Diagnostics of internal affairs officers’ motivation during the assimilation period

Nezhkina Larisa Yur'evna ORCID: 0000-0002-7838-0539 PhD in Pedagogy Associate Professor at the Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences of the East Siberian Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia 664074, Russia, Irkutskaya oblast', g. Irkutsk, ul. Lermontova, 110 n.l.y@mail.ru

Novolodskaya Natal'ya Sergeevna ORCID: 0000-0002-4685-9967 Senior Lecturer at the Department of Foreign Languages and Culture of Speech, the East Siberian Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia 664033, Russia, Ul Lermontova oblast', g. Irkutsk, ul. Lermontova, 110, of. ul Lermontova indigos@mail.ru

One of the conditions for the high-quality performance of their professional duties for a law enforcement officer is his motivation and it is obvious that motivation acts as one of the significant business qualities that contribute, among other things, to successful adaptation to work in the internal affairs bodies. During the adaptation period, a young employee needs to master professional knowledge, skills and abilities that he learns in an educational organization of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia; understand the nature and specifics of activities in the internal affairs bodies; learn to interact in the service team and management; realize the need for systematic work on himself, improving his professionalism, and more. However, long-term experience of service in law enforcement agencies shows that young employees during the adaptation period sometimes have difficulties related to the development of professional knowledge, skills and abilities, compliance with official discipline, interaction with colleagues and management, and many others. At the same time, the quality of the operational and service tasks performed by the young employee and, in general, his effectiveness in the law enforcement system will depend on how successfully the young employee adapts to the profession. Motivation of a young employee is one of the significant qualities that contribute to successful adaptation to professional activity in the law enforcement system and the reliability of professional duty throughout the service ^[1].

In this regard, a psychodiagnostic study of 150 young employees studying in an educational organization of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation was conducted.

In order to study the motivation of young employees, the following methods were used: interview method, questionnaire, questionnaires. At the beginning of the study, interviews were conducted with young employees and some questions were asked to young employees, and we present their answers. So, to the questions: "Tell me, are you interested in mastering the profession of a law enforcement officer?"; "Do you enjoy the experience you get?" 32% of young employees answered that mastering the profession arouses their interest and usually brings pleasure; 38% of respondents noted that the service is sometimes interesting, but often official duties are performed without much interest and pleasure, out of necessity; 30% of employees – perform their duties, "because it is necessary" that they do not experience pleasure in the process of mastering the profession.

The next question that was asked to the young employees was: "Why did you choose the profession of a law enforcement officer?" In general, young employees expressed different opinions on this question, but the majority answered the following: "After serving in the Army, it was difficult to get another job, so I went to the police"; "A friend called me to work in the authorities. In general, I am satisfied with this kind of work, because I can get a stable salary, and the work is also stable"; "My relatives work in the system, so I knew at school that I would go to work in the authorities"; "I grew up in a big family, I need to help my younger brothers and sisters"; "I think I can make my career in the organs"; "I recently got married, a child was born, I need a job, so I came to the organs."A small number of young employees 15% of them talked about a childhood dream: "I've dreamed of catching criminals since I was a kid."

At the end of the interview, we asked the following question: "How many years do you plan to serve in the internal affairs bodies?" 20% of young employees replied that they want to serve in the law enforcement system for life; 35% of them plan to serve no more than twelve and a half years "I will work in the police until the minimum length of service, then retire"; 25% of the respondents said they would quit the law enforcement system if there was an opportunity in a more promising and highly paid job; 20% of respondents answered: "Time will tell", "It will be seen there", "How the service will go", "I don't think for the future".

The conducted interview allowed us to draw some conclusion that for many young employees, service in the law enforcement system is rather a forced activity. These employees came to the internal affairs bodies due to different life circumstances, or rather forced circumstances, so they treat the service as an opportunity to satisfy their most necessary, vital needs. Hence the lack of interest in the profession and, as a result, dissatisfaction with the service and the desire to complete it faster. In general, the answers received showed insufficient motivation among young employees to master professional experience. 

The next step in our research is focused on a deeper study of the motives of professional activity among young employees of the internal affairs bodies. For this purpose, we used the test "Structure of motivation of labor activity" by K. Zampfir in the modification of A. A. Rean. The test allowed us to determine the type of motivation: internal motivation, external positive motivation, external negative motivation.

According to K. Zampfir, internal motivation assumes that a person strives for self-realization, the development of professionalism. Extrinsic motivation is a person's desire for social prestige, high salary, career growth, etc. External motives are usually differentiated into positive (motives of success, achievement, respect, etc.), and negative (motives of avoiding criticism, failures, and others) ^[2]. The results of the study of external and internal motivation in young employees are presented in Table 1.

Table 1

Results of the study of motivation of young employees

internal affairs bodies

As can be seen from Table 1, a high level of internal motivation is noted in 6% of the subjects. These employees tend to strive for self-realization in the profession. The average level of internal motivation was revealed in 11% of employees.

A high level of external positive motivation was revealed in 37% of respondents. In this case, employees are aimed at achieving social status, career growth, etc. The average level of external positive motivation belongs to 30% of the subjects.

A high level of external negative motivation is noted in 7% of respondents. Employees strive to avoid life failures. The average level of external negative motivation belongs to 9% of employees.

        The next step in the study is aimed at minimizing the formal responses of respondents, and for this we used the "Associative Experiment" method, which allowed us to study the internal motivation of young employees through their profession image. The employees were asked to write the associations they had with the word – incentive, and in our experiment, the concept of "work in the police" was such a word-incentive.

Based on the results of the respondents' responses using the "Associative experiment" method, we identified 10 basic concepts that are most common and of importance to the subjects with whom they associate work in the police.  These concepts were distributed according to the frequency of mention by employees in the following ranking order: 1. Stability. 2. Service. 3. Career. 4. Pension. 5. Hard work. 6. Order. 7. The law. 8. Responsibility. 9. Security. 10. Helping people.

Thus, the concepts of "stability", "service", "career", "pension", "hard work" were in the first five positions. It can be said that work in the police for young employees of the internal affairs bodies is stable, and at the same time they note that this is a service that allows you to achieve career growth and earn a pension. However, they also highlight that it is hard work.

Such concepts as "order", "law", "responsibility", "security" and "helping people" mostly turned out to be not particularly preferred. At the same time, it is important to note that such concepts as "law", "order", "helping people" are the main content of activities in the internal affairs bodies and significant functions of the police. In addition, the concept of "responsibility" occupies the eighth position in the ranking order of the associative experiment. It should be emphasized that it is one of the key concepts in the personal profile of an employee, in other words, one of the most significant in a number of business qualities that reflect the employee's attitude to the fulfillment of professional tasks assigned to him.

As a result of the application of the associative experiment, such leading motives for choosing a profession as the need for stability were revealed, while there is an understanding that it is necessary to serve in the internal affairs bodies; the desire for career growth and a preferential pension; the realization that this is hard work, while there is little importance for employees of responsibility and the motive of helping people.

The conducted experiment made it possible to clarify the features of the internal motivation of young employees. Further research was aimed at studying the motivational structure of the employee's personality, for this purpose the test "Diagnostics of the motivational structure of personality" by V.E. Milman was used. The results are shown in Figure 1.

Fig.1. Indicators of the study of the motivational sphere of the personality of employees of internal affairs bodies.

Figure 1 reflects the orientation of the personality of employees, the desire to meet the following significant needs: 9.2% of employees consider life support to be a necessary need, 8.75% of employees consider comfort in life to be significant, communication as an important need is highlighted by 8.5% of employees, general activity as a significant motive is noted by 7.1% of employees, creative activity is a priority for 7.6% of respondents, 6.7% consider it necessary to be socially useful to society and have a social status.

According to the results of this methodology, we see that, in general, employees have a pronounced predominance of motives related to comfortable life support and satisfaction of communication needs. Motives aimed at self-realization are of secondary importance. The results obtained with the help of V.E. Milman's methodology "Diagnostics of the motivational structure of personality" reflect the main motive for choosing the profession of an employee of the internal affairs bodies to have social benefits, stable earnings.

Thus, the conducted research made it possible to determine that the predominant part of young employees declare outwardly positive motivation to work in the internal affairs bodies and a positive attitude towards it. Among the leading motives for choosing a profession, young employees note the opportunity to have benefits, stable earnings. External negative motivation, acting as a motive to avoid failure or a motive to protect against failure, belongs to 7% of employees. The internal motivation of most young employees coincides with the externally presented only in the need to have a stable income and benefits. At the same time, the motive associated with the substantive aspects of the activity is insufficiently formed, the service is understood not as helping people and implementing the law, but as an opportunity to stably ensure their personal life.

In connection with the above, the formation of internal positive motivation for employees to work during training in an educational organization of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation is significant. It is obvious that positive internal motivation of employees contributes to the successful implementation of operational tasks. As conditions for the implementation of the formation of internal motivation for young employees to work, we suggest using adaptation and motivational training, professionally-oriented business games, psychodiagnostic techniques, meetings with veterans and many other methods.