Abstract:

Applying mindfulness-based training in the workplace has shown multiple benefits in employee engaged in highly stressful occupations, such as policing.
The aim of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of the Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) training in workplace on reducing the intensity of s tress and achieving well-being in the professional life of Croatian police officers with reference to some dimensions of their employee engagement. The objectives of the paper are to examine (by using the self-assessment method) the effects of the MBCT training in reducing the intensity of operational and organizational stress, in the improvement of communication skills, and certain operational characteristics of the police tasks.

The empirical research was conducted on purposive sample of first responders from The Seventh Police District in Zagreb, were the participants of the first training cycle of “Mindfulness in the Croatian Police 2018” which was fulfilled between March and August of 2018. The research was carried across out two measuring points, immediately upon the MBCT training, (N=9) and 18 months later (N=3). A qualitative methodology was applied that included synchronous semi-structured group interview, non-participatory observation and inductive content analysis.

The obtained results relating to both measurement points have proven to be in line with recent research into the organizational culture and internal communication of the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Croatia, and these point to the need to raise the level of quality communication of police officers at all levels to increase both personal gratification and their safety. In this context, the findings point to following:
a) an increased sense of respondents’ quality of life relating to achievements;
b) the maintenance of their full awareness of the “here and now” and
c) to their ability to recognize and self-regulate their patterns of behavior in stressful situations.

Newly developed skills have impact on the reduction of both operational and organizational stress within the segment of vertical (ascending) and horizontal dimensions of internal communication as well as in public speaking situations. Positive experiences of one's own emotional empowerment are supported by the exercising the MBCT method (even with low-intensity), and it is strongly recommended to other police officers as well as to the employees of other emergency and intervention services.

However, seeing that the results did not reveal change in the quality and the level of motivation for work of these examinees sample, nor did it reflect on their enthusiasm, energy, and focus, it seems that the MBCT training fails to deliver any real impact on the improvement of the work engagement. Seeing the global scarcity of qualitative research into the relations between the topic of mindfulness and the state of flow as dimension of work engagement of the police officers, the results can be said to expand insights into this problem and be used as a basis for future, more complex research.

Keywords:

Croatian police officers, flow, internal communication, MBCT, self-regulation