Date of Conferral

2021

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Public Policy and Administration

Advisor

Olivia Yu

Abstract

A gap in literature exists surrounding years of service, training, and ethical attitudes within the law enforcement industry. The proposed hypothesis was that years of service in law enforcement and hours of in-service training were interactively related to an officer's ethical attitudes as related to ethical orientation. The purpose of this study was to examine organizational socialization within the law enforcement profession, specifically as demonstrated through the interaction effects of factors relating to ethical orientation and scores measured by the Ethics Position Questionnaire of male Northern Kentucky and Southern Oregon police officers. The major theoretical propositions for this study came from organizational socialization and ethics position theory. A sample of Northern Kentucky and Southern Oregon certified male police officers who underwent minimum mandatory specified hours of annual training completed the Ethics Position Questionnaire. Multiple regression analysis examined the interaction effect of annual in-service training and years of service on an officer’s ethical attitudes relating to ethical orientation while controlling for age, education level, and race. The results showed that the interaction effects did not relate to ethical orientation due to the multiple regression model yielding no statistical significance. This study’s implications for positive social change are that it contributes to empirical research that can advance further studies in the field.

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