General interventions that can be employed by the SAPS

The SAPS is characterised by high-risk working environments that can cause stress and other occupational health problems among its employees. Therefore, it is essential that management focus on how the level of job stress and other occupational health issues experienced by employees can be reduced and also consider how staff members can be equipped to manage their job stress more effectively. To prevent stress and other occupational health problems among SAPS employees while also ensuring that they contribute to their work engagement, it is recommended that the SAPS manage job demands and attempt to improve the lack of organisational support (i.e. job resources) within the organisation. Appropriate coping skills (i.e. personal resources), discussed in more depth later in this chapter, comprise another important area of intervention that the SAPS could consider (Schaufeli & Taris, 2014).

Consequently, it is suggested that employers and management ensure that job resources (i.e. job characteristics) are continuously available to their employees and that their employees are equipped with personal resources (i.e. calling) through training sessions. In addition, employees should be provided with opportunities to perform work that requires thought and independent judgement. Generally, it has been found that when independence and freedom of choice are allowed in the performance of their tasks to a certain degree, employees will consider their work as meaningful (Sparr & Sonnentag, 2008). Allowing employees to participate in

appropriate decision making will enrich the employees’ feelings of membership and will contribute to the meaningfulness component of sense of coherence.

Managers often underestimate the impact that good supervision, regular and valid feedback and supportive relationships can have on their employees. It is essential that managers be present in the employees’ working environment on a regular basis. This will enable them to provide valid and regular feedback to their employees, and it is essential that this take place regularly. Arranging monthly feedback sessions during which positive and negative feedback are given to each employee will give rise to a workforce consistently attempting to improve its performance feedback each month (Sparr & Sonnentag, 2008). Furthermore, good supervision can be achieved by managers who are more visible in the workplace, and guidelines can be provided to assist managers to determine how to spend a certain amount of time visible to their employees.

The implementation of this suggested type of system should result in relevant feedback sessions during a manager’s supervision of his/her employees. If employees perceive that their manager is alert while supervising, they will strive to be more productive (Sparr & Sonnentag, 2008).

Furthermore, concerning management, organisations also need to promote autonomy, which in turn will result in an increase in work engagement and a decrease in occupational health problems. Autonomy can be created or increased by providing employees with a variety of work schedule opportunities, such as flexible working hours, working from home and compressed workweeks (Lunenburg, 2011). It is recommended that one focuses on feedback and autonomy first, as this is the easiest method of increasing job resources, seeing that it is not necessary to change the nature of the job, as is the case with the other job resources (i.e. skill variety, task significance and task identity).

Another way of addressing high job demands (i.e. stress) and preventing occupational health problems is through coping strategies. Coping refers to strategies, both cognitive and behavioural, that individuals utilise in order to manage a stressful situation as well as the negative emotional reactions that accompany such a situation

(Klopper, 2003). Two major coping strategies have been identified in the literature: problem-focused coping (i.e. strategies focusing on addressing the stressor itself) and emotion-focused coping (i.e. efforts to deal with the emotional response to the stressor). A third strategy has also been mentioned; this includes a mixture of the first two strategies and is related to seeking social support (Klopper, 2003).

According to Klopper (2003), a coping instrument was developed that initially measured 14 coping strategies, which later were revised to fit the police environment. This instrument is known as the COPE instrument, and the revised version measures four coping strategies: active coping, avoidance, seeking emotional support and turning to religion (Klopper, 2003). Consequently, it is advised that the COPE instrument be used in the SAPS working environment to determine the type of coping strategies that the SAPS employees utilise to address stress. More specifically, it can be used in personnel selection procedures and in individual training on coping with stress.

The strategies involved in active coping are approaching the problem, redefining it into something positive or as a learning experience and accepting that it has happened. These coping strategies are associated with lower burnout. Avoidance coping, in contrast, includes daydreaming and ignoring the facts as strategies, and these are associated with an increase in exhaustion. Although emotion-focused strategies have often been determined to be ineffective, it seems that seeking emotional support can prevent exhaustion caused by job stress. It was also found that seeking emotional support leads to the use of active coping strategies, which in turn lead to increased levels of professional efficacy. Turning to religion as coping strategy has been mentioned occasionally in the literature but has largely been ignored in coping with occupational stress. Although some studies have found a relationship between turning to religion and burnout, no research has been conducted on this relationship in the SAPS (Klopper, 2003).

When successful coping strategies are implemented and followed, it will result in goal attainment, enhanced professional efficacy and a sense of existential significance. In contrast, poor coping strategies are likely to result in burnout. Thus, it can be concluded that high levels of burnout are associated with ineffective (e.g. withdrawal)

coping strategies and low degrees of burnout with constructive coping strategies. Research on coping specifically in the SAPS has determined that SAPS employees often seem to make use of maladaptive coping strategies (i.e. alcohol and drug abuse, anger and withdrawal). It has also been found that distancing and planful problem- solving coping strategies significantly reduce distress, whereas escape/avoidance and self-control coping do not seem to work in the police working environment (Klopper, 2003).

These interventions set out general and broad guidelines that the researcher could consider when addressing the specific interventions geared towards the problems within the SAPS sample.