Poaching is a term used in contemporary law enforcement where officers are lured or seduced from one agency to another over an array of bait from money and equipment to even wearing facial hair. Many agencies experience a revolving door of officers leaving and jumping ship over sign up bonuses, higher salary, and benefits. These incentives help and can be successful.

The inadequate staffing levels that remain affect resource allocation and impede supervisors and officers in managing their operational demands. Modern policing creates a context where every officer has a bucket tied to their backs. The dynamic and turbulent environment on the streets where their work results in the constant throwing of rocks into that bucket. To acerbate the situation, if an officer works in a culture where their administration throws rocks into the bucket the weight becomes too much to bear. Moreover, the burden from carrying those rocks impacts on the officers professional and personal life.

Officers need a workplace where their supervisors work to prevent rocks going into their bucket and take rocks out when practicable. However, science provides a sounder perspective that is rooted in behavior rather than budget. Current research finds that many still see the police service as a long-term career and indicate little intention of leaving. The studies reiterate that police agencies can improve officer retention. The research found the reasons for the attrition were low job satisfaction, poor officer welfare, and poor organization culture.^[1] 

Many internal and external factors may play a part in the attrition or success of officers. Organizational culture has been raised by some researchers as a possible reason for high attrition and low job satisfaction. Supportive management practices, transparent communication and a positive organizational culture can enhance job satisfaction and reduce turnover.^[2] Poor leadership can exacerbate stress and dissatisfaction. In today’s environment, effective leadership and strong organizational support are essential for retaining officers.^[3]

The demanding nature of police work can strain personal relationships and health, leading officers to leave the profession. Implementing family-friendly policies and providing adequate support for health and well-being can help address these issues.^[4] Personal factors such as work-life balance, health issues, and family commitments significantly influence attrition.^[5] The demanding nature of police work, including shift work and operational pressures, makes it challenging for officers to balance professional lives. This imbalance can lead to stress and burnout. Leaders providing adequate support to manage these demands is crucial. Without it, negative experiences can push officers towards leaving the agency.^[6]  The high stress, long hours, and exposure to traumatic events can lead to burnout and job dissatisfaction, contributing to attrition.^[7]

Work–life balance and support for personal commitments significantly influence retention, making it imperative to incorporate these aspects into recruitment and retention strategies^[8]  Employees are subject to the decisions of their superiors on a routine basis. These decisions often deal with company policies and procedures, promotional opportunities, duty assignments, and the interpersonal dynamics of work life. Workers critically evaluate their supervisors because their actions and decisions have important economic and social consequences for employees. Organizational behavior and management research findings over the past half-century have shown that employees’ evaluations of their supervisors focus primarily on notions of justice. A huge body of empirical evidence within the organizational behavior and management scholarship shows support for the idea that perceptions of fair managerial practices engender many pro-organizational outcomes.^[9]

Officers who view their supervisors as open, promote feedback, are fair, supportive and engaged in practices that set expectations are more satisfied because of the perceptions of fairness, support and direction. This concept is known as organizationally just supervision.

The simple formula derived from Tom Tyler and Allen Lind’s research in 1988,^[10] can be represented by four fundamental concepts:

1. Officers treated by a supervisor with dignity and respect.
2. A supervisor who values and provides an opportunity for an officer to voice their concerns or opinions.
3. A supervisor who is transparent and explains their decision-making process.
4. A supervisor who remains neutral, impartial and conveys trustworthy motives.

Studies find that police officers who experienced fair supervisor treatment were more committed to their agency’s goals, more likely to identify with their agency, and reported less cynical views about their occupation and citizens. Officers who are treated fairly report greater job satisfaction,^[11] more trust in their agency,^[12] greater organizational commitment,^[13] less distress, and a less cynical outlook toward civilians.^[14] A systematic review concluded that police supervisor fairness was positively associated with employee job satisfaction, agency trust, and organizational commitment.^[15] Organizational justice also helps to prevent officers from getting into trouble. Officers who believe they are treated fairly are more likely to comply with departmental rules and less likely to engage in misconduct.^[16]

Psychological safety and organizationally just behavior work together to provide leaders with the insight and influence to achieve positive outcomes and develop and retain officers. Psychological safety^[17] describes a culture where officers feel safe to offer suggestions and opinions without fear of punishment, ridicule, or embarrassment. A psychologically safe environment is one in which people feel free to voice their concerns, ask questions, be inquisitive and curious, and share ideas freely. Fear, punishment or other repercussions from speaking freely or taking risks, being interrupting, and being blamed are counterproductive to psychological safety.

Another requirement for implementing psychological safety is a culture of openness and learning where leaders acknowledge their own mistakes, ask for feedback and encourage and welcome questions and suggestions from subordinates. This stance provides permission for officers to do the same thing when they make mistakes.

A police agency’s effort to treat its employees fairly leads to many positive consequences, among which is the constructive voice of the employees. This is initiative-taking behavior. It enhances performance and strengthens the organization’s ability to correct and prevent financial and socially costly mistakes. However, a lack of fair treatment by supervisors can lead to the belief that speaking out is risky.^[18]

Understanding the predictors and outcomes of voice and silence behaviors is crucial for [police agencies, because it influences officers’ engagement, innovation and overall performance.] Effectively managing these dynamics fosters a healthier work environment, enhances decision-making processes and strengthens team dynamics, all of which are vital for agency success and sustainability of the agency.^[19]

Being able to give voice is defined by employees’ motivation to improve their agency and the work environment. Seeking to change the status quo for everyone’s benefit is a valuable mindset.

Voice behavior has been found to produce several positive outcomes, for instance:

• Higher performance evaluations and ratings^[20]
• Greater job satisfaction^[21]
• Higher commitment to remain with the organization long-term workplace to try to prevent it.^[22]
• Higher levels of motivation^[23]

Officers who use voice more often tend to display higher levels of job engagement over time. This positive relationship is moderated by perceived voice appreciation. When employees feel appreciated by co-workers and supervisors for speaking up, they tend to contribute more effort and remain connected to the agency.

Positive behaviors that benefit the organization, such as voice and job engagement, are more common when employees feel that their contributions are valued by leaders and co-workers.^[24] These basic and fundamental concepts are evidence-based strategies that can make a huge difference in the executive’s ability to promote and require a culture that will serve as a means to help keep officers. While supervisors can help guide and motivate their officers in their daily activities, the positive influence of direct supervisors—and therefore the motivation and efficacy of officers—may be smothered if the command staff fail to value organizational justice as a guiding framework for broad organizational effectiveness^[25]

The notion regarding good leadership and benefits caused by organizational justice and psychological in police administration is not new. Dwayne Orrick’s seminal work in 2008 found that the relationship that immediate and mid-level supervisors have with their officers has the most influence on an officer’s decision to stay or leave the department^[26]Policing is a dynamic and turbulent environment where the effectiveness of its executives, managers, supervisors, officers, and staff must blend seamlessly into the operational realities of the job for the best possible outcomes. Central to this notion is the open and ongoing communication between all officers and staff that makes up the agency to enhance treatment and promote meaningful support for its staff.

The concepts of organizational just management and psychological safety are a beneficial set of evidence-based strategies that are tethered to enhance engagement, better communication, motivation, performance, and officer retention.