ABSTRACT

This chapter treats stress as it affects human performance within the context of police organizational needs. Stress is generated from a number of different categories of sources and is manifested in terms of changes in human reliability, which in turn impact the effectiveness of the organization. A dynamic model of stress generation as a mediator of both individual and organizational value systems is presented. Various sources of human reliability are considered together with means of preventing or correcting lowered human reliability. The model is then elaborated on and extended to include various forms of management interventions directed to reduction of harmful stress, thereby enhancing individual and group work performance and, in turn, improving organizational effectiveness.