard, 2008). However, research conducted by Özel et al. (2009) determined that a strong correlation exists between job satisfaction and job retention in the field of law enforcement.
Further research conducted by Özel et 8 al.