This study explored the feasibility of conducting work design to promote officer job satisfaction in police organizations. Korean community policing, a police job enrichment agenda, was targeted. The relationship between work design and officer job satisfaction was analyzed. Data were collected by utilizing the questionnaire developed on the basis of the Job Diagnostic Survey. Judgment sampling was performed, and a total of fifty-four community policing officers serving at fifteen substations of three precincts in a city near the state capital were surveyed. Findings indicate that enriching the jobs of officers through work design suffices to promote job satisfaction. The five core work characteristics that are built into the job independently as well as jointly motivate officers of various growth need strength. The three psychological states emerged from the cognitive process that officers went through taking on the task positively lead to job satisfaction. The expectation of experiencing growth at work and the perception of the motivating potential of task do not interact to influence officers’ satisfaction with the job. It appears that Korean community policing is a work design motivating to all jobholders. This study provides theoretical, methodological and policy implications for subsequent research in police job satisfaction.
