Achievement Motivations of Police Officers

Leadership is important in all organizations, but it can be argued that it is especially important in policing. Ineffective leadership may lead to a breakdown in the social welfare of a society. Officers are provided with broad powers of discretion that have a significant effect on a community, and the lack of strong leadership, appropriate influence, and ethical work patterns have been shown to lead to abuses of power and abuses of force. In addition, leaders’ responsibilities are to motivate their followers in an effort to ensure a consistent and exceptional work product. To effectively manage their personnel, leaders ought to be familiar with the drives of their followers whom they lead. This purpose of this ex post facto study was to investigate the achievement motivations of patrol officers and police detectives. The result of this study assists both educational and law enforcement leaders with basic knowledge of motivational competencies, specifically the need for achievement. This study also contributes to the limited research on this policing behavior.