By examining Slovene police officers' views on cultivating organizational commitment, this study determined the level of organizational commitment; ascertained the influence of demographic, managerial, and job characteristics on organizational commitment; and assessed the influence of organizational commitment on the personnel turnover.
Data were obtained from a sample of 389 police officers in the largest regional police unit in Slovenia, the Police Directorate Ljubljana. Of these officers, 83.29 percent were uniformed officers from 16 stations, and 16.71 percent were from the criminal investigation division. Male respondents constituted 92.03 percent of the sample. The questionnaire contained demographic questions on organizational commitment as well as managerial and job-related questions. There were no significant differences in the responses of the uniformed officers and those in the criminal investigation division. Officers expressed a willingness to expend additional effort to improve organizational performance, and they were proud to be part of the organization. Older police officers were, on average, more committed to the organization than younger officers. Education and gender were not significantly linked with organizational commitment, contradicting the finding of Grusky (1966), who concluded that women officers were more committed than male officers. Managerial styles that encouraged participative leadership increased commitment levels. Challenging work, job satisfaction, and managerial strategy combined to significantly influence organizational commitment. Committed officers, in contrast to noncommitted officers, rarely considered leaving the organization. 6 tables and 17 references