Kleur in blauw: implicaties van acculturatie van allochtone politiemedewerkers op werkgerelateerde uitkomsten
Abstract
The Dutch police organisation actively strives to become an ethnic diverse organization for
reasons of legitimacy, accessibility, equal opportunity for all members of society and to
gain ethnic expertise (LECD, 2005). However, the Police organization has not been successful in hiring and retaining a representative proportion of immigrant employees. The massive outflow, is in some police regions higher than the inflow. This, is a serious problem that the police organizations faces. Furthermore, the vertical mobility of immigrant police workers lags far behind the career progression of their Dutch co-workers. The aim of this study was to study the influence of the preferred acculturation strategies (Berry, 1997) on career prospects (self-efficacy, work satisfaction and motivation) vertical mobility of immigrant police workers. More specifically it is studied whether the importance that is attached to (a) cultural maintenance (related to the ethnic identity of origin) and (b) contact and participation (adaptation to the Dutch (police) culture) is related to work satisfaction, future career motivation and self-efficacy, and actual vertical mobility within the police organization. 49 male and 44 female first- and second generation immigrant police employees (mainly Turkish, Moroccan, Surinam and Antillean descent) filled out a questionnaire and provided information concerning their career steps and salary increase. As predicted, it was found that the importance attached to contact and participation (i.e. an assimilation strategy) positively affected by work and career satisfaction and self-efficacy. Importance of cultural maintenance is negatively affected by work and career satisfaction and the self-efficacy of making a career within the police organization. Results are discussed in relation to opportunities for immigrant workers, the general multicultural attitude within the police organizations and future venues for change.
