Factors of Trust in Immediate Leaders: An Empirical Study in Police Service Environment

The study has two objectives—first, to examine the dimensionality of police service employees’ job satisfaction and their assessment of the enablers from the Common Assessment Framework, analyzing these facets at different organizational levels, and second, to identify the impact of selected facets of job satisfaction on trust in one’s immediate leader. The study is based on a comprehensive on-line questionnaire where 1209 responses from police service employees were acquired, and for the data analysis, factor analysis was first used to formulate the factors of job satisfaction facets and of the Common Assessment Framework enablers. Second, structural equation modelling was performed to identify the correlations of the studied variables. The Common Assessment Framework enabler Strategy/Leadership was significantly correlated with the enabler Processes and had an indirect impact on Trust through direct impacts on Leadership style in the organizational unit and Autonomy/Tasks. Both of the latter determinants had a significant influence on Trust in one’s immediate leader. The confirmed the impact of determinants from different hierarchical levels indicates the importance of efforts by managers at all organizational levels should the police management intend to achieve and maintain high levels of trust in one’s immediate leader in police service work environment.