Views of SAPS social workers on essential development areas of police members' emotional intelligence

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Police members regularly deal with emotionally charged and stressful situations as theyperform their duties. The emotionally intense police environment requires of them to usetheir emotional intelligence skills. They need to be able to understand and regulate theirown emotions and deal with the emotions of community members affected by traumaticincidents. Different jobs may require varying levels of emotional intelligence, but in thepolice environment a high level of emotional intelligence is important in the execution ofduties. Therefore, members require emotional intelligence skills to become morecompetent, professional and efficient in their work.Emotional intelligence is a set of skills such as intrapersonal, interpersonal, stressmanagement, adaptability and general mood that can be learned and improved onregardless of an individual's current level of functioning. The essential developmentareas of police members' emotional intelligence were unknown and were exploredthrough the views of social workers. In this study, the nature of a police member's work,the role of the social worker in the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the need forthe development of police members' emotional intelligence were described. Aconceptual framework for the development of emotional intelligence within a lawenforcement context was provided and recommendations by social workers for thedevelopment of police members' emotional intelligence were presented.Qualitative research methods were used in this study. A combination of exploratory anddescriptive research designs was utilsed as framework for the implementation of theresearch approach. Purposive sampling was used to select the participants. Face-tofaceand telephonic interviews were conducted. Data were gathered by means of semistructuredindividual interviews with 20 social workers. A pilot study was carried out totest the measurement instrument. The design of the interview schedule was based onthe information obtained from the literature review.The findings of the empirical investigation confirmed the findings of the literature study.It was found that emotional intelligence competence can improve service delivery andenhance career satisfaction. It can enhance police members' social competency indealing with their professional and personal lives and improve intrapersonalrelationships in the workplace. Emotional intelligence skills were found to be useful inStellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.zaiiidealing more effectively with crowd control, domestic violence incidents, resistance toarrests, murder cases, assisting rape victims, child abuse cases and taking statements.It was confirmed by social workers through the use of examples that police memberswere able to use their emotional intelligence skills, but they need improvement anddevelopment in all areas of emotional intelligence that were previously mentioned.The recommendations resulting from the study indicate that the social work departmentin the SAPS should embark on the development of an emotional intelligenceintervention in order to enhance police members' emotional intelligence competencies,since there is no such intervention. Secondly, as pointed out by social workers, theirdepartment should take such a programme forward, given the fact that it is alreadyoffering pro-active programmes to police members. Lastly, it was suggested thatresearch be done on the viability should such a programme be mandatory and linked totheir performance enhancement appraisal and future promotion possibilities.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University