Burnout & Work Engagement on the Front Lines: Public Service Motivation & Law Enforcement Officers

Drawing on job demands-resources theory, our study investigates the role of public service motivation can play maintaining high engagement and lowering the likelihood of burnout among frontline officers. Although there is extensive literature on how PSM affects public sector employees generally, less research looks at PSM and law enforcement officers especially in the U.S. As enforcement organizations continue to respond to respond to calls for improvements in accountability and expand their community engagement efforts, they must also take steps to guard officers against the emotional exhaustion and burnout associated with serving the public in difficult jobs and under high pressure and scrutiny. Using survey data collected from large state-level law enforcement organization at multiple time periods, we find consistent evidence supporting the expected positive association between PSM and officer work engagement. Contrary to our expectation, we also observe a weak positive relationship between PSM and reports of burnout among frontline officers in 2019 and no evidence of a relationship in 2021. These findings suggest that PSM can serve as a lever to improve officer engagement and that there may be potential conditions under which PSM may exacerbate rather than mitigate employee burnout.