EVALUATION OF QUESTIONNARIES OF ORGANIZATIONAL AND OPERATIONAL SOURCES OF STRESS AT WORK OF POLICE OFFICERS

competencies and code of ethics, make police officers` work specific and demanding, and very often related to possible risks for physical and mental health of police officers. Police work is perceived as a highly stressful occupation; therefore, a strong need is imposed for identifying reliable and valid instruments by means of which it is possible to identify characteristic and profession-related specific sources of stress at work. In this respect, the first objective of this paper was to examine measure characteristics of internal reliability and factor structure of the questionnaires of organizational (Organizational Police Stress Questionnaire) and operational (Operational Police Stress Questionnaire) sources of stress at work of police officers. The second objective was to determine the presence of the sources of stress on the sample of police officers through a presentation of descriptive indicators and level of certain sources of stress according to their intensity and to determine the difference in the perception of organizational and operational sources of stress intensity. The research was conducted with 2185 police officers of both genders which underwent regular medical examinations during 2008 and 2009. The results show that questionnaires of organizational and operational sources of stress at work have a satisfying level of internal reliability and factor structure, and the hypothesis on statistically more significant influence of organizational sources of stress has been confirmed, which is in line with professional literature data. Obtained results have possible theoretical and practical implications and indicate the need and importance of further research in this field.