Immediate and Long-Term Factors Influencing Police Personnel’s Work-Life Balance and Leadership Skills

Immediate and Long-Term Factors Influencing Police Personnel’s Work-Life Balance and Leadership Skills

Dr Swati Minz

Xavier Institute of Social Service, India

DOI: https://doi.org/10.51244/IJRSI.2025.120700113

Received: 04 July 2025; Accepted: 07 July 2025; Published: 06 August 2025

ABSTRACT

The research is desired as Indian police forces are witnessing insufficient women participation and presence across ranks. The police personal’s work life balance hence identifies as a complex aspect. In order to realize the most constructive influence of state administration based interventions on women police personal’s life and professional aspects; a thorough understanding or diverse causations is indeed needed. The research hence classifies and segregates the distinct correlates (proximal and distal) that seem to shape the stimulus for working worm’s efforts for professional and family life based balance. The research hence delves on the factors that deeply shape the phenomenon and certainly possess a causal relationship to women based initiatives to attain and sustain this fragile work life balance in police careers. The article insists on the correlates (proximal and distal) in order to ascertain individual and environmental influences.

Key Words: Women police personals, Work life balance behavior, Attitude, proximal correlates, Distal correlates, Causal relationships, Professional life

INTRODUCTION

A wider range of models, theoretical frameworks and paradigms have been devised with regard to classification and identification of variables that are believed as shaping the prospects for working women in police services. The women’s work-life balance attainment efforts and behavior has long remained a matter of intense research with rampant variations in research design, choice of operationalization aspects, quantification mechanisms, segment being explored, usage of theories and variables being examined. Such a reported divergent stream of literature calls for the integrative and collective approach towards interpreting the causality of phenomenon across its roots in real contextual settings. The core aim of this research is to explore the causation of women police person’s work-life balance behavior. The research aims at brining fresh insights into the phenomenon and seeks to achieve the goal of developing our understanding of the causation of life-work balance related problems. The paper first explores the possible correlated of work life balance with aid of literature on subject and then discusses the proximal and distal correlates at length. The paper summarizes the implications for practice and better understanding of challenges as faced across attaining work life balance. The existing association and intervention based studies seem to be divergent in nature and scope.

Correlates of work-life balance

The “work-life” balance behavior (WLBB) of employees in public service organizations has become a mostly sought after construct in field of high performance work related practices and organization development literature. The “work-life” balance (Felstead, 2006) has been interpreted as the relationship between institutional, individual and cultural mechanisms across spaces of work and non-work across the societies where the income is generated and presumptively distributed across the labor markets. The ‘work life balance behavior’ constitutes the individual and organizational influences on ability to adapt, ability to acquire the fit and ability to thrive in challenging work conditions.

In case of women participation in Indian police work force, this is tantamount to observing that the possible antecedents on work life behavior could stem from the personal dynamic capabilities, harnessed treasure of personal competencies, overcoming and absorbing contingent influences, job based adaptation and retaining purposefulness of work life amidst known and unknown challenges from jobs, social exchanges and role playing. Work life balance involves mechanisms, internal motivations, strategies, job based coping and support management tactics that a women police personal leverages to realize fit across prevailing work and family environments and transform the fit into balance prospects. There is need to isolate the significant determinants as they have differential effect of work life balance outcomes and organizational performance.

The correlates of individual’s work life balance seem to be aspects that are embedded in near environment and the individual himself; are often hard to figure out. The correlates have largely been regarded as embedded in traits, cognitions, resolve to succeed, motivations, behaviors and skill development patterns. The correlates identify as the necessary antecedents or the triggers that set off the phenomenon across contextual roots.

The proximal correlates identify as the ones that are within agent’s control and bear close proximity to the individual under study. The proximal aspects involve the personal attributes, perceptions, sense of preparedness, personal resources, capabilities and hardiness as key to work place survival. The ‘capabilities’ approach(Fotiadis, 2019) concentrates on the role of harnessed abilities, competencies(Jiang, 2017) and capabilities(McDowall, 2014) as guiding the women based thinking and efforts to achieve finer work balance vis a vis the life based responsibilities. The notion of ‘personal resources’(Airila, 2014) seems to be driving impetus for change and responsibility based role playing in work conditions across police services based women officers. The studies on women police officers extend the discussion on the issues of personal proneness to skill demonstration, skill acquisition, job based hardiness and genuine intentions to work purposefully. The individual capabilities approach(Pandolfini, 2012) as applied in context of women police force calls for recognition of individual’s own preparedness and task monitoring and handling capabilities. The individual propensity(Anand, 2016) to work and engage meaningfully has been observed to involve the dimensions of personal hardiness, task orientation, career signaling inclinations and career skilling aptitudes.

The distal correlates constitute the ones that are outside the agent’s control and involve the environment in which the decisions are shaped. The distal aspects involve the aspects of work place interactions, access to departmental resources, work role allocation and job based demands. The employee based perceptions of contextual supports from across team members, from across leader or the supervisor and extent of self-empowerment as observed in course of work life; does seem to matter. The resource based approach emphasizes the primitive role of conservation of resources theory and self-regulation ideology. The conservation of resources theory(Zhai, 2017)  interprets the resource centricity as the extent to which the incumbent employee could access organizational resources, development personal capabilities, and organizational opportunities. The resource allocation contexts(Grawitch, 2010) and patterns play critical role in this aspect. The research on subject underlines the significant role of ‘resources’ and their ‘allocation’ as defining the prospects for balance or conflict within employee and employer in particular. The subject has also been interpreted as involving social exchange approach as well as contingent approach. The illustration below captures the proximal and distal influences as shaping the person organization fit in prevailing organizational circumstances and possessing implications for work life balance as well as ability to thrive at workplace.

Figure: Mapping the proximal and distal influence son work life balance across police women

Proximal determinants explained

Occupational Hardiness: The factor “Occupational hardiness” is being defined as the extent to which the incumbent employee is able to withstand the job related temperament and stress. The tough mindset related prospective approach in police services. The individual based ability to withstand the stress and exhibit work related resilience is regarded as vital in personal capacity and regarded as important for the achievement of person-organization fit in police organizations in particular

Career Management Behavior: The factor “Career management behavior” is being defined as individual’s own inclination for the self-career management, career signaling, interest in acquiring relational and social capital, acquisition of skills, updating the skillsets and acting proactively across organizational domains and departments. The factor involves the under tones of individual police officer’s own inclination to manage the career proactively. This has been widely interpreted as involving the aspects of work place signaling, engagement in value enhancement activities, political lobbying, scouting for influence across higher hierarchy, networking, conscious acquisition of skills and competencies.

Intentions to work: The factor “intentions to work” is being defined as the individual harnessed intentions to actually work or shun the work. The literature reflects extensively on the real time intentions to work as instrumental in shaping psychological ownership of work places and employee retention. With regard to policing services in state perspective this is tantamount to saying that the genuine intentions to work need to prevail especially with regard to law enforcement. The intentions to work identify as the intent to work and put in extra ordinary efforts and seeking psychological ownership of work being performed.

In domain job demands: The factor “In domain job demands” is being defined as the job based demands in terms of resource commitments, skills, time and attention as well as alertness and vigilance at work place. The job based demands classify as the requirements that arise particularly from women police based indulgence in job. The intrinsic job demands (Gordon, 2015) identify as the work place related demands that often require individual effort making, leading to psychophysiological costs and energy involvement.

In domain job resources: The factor “In domain job resources” is being defined as the extent to which the incumbent employee is able to access and marshal the consistent access to job based resources and capabilities. The job resources ideally comprise the work place empowerment and the job related resources that are part and parcel of the job based role and responsibilities. The job based resources have been observed as possessing the potential to stimulate learning, to help the employees achieve the career goals and induce psychological belongingness amongst the employees in particular.

Distal determinants explained

Leader Management Exchanges: The factor “Leader Management Exchanges” is being defined as pattern and quality of two way informational exchanges actually taking place across the leader, top management and the incumbent employee across organizational perspective. The ‘leader management exchanges’ as a factor seem to matter extensively across the public discourses on the subject matter.

Team Management Exchanges: The factor “Team Management Exchanges” is being defined as pattern and quality of two way informational exchanges actually taking place across the team members on sustainable basis and in enhanced frequency. The quality of such interactions is essential for the achievement of person organization fit and achievement of the respective work life balance in rightful proportion.

Psychological Empowerment: The factor “Psychological Empowerment” is being defined as the extent to which the employee feel empowered and autonomous in decision making while at place of work. The study across women police revealed the prevalence of the mediating impact of work place empowerment in the work outcomes and achievement of work place related balance.

Perceived Fit: Factor “Perceived Fit” is being defined as the possible fit between the person (employee) and the organization(police services) in particular. The factor has been operationalized in multiple contexts and propositions. The employee based perceptions of “fit” across current organization (place of posting across work unit) and contextual supports from across family members with regard to work; does seem to matter.

Table: Summarizing the correlates with literature support

Implications for understanding phenomenon

This study seeks to capture the influences from across personal preparedness in terms of skill acquisition, skill based dexterity, hardiness to cope up with occupation related pressures, inclination for self-indulgence in career management and harnessing of intensions to work with dedication. The individual harnessed ‘occupational’ and ‘vocational’ competencies figure as the potential determinant of police officers to secure consistent person-organization fit in challenging work environments. The theoretical paradigms (Crooker, 2002) call for individual borne sturdiness (Clements, 2018) and hardiness (Maddi, 2002) as vital for individual resilience at work place.  The studies (Direnzo, 2015) classify the individual personal competencies, dynamic abilities and potential as crucial in the ability to adjust across challenging work environments. The career perusal harps on the ability to accommodate the sensitivities of the employer. The individual self-perceived career management inclination (Ohunakin, 2018)has been observed as vital in shaping the person organization fit in multiple dimensions in organizational perspective. This study stresses the influences from across job environments especially in terms of  job based demands and access to job based resources at place of work. The job design encompasses the crucial role of the structuring, enactment and modification of the duties, responsibilities and individual actions that seem to create and form the conditions for the conduct of the job in question. The existing studies (Demerouti, 2014) emphasize the relational perspectives, proactive aspects and the time perspective of the job based contextual embeddedness. The job resources ideally comprise the work place empowerment and the job related resources that are part and parcel of the job based role and responsibilities. The job based resources have been observed as possessing the potential to stimulate learning, to help the employees achieve the career goals and induce psychological belongingness amongst the employees in particular. This study stresses the influences from across work place based contexts and actors especially the colleagues, the boss, relationships with supervisor, family based support and enrichment and perceived employee based empowerment for achieving the fit and balance in public services. The study presents support for the women police officer’s perceptions of “contextual supports from across supervisors and colleagues” across the organizational perspective and positions the research across the employee based perceptions of job, job based demands and in-domain access to job based resources. The individual perceptions of supports and job based help from across co-workers figures as one of the most potential attributes with regard to achieving the sense of work life balance. The study captures the outcomes in terms of thriving at workplace and taking charge vis vis career aspirations in occupational stream. The employee based thriving at workplace (Maddi, 2002) in public services often involve the crucial aspects of individual based adaptation (Spreitzer, 2005) to changing work circumstances, individual’s sense making about survival in challenging times and seeking fruitful and creative alternatives as way out. The thriving as a factor has been observed as involving the aspects of the individual employee based propensity to act and respond to situations in a tactical manner that ensures sustenance and survival.

CONCLUSIONS

The proximal and distal determinants of police personal’s work life balance are indeed unique in shaping the stimulus for working worm’s efforts for professional and family life based balance. The research hence concludes that the proximal and distal factors deeply shape the phenomenon and certainly possess a causal relationship to women based initiatives to attain and sustain this fragile work life balance in police careers. The article insisted on the correlates (proximal and distal) in order to ascertain individual and environmental influences.

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