Integrity in the South African police service: the role of organisational climate and dispositional variables

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between integrity, organisational climate, sense of coherence and locus of control in the South African Police Service (SAPS). A cross-sectional design was used for this purpose and the population involved consisted of 1776 police personnel stationed at the 14 presidential police stations. The questionnaires administered were a biographical questionnaire, the adapted Integrity Profile 200 questionnaire, the Organisational Climate questionnaire, the Locus of Control questionnaire and the Life Orientation questionnaire. Canonical and multiple regression analysis showed that the individual and corporate facets of integrity are indeed multidimensional. The individual and corporate facets of integrity are predicted by combinations of situational factors (organisational climate), such as interpersonal climate, organisational support, supervision and task characteristics, as well as dispositional factors (locus of control and sense of coherence). The partial correlations showed that the dispositional variables were not moderating or intervening variables. The relationship that the dispositional variables have with the integrity factors is therefore direct and not indirect as is the case with moderating variables.