Kan beröm från chefen öka polisens arbetsmotivation? : En kvalitativ studie med utgångspunkt ur polisens perspektiv

Sammanfattning: The police force has shown itself to be a workplace that often suffers from burnout syndrome. In turn, this leads to a reduced desire to work among the employees and it can even go as far as voluntary termination. Previous research describes that praise has a good effect on employee’s motivation towards work, which is an important factor of success within organizations. People can find themselves motivated in different ways. One may feel motivated due to a form of self-interest while another may feel motivated due to some type of external pressure and compulsion. How praise in turn affects different types of motivation within the police is however unexplored. The purpose of the thesis is therefore to investigate how verbal rewards in the form of praise from chiefs can affect police officers' work motivation. To answer the purpose of the essay, a qualitative interview study was conducted on police officers. The choice of police officers in external service was based on the fact that it is an occupational group who circulate out in society and face many different types of challenges and stressful efforts daily at work. Therefore, it was seen as particularly interesting to study whether their work motivation is affected by praise. The focus of the study has been to investigate how police officers receive praise, in which way they prefer to receive praise and finally how praise affects their work motivation. Eleven police officers on external duty have been interviewed. The study shows that the effect of praise from the chief of police on the police's work motivation varies. During our thesis, we highlight four different types of motivation, which we then investigate whether praise from the manager has an effect on or not. Worth mentioning is that the majority of police officers do not see praise as the primary focus in their work. Many police officers see themselves getting driven by their own goals and not least by the society for which they work. However, the study shows that praise tends to influence their various motivations to a certain extent.