NCJ Number
128691
Journal
Justice Quarterly Volume: 7 Issue: 3 Dated: (September 1990) Pages: 593-614
Date Published
1990
Length
22 pages
Annotation
The analysis tests a career stage model of cynicism among police chiefs that is characterized by the stages of crisis, interregnum, institutionalization, concretion, and demise.
Abstract
The beginning of a police chief's tenure is the crisis stage. The interregnum stage is characterized by struggles between opposing factions within and outside the police department. Police chiefs who survive interregnum move to the third stage of institutionalization and have enjoyed more successes than failures. The next stage involves concretion in which police chiefs have established themselves in the community. The final stage in a police chief's tenure is demise. The career stage model was tested using data from questionnaire responses of 1,120 police chiefs selected by a national survey. Canonical factor regression was employed to assess the Niederhoff cynicism index for latent structure. Three latent dimensions of police chief cynicism were identified: cynicism toward insiders, cynicism toward outsiders, and cynicism toward dedication. Contrary to a previous study, cynicism was not highest for police chiefs during the early years of their tenure and did not decrease with experience. Variation in police chief cynicism depended on the predictor measure, the type of cynicism examined, career stage, and police department size. An appendix lists cynicism, professionalism, work alienation, work stress, and autonomy measures used in the study. 28 references and 4 tables