The experience of prolonged stress at the workplace is associated with a variety of adverse health outcomes among employees. If job demands are high and job-related stress is chronic, employees are at risk of developing physical and mental health problems. A common health problem among working populations is burnout, a syndrome that results from prolonged exposure to job demands that exceed the individual’s abilities to cope. An occupational group that is especially vulnerable to develop burnout are police officers, who are exposed to high job demands and serious stressors on a daily basis. The aim of this thesis is to identify factors that protect against work-related strain in policing, with a special focus on the beneficial role of leadership for workplace health promotion. Results of study 1 indicated that job demands, operationalized by high workload and assaults by citizens, were associated with higher levels of depression and anxiety levels among police officers, mediated through emotional exhaustion, the core dimension of burnout. On the other hand, social support by colleagues, shared values and positive leadership climate constituted job resources that were negatively associated with the experience of depression and anxiety. Furthermore, job resources buffered the effect of job demands on emotional exhaustion, indicating that the more resources are available in the work context, the lower is the negative impact of job demands on police officers’ mental health. In study 2 the concept of health-oriented leadership was applied to the context of police work. The results confirmed the beneficial impact of health-oriented leadership on police officers’ health. It was associated with more well-being and lower levels of burnout, depression and musculoskeletal problems. Moreover, health-oriented leadership was positively associated with work-related health behaviors (self-care) of subordinate police officers. Thus, health-oriented leaders promoted police officers’ self-care, which was associated with higher levels of well-being in turn. This implicates that police leaders do not solely affect officer health and well-being by creating favorable working conditions but also by promoting officers’ own health-related behaviors. According to the well-established effort-reward imbalance (ERI) model, job rewards in terms of money, esteem, and career opportunities counterbalance the health-impairing impact of job demands. Leadership plays only a minor role in the operationalization of the reward dimension in the ERI model. The aim of study 3 was thus to enhance the ERI model by adding the concept of health-oriented leadership and to apply it to the context of police work. The results showed that high work effort was associated with higher levels of burnout among police officers. Furthermore, both job rewards and health-oriented leadership were associated with lower levels of burnout. However, only health-oriented leadership, but not job rewards, buffered the health impairing effects of high work effort on burnout levels. In summary, the results of all three studies point to the crucial role of leadership for the prevention of psychological strain and the promotion of health in policing. Police officers especially seem to benefit from leaders who adopt a leadership style that is not only characterized by health-promoting behavior, but also by a heightened awareness for specific health issues at the work and a sense of responsibility for health concerns. The findings of this thesis provide valuable directions for future research and practical interventions for promoting healthy working conditions in the challenging and demanding job of police officers.
