Job Satisfaction / Economic

Once former members of the police, military and emergency services leave their service employment, and are actively participating in the transition process, post-service employment options become important. Even more important than the types of jobs that are available for this post-service employment group, is their satisfaction with the new employment. This is a key element to not only each individual’s job satisfaction but also their life satisfaction and their overall wellbeing during the transition process. The literature in this area employs key determinants of pay, hours of work, job security, and career prospects to measure job satisfaction. For former members of the police, military and emergency services the added determinants of risk of harm to self, working conditions, and work/life balance, combined with the social services determinants of interpersonal or human relations, and personal motivation are also relevant (Brentari & Golia, 2008). D’Addio, Eriksson & Frijters (2007) explain that the most logical determinants to measure job satisfaction from an economic perspective are pay and hours of work, but from a sociological and psychological perspective, promotion and career prospects are the key determinants. They also address the additional factors of good health and being a public sector employee that can contribute to the subjective measure of job satisfaction (D’Addio et al., 2007). There is a range of different survey methods used, and a varying set of determinants in the literature measuring job satisfaction, however overall there are common factors that inform job satisfaction.  

Warr (1999) designed a comprehensive survey to measure job satisfaction that included the key determinants of wages and hours of pay, but also job security, job content, interpersonal relationships, and career prospects. Clark (2005) discovered from the International Social Survey Programme that most employees ranked job security and job interest above pay and hours of work. This informed the development of questioning about both the reasons the individuals from the police, military and emergency services elected to enter the service organisation, as well as questioning about how they felt about their post-service employment. D’Addio et al. (2007) suggest a distinction between the economic employment contract and the psychological employment contract, which then distinguishes between pay and hours of work and working conditions. They then separate the working conditions into intrinsic and extrinsic, with the former being pay, hours, work/life balance, job security and career prospects, and the latter being work relationships, risk of harm to self, work intensity and job content (D’Addio et al., 2007). They also suggest that individual characteristics not be ignored, such as age, gender; and that an individual’s ‘emotional state or mood’ may influence reported levels of job satisfaction, regardless of the actual job (D’Addio et al., 2007, p. 5).  

However, Brentari and Golia (2008) suggest that relying on economic determinants to measure job satisfaction is not effective for employees in the social services sector. This supports allowing a narrative by former members of police, military and emergency services to ascertain some of the differences between generic workplaces and those that fit within some of the boundaries of social services. Brentari and Golia (2008) identify human relations and personal motivations as the determinants of job satisfaction for social services workers. Their research suggests that any questionnaire used to measure job satisfaction will be most effective if it is ‘…well-matched to the sample of workers considered’ (Brentari & Golia, 2008, p. 55). This informed questioning on why the participants chose to enter their service organisations, which could then be compared to their experiences in post-service employment. Al Jenaibi (2010) suggests that globalisation now influences the measure of job satisfaction and, at the very least, integrates different concepts about job satisfaction. His research is based in organisational management and is somewhat outside the focus of this thesis, but with the changing climate of international security, increase in disaster response, and the militarisation of many international policing models (Greener-Barcham, 2007), globalisation is a factor worth some consideration in the design of the questions for the research. It begs the question whether job satisfaction should be measured differently for members of the police, military and emergency services. More importantly, it begs the question whether job satisfaction during the service period with organisations such as police, military and emergency services then has an impact on post-service employment satisfaction with different organisations. This research informed the comparative questioning of satisfaction with the service employment and satisfaction with post-service employment in this study. From an additional perspective, Irving, Coleman, and Cooper (1997) were early authors in the area of organisational commitment, and whilst it may not be specifically relevant to this discussion, it does contribute to understanding the identity disconnect that this group feel with new employment as a result of their continuing identity connection with their former public service employment. This is of use when combined with D’Addio et al.’s (2007) use of public sector employment as a determinant of satisfaction, particularly if variables present where members of the group have transitioned from one public service organisation to another.