Stressors among security agents

 Stressors among security agents

Introduction

The security field is always associated with several demands of healthcare, however the issue of stress of security agents is not always given the attention it merits considering that undervaluing the effect of stress might gradually degrade the effectiveness of the security field, in other words if security agents are stressed, there is a high chance that security will be vulnerable.

According to (Selye, 1957), defined stress as the nonspecific response of the organism to any demand placed upon it, adopting from (Lazarus and Folkman 1984) one can see Stress as a specific relationship between a person and their environment, which is viewed by the person as difficult and beyond the scope of their resources, thus threatening their wellbeing hence threatening the wellbeing of the environment he/she is in, this way of looking stress is critical when it comes to the field of security. (Alexander, D.A., Walker, L.G., Innes, G., & Irving, B.L. 1993) related the word stress within the police to danger; this means that if there is stress in security agents this will automatically equate to danger.

Like any other concern or problem, solving it must come from looking at the source/origin of the problem; to address stress in security agents we must look at the stress pushing factors, and establish if stress is distinct entity? Or if it originates from different factors normally referred as stressors. Conferring to (Wade and Travis, 1990) stress involve a wide range of experiences and what is perceived as stressful for one person may not be perceived the same by another person, for example to security agents working at JKIA airport, one security agent might be uncomfortable with the use of IT in the process of detecting and apprehending criminals and use his natural detection skills. Another security agent might feel not competent or might not trust his natural detection skills and prefers the use of IT. Either security agent may feel hampered and stressed by being forced into other’s mode.

It should be noted that stressors originate from different factors and the effect is not uniformly the same to all people, as established above what stresses one security officer might not have the same effect on the other.

While referring to (McLean, A. 1979), for the purpose of identifying stressors for security agents we can categorize them into five groups that are; stressors inherent to the task; these are the stressors that are originating from the type of work security agents deal, in other words role-based stress; the job also creates other stressors that are related to relationships with colleagues and institution; these comes from the relationship with other security agents and their superior or the organizational structure of that particular security institution as a whole; another stressor might originate from the climate of where the work is being done; in this sense security agents meet a lot of people and people might have a different view on them and also as found in other fields the issue of economics always carries some elements of stress when employees are not paid according to their job.

It should be noted that there are various stressors that can still be identified in order to address the purpose of this paper but however this paper will only look at the ones mentioned above, not that they are the most significant ones, as we have established that what stresses on individual might not stress the other but nevertheless these can be uses for generalization purposes. The following pages will try to look at how these stressors affect security agents.

Stressors among security agents

stressors inherent to the task

Conferring to (Territo &Vetter 1981) it can be argued that police and security agents have the most stressful task since it is one of the few occupations where an employee is asked continually to face physical dangers and to put his or her life on the line at any time. These stressors are the ones which are always present to some extent, such as the stress which comes with the knowledge that anytime a security agent might find him/herself in crossfire, the knowledge that when one leaves home to the job he might not come back; this imposing more stressors from home the feeling of leaving your family to a duty that you might be performing your last time police officers experience this more daily when they have to draw their guns when approaching armed criminals gun.

As most jobs in the world always have balance, security agents job especially the police lack balance; as like in accounting everything must balance for example a business man loses a client and makes another on the same spot; a doctor loses a patient today but brings a baby into the world tomorrow. Security jobs are always dealing with the criminals, every time police is being called for some sort of trouble its less likely police or security agents are called for mingle and discussion. This nature of work exposes security agents to constant response to trouble, one can say they live for the troubled; this nature of work is always packed with stress and risky actions.

Stressors related to relationships with colleagues, institution and system;

This type of stress might from new changes within the security institution the agent works in; nowadays most changes are bringing the use of IT, which most of the agents are not competent with and this result into some stress developing. Referring to an Australian study carried out in Victoria Police department, it established that the major stressors among the victoria police were related to organizational factors and systems (Shanahan’s 1992) , for example this might become as a stressor particularly to police officers who put much effort in arresting criminals and the justice system somehow lets the criminal back to society this makes the officers wonder even why they had out much effort in apprehending the criminal, the criminal justice system creates additional stress. To add on also court appearances hinder with security agent’s work assignments, personal time, and even sleeping schedules are affected; this then ends up in some confusion between the effort on the job and the result of the effort, and this will also accumulate some stress.

Poor relationships and lack of support among security agents might also cause stress, when working in the security field relationships with other security agents is a must; good relationship will make the work easier and make it easier to cope with problems even for the new agent. But when there is aggression in the security institution and zero-support, this creates a lot of pressure that later brings stress.

The organizational structure of a security institution can still affect the security agent when it comes to ranking and hierarchy, this happens when the up chain of command makes changes in policies or laws that might affect the security agents, as most these are passed without consulting the security agents it results for them feeling undermined and this might result in some sort of stress. Though not usual but also the way the institution sets its working hours might affect the agents, according to (Brown &

Campbell, 1990) in most of developing countries police officers find themselves working overtime and are subject to frequent rotating shifts, this unrest and overtime working always bring stress not only in the security field but in all other working environments

Climate of where the work is being done;

This climate is subjective to community perception and attitude towards security agents, it’s not a secret that most of the public regard security agents their enemy. As noted by Weaver et al., 1988) police officers or security agents tend to have difficulty in making friends with non-police or non-security agents, Weaver et al., 1988) goes on to note that the results of secrecy and growing adaptive suspiciousness and cynicism brings about some levels of stress. Similarly, (Bahn, 1984) suggests that Police force has been under public disapproval for quite some time. Most of the public accuse of police of being rough on people with ignorance of how the whole situation begun; this miss-trust and hatred from the public to the security agents or police raises some stress; this stress originates probably in the collision of adhering to the principle of service and protecting people with the disapproval of whom they are to serve.

Economic constraints

Being a security agent is a professional job like any other job; so it requires good payment and compensations. Security agent’s salary should go vis-à-vis their job nature. Taking a bullet for someone should not be paid as picking up a phone at a call center. Am not saying that they should be paid more than everyone but their salary should match their job description. Low payment and inadequate resources always make a security agent’s job more problematic and this result in stress.

Conclusion

In summary, there are a range of stressors towards security agents, we have seen that what stresses on individual might not stress the other, however there are some stressors that are likely to be shared by most security agents, this paper has identified a very few in the big pool of stressors out there; the paper has briefly looked at how stressors can be inherent to the type of task one is performing, established also that the relationship between the security agent and his colleagues and system if not understood and practiced well might also be a source of stress, the paper didn’t not ignore the climate and economic factors as potential source of stress towards security agents.

REFERENCES

Alexander, D.A., Walker, L.G., Innes, G., & Irving, B.L. (1993). Police stress at work.

Bahn, C. (1984). Police socialization in the Eighties: Strains in the forging of an

Brown, J.E., & Campbell, E.A. (1990). Sources of occupational stress in the police.

Lazarus, R.S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal and coping. New York: Springer. London: The Police Foundation.

McLean, A.A. (1979). Work stress. California: Addison-Wesley. occupational identity. Journal of Police Science and Administration, 12, 390 –

Selye H. Stress of life. 1957. London: Longmans Green.

Shanahan, P. (1992). A study of attitudes and behaviours: Working in the police force

Stokes A, Kite K. Flight Stress: stress, fatigue, and performance in aviation. Brookfield, VT: Ashgate Publishing Co., 1994.

Wade, C. and Tavris, C. (1990). Psychology (2nd Ed). New York: Harper Collins

Weaver, J.R., Soutar, G.N., & Savery, L.K. (1988). Western Australian Police Union Work and Stress, 4, 305 – 318.

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