The Work Ethical Behaviour of Nigerian Police Officers as a Function of Self-Esteem, Gender and Age

This study investigated the influence of self-esteem, gender and age on work ethical behaviour of police officers. 200 Police Officers comprising of one hundred and six (106) males (53%) and ninety four (94) females (47%) with their ages ranging from 18-51 from the Imo State Police Command in the South Eastern region of Nigeria were selected using convenience sampling technique. They were administered with a self developed work ethic questionnaire and index of self-esteem questionnaire developed by Hudson (1982). Three hypotheses were tested; (i) Self-esteem will not be a statistical significant factor affecting work ethical behaviour of police officers; (ii) Gender will not be a statistical factor affecting work ethical behaviour of police officers. (iii) Age will not be a statistical significant factor affecting work ethical behaviour of police officers. A cross sectional survey was adopted, while F-test for 3-way ANOVA was used to analyze the data. Results showed that self-esteem and gender influenced adherence to work ethics (P<.05) while age did not. Officers with high self-esteem in general and female officers in particular were more ethical in their behaviour.