Adaptive and communicative potential of police patrol officers at various stages of professional activity
The article presents the results of a study of the adaptive and communicative potentials of police officers at different stages of service in the internal affairs bodies. The authors present the results of the analysis of the influence of the length of service factor on the indicators of the adaptive and communicative potential of the patrol and guard service employees, carried out in the study. The authors have identified the most vulnerable period of service for the development of professional psychological competencies from 3 to 7 years. For a group of police officers with a 3-7-year service record, a borderline level of communication skills is characteristic, which can manifest itself in periodic conflicts with others. The article describes the preferred communication strategies of police guards at different stages of service. The analysis of communication strategies in a group of employees of the patrol and guard service with a work experience of 1-3 years showed that the most preferred strategies are the strategies of compromise, evasion and adaptation. For specialists with 3-7 years of work experience, the most typical communication strategies are confrontation and, to a lesser extent, compromise. For specialists with 7-12 years of experience, the most typical communication strategies are cooperation and compromise. Thus, the results of the study show that the communication strategies of police guards undergo changes in the course of gaining professional experience. At the beginning of their work experience, police officers try to resort to a compromise in communication, but more often they avoid conflicting interactions. As professional experience grows, the choice of communication strategies expands and by the 3rd year of service confrontation prevails in interaction with people. The adaptability questionnaire (MLO-AM) was used to assess the adaptive capabilities of patrol guards. The communicative competence of employees was assessed using the Thomas-Kilmann test. In total, 104 police officers with various length of service in law enforcement agencies took part in the study.