Policing is a stressful profession, and effective leadership is needed to mitigate the effects of organizational stressors that make it one of the most hazardous occupations in the world. Evidence suggests that transformational and transactional leadership can influence the health outcomes and commitment levels of officers, but much of the research and strategies are derived from large jurisdictions and have failed to account for smaller resource constrained contexts. Therefore, the viability of these strategies in smaller jurisdictions such as those in the Caribbean are understudied. Studies have tended to apply quantitative methodologies, which do not give officers a voice to fully capture their contextual experiences that ultimately shape their work related outcomes. To address this gap, more context specific research is needed which captures the voice of officers and investigates how leadership directly impacts organizational commitment and wellness in smaller jurisdictions. These insights will be critical in developing leadership strategies that are more inclusive, culturally relevant and effective in Caribbean policing. Using an explanatory mixed methods design, survey data were gathered from 269 police officers through a web-based questionnaire that comprised items from the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, Total Commitment Employment Survey, and the Perceived Wellness Survey. The quantitative data were analyzed through multivariate analysis techniques including correlation and regression analysis. This was followed by a qualitative component where data were collected from 12 officers through semi-structured interviews and examined through thematic analysis. Findings reveal that transformational leadership was negatively related to affective and normative commitment as well as spiritual and intellectual wellness. In contrast, transactional leadership that is typified by rewards and consequences was positively related to both outcomes. The results also confirmed that continuance commitment, which is associated with an employee’s need to stay with an organization due to benefits or lack of alternatives, moderated the relationship between leadership (transactional and transformational) and wellness. These results challenge the efficacy of transformational leadership in a Caribbean policing context and suggest that leadership may be contextual when examining its effect on commitment and wellness.
Andrew M.A. Smalling (Wed,) studied this question.