Working in teams: negative effects on organisational performance in policing

This study tested predictions derived from social psychological theorising on the deindividuation phenomenon concerning the effects of working alone or collectively on the quality of outcomes of police patrolling activity. Police officers (n = 1,118) reported the resistance experienced when they last carried out each of 12 patrol activities. Officer age, gender, rank and experience did not predict resistance experienced. Increased resistance was associated with the more active afternoon and night shifts, the presence of larger numbers of civilians, and the two (cf. one) officer patrol mode. Although the resistance experienced by officers working collectively in part reflected the influence of work shift on patrol mode, there were substantial proportions of variance in resistance for most patrol activities that could not be explained by the shift variable. The influence of collective patrolling on resistance was consistent with theorising about the origins of deindividuated behaviour, and highlighted the importance of broad conceptualisations of organisational effectiveness when evaluating individual and collective functioning.