The influence of organizational and environmental factors on job satisfaction among security guards in Singapore
| Author | Sylvia SL Lim,Seung Yeop Paek,Mahesh K Nalla |
| DOI | 10.1177/0004865816647995 |
| Published date | 01 December 2017 |
| Date | 01 December 2017 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Australian & New Zealand
Journal of Criminology
2017, Vol. 50(4) 548–565
The influence of organizational
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and environmental factors
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DOI: 10.1177/0004865816647995
on job satisfaction among
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security guards in Singapore
Mahesh K Nalla and Seung Yeop Paek
School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI,
USA
Sylvia SL Lim
Peter Low LLC, Singapore
Abstract
This study examines the determinants of security guards’ job satisfaction in Singapore.
Specifically, data gathered from 251 security guards and security supervisors are analyzed
to assess how job and organizational characteristics such as autonomy, supervisory support,
innovation, pay and benefits, and support from other employees (non-security) affect the
participants’ job satisfaction. In addition, given the nature of their work that brings them in
close contact with citizens, the authors examine to what extent the environmental factor of
perceived citizens’ views of security guards helps explain the level of satisfaction. The findings
suggest that job autonomy, pay and benefits, and perceived support from other employees in
the organization are strong predictors of participants’ job satisfaction.
Keywords
Autonomy, job satisfaction, pay and benefits, perceived support, Singapore, security guard
Introduction
Research on the job satisfaction of police officers, key players in the business of social
regulation, remains an important issue for police managers and policy makers given its
consequence to their organizations. Consequently, considerable research on the topic
has been generated over many decades. However, comparable research on job satisfac-
tion of private security guards1 that also play a significant role in social regulation is
limited. The shortage of relevant studies must be addressed for the following reasons.
First, the employment trends of private security guards in recent decades and the rapidly
Corresponding author:
Mahesh K Nalla, School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University, Baker Hall, 655 Auditorium Rd., East Lansing,
MI 48824, USA.
Email: nalla@msu.edu
Nalla et al.
549
rising number of people employed in the private security industry offer important rea-
sons to research them more rigorously. There is considerable data showing that the
employment of private police has grown around the world so much that their numbers
match or, in some cases, exceed those of public police officers (Parfomak, 2004; van
Steden & Sarre, 2007).
Moreover, private security guards carry out duties that are closely related to crime
prevention and order maintenance tasks routinely performed by public police.
Especially, with the development of what Shearing and Stenning (1983) refer to as
‘‘mass private property’’ such as shopping malls, gated communities, and amusement
parks where considerable public life takes place, the need and deployment of private
security guards have become more apparent. In addition to the common areas in their
duties, police officers and private security guards share similar cultures (Singh & Kempa,
2007). Therefore, it can be argued that the private security sector is a crucial component
of modern-day social control, and exploring security officers’ job satisfaction can inform
and make a positive contribution to the existing knowledge (Stenning, 2000).
Despite the similarities noted above, there are also important distinctions to be dis-
cussed in studying security guards’ job satisfaction. Unlike the public police officers
whose employment is governed by rigid legal mandates, training, professionalism, and
wage structures, the private security guard industry has limited regulation and stand-
ards. In addition, the industry has a reputation for offering poor wages and dismal
benefits. These developments have implications for exploring factors that influence
security guards’ job satisfaction.
As stated, given various overlapping and distinctive characteristics of the two fields,
the authors do not find the same depth of research on private security officers relative to
their public counterparts. Particularly, multiple dimensions of their work and influences
on their job satisfaction have not been discussed as extensively as those of the police.
Thus, the aim of this research is to understand the relationship between various job,
organizational, and environmental characteristics that affect security guards’ job satis-
faction. To illustrate, the authors examine whether factors such as job autonomy, super-
visor support, innovation, pay and benefits, non-security employee support, and the
perceived public views of security guards are related to the job satisfaction of the security
guards in Singapore. First, the authors provide an overview of the nature of security
work. Next, existing literature on the factors associated with police satisfaction is out-
lined. Then, the authors provide a context for the present study, the nature of the
security guard industry in Singapore. Lastly, the determinants of security guards’ job
satisfaction are discussed.
The nature of security guard work
As mentioned, the private security guard industry constitutes a versatile workforce
whose functions could overlap with those of the police (Rigakos, 2002). One explanation
for this is that the services provided by private security officers have diversified because
of the limited available resources of the public sector (Wood & Shearing, 2007).
Particularly, the job descriptions of security officers range from monitoring spaces and
inspecting properties to preventing fire, theft, vandalism, and other illegal activities
(Parfomak, 2004). Furthermore, in discussing the core functions of the security officers
550
Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology 50(4)
at three mass properties in Britain, Wakefield (2003) has found that the guards perform
various non-crime-related tasks, including housekeeping (e.g. deployment of cleaning
and maintenance staff and control of background music), customer care (e.g. provision
of information and recording and storage of lost and found property), responding to
emergencies (e.g. evacuation of building, provision of first aid, and alerting ambulance),
and information gathering and sharing (e.g. closed-circuit television monitoring and
providing information to police investigations).
In discussing the roles played by private security officers, Stenning notes that the
efforts to draw clear distinctions between the roles and functions of public and private
police have become ‘‘fruitless and unconvincing’’ (2000, p. 327) and that it is ‘‘almost
impossible to identify any function or responsibility of the public police which is not,
somewhere and under some circumstances, assumed and performed by private police in
democratic societies’’ (2000, p. 328).
With the commonality in regard to the functions, scholars have compared police and
security work in terms of legal powers (e.g. state action and centrality of arrest) (Joh,
2004), goals, jurisdiction (Joh, 2005), accountability (Stenning, 2000). Also, a study in
Canada suggests that while private security guards recognize some fundamental differ-
ences with police officers, they acknowledge that their work in some ways overlaps and
becomes interdependent with public police functions (Manzo, 2010).
Job satisfaction literature
Employee job satisfaction literature has been studied extensively. Herzberg (1968) argues
that job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction are two separate constructs: the former is an
outcome of the employee’s ability to achieve personal and organizational goals, while
work environments determine the latter. In addition, according to Locke (1976), job
satisfaction is an emotional state obtained when one feels that the job facilitates one’s
job values, while job dissatisfaction results when one perceives that the job hinders
achieving personal job values or entails disvalues. Moreover, Maslow (1943) has offered
fulfillment of personal needs as a framework to understand job satisfaction and
Herzberg (1968) has suggested that factors such as achievement, recognition of work,
and responsibility are motivational determinants of job satisfaction. Security guards’ job
satisfaction is an important factor in achieving this goal because it is related to employee
performance, guards-community relations, and turnover. Supporting this argument,
those who are satisfied with their jobs are found to perform the work more effectively
and have less job withdrawal (Crede, Chernyshenko, Stark, Dalal, & Bashshur, 2007;
Hoath, Schneider, & Starr, 1998). Furthermore, organizational efficiency and perform-
ance are also found to be directly related to employees’ job satisfaction (Judge,
Thoresen, Bono, & Patton, 2001; Mason, 1995).
As noted above, since police and security officers often share similarities in regard to
their tasks and culture, the authors begin with a review of literature on police officers’
job satisfaction. Before reviewing the extant research, it should be noted that there are
numerous ways in which police job satisfaction has been measured in the literature. For
instance, Buzawa (1984) has measured it using a scale composed of six aspects (com-
pensation, prestige, supervision, stress, family relations, and self-fulfillment). On the
other hand, Krimmel and Gormley (2003) have measured job satisfaction more generally
Nalla et al.
551
by asking the respondents whether...
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