Stress is common and general among the people in the world. It is experienced by every person physically and mentally in their day-to-day life. Hence, Policing is widely considered to be one of the most stressful occupations, wherein organizational and operational stressors put law enforcement officer’s physical and mental health at risk. Occupational stress badly affects performance, and many studies revealed that the level of stress experienced differs with the type of job. Accordingly, this research paper demonstrates how Police Officers experienced occupational stress and its impact on their performance. This study is a mixed method study using quantitative data gathered from a questionnaire and qualitative data from five in-depth interviews. A sample of 110 police officers from other ranks was taken from the central province of Sri Lanka. Findings showed that lack of resources mainly influenced police performance. In contrast with previous empirical work, the findings demonstrate that operational issues and less career growth have an adverse influence on police performance. This study has drawn the linkage between organizational stressors, operational stressors and police performance of other rank officers in the Sri Lanka context. This research was based on the data of central province officers only is a limitation. Also, the findings are limited to the other ranking officers and therefore future research directions could be focused to the inspectorate officers, senior gazetted officers.

Acquadro maran, D., Varetto, A., Zedda, M., & Ieraci, V. (2015). Occupational stress, anxiety and coping strategies in police officers. Occupational Medicine, 65(6), 466–473. https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqv060

Andersen, J. P., Papazoglou, K., Koskelainen, M., Nyman, M., Gustafsberg, H., & Arnetz, B. B. (2015). Applying Resilience Promotion Training Among Special Forces Police Officers. SAGE Open, 5(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244015590446

Arble, E., Daugherty, A. M., & Arnetz, B. B. (2018). Models of first responder coping: Police officers as a unique population. Stress and Health, 34(5), 612–621. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.2821

Au, W. T., Wong, Y. Y., Leung, K. M., & Chiu, S. M. (2019). Effectiveness of Emotional Fitness Training in Police. Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, 34(2), 199–214. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-018- 9252-6

Authors, F. (2016). Policing?: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management Article information?:Patrol Officer Job Satisfaction Scale ( POJSS ): Psychometrics and Associations with.

Gershon, R. R. M., Barocas, B., Canton, A. N., Xianbin Li, & Vlahov, D. (2009). Mental, physical, and behavioral outcomes associated with perceived work stress in police officers. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 36(3), 275–289. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093854808330015

Gibson, C. L., Swatt, M. L., & Jolicoeur, J. R. (2001). Assessing the generality of general strain theory: The relationship among occupational stress experienced by male police officers and domestic forms of violence. Journal of Crime and Justice, 24(2), 29–57. https://doi.org/10.1080/0735648X.2001.9721133 Giessing, L., Frenkel, M. O., Zinner, C., Rummel, J., Nieuwenhuys, A., Kasperk, C., Brune, M., Engel,

F. A., & Plessner, H. (2019). Effects of coping-related traits and psychophysiological stress responses on police recruits’ shooting behavior in reality-based scenarios. Frontiers in Psychology, 10(JULY), 1– 16. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01523

Huang, S. (Sam), van der Veen, R., & Song, Z. (2018). The impact of coping strategies on occupational stress and turnover intentions among hotel employees. Journal of Hospitality Marketing and Management, 27(8), 926–945. https://doi.org/10.1080/19368623.2018.1471434

Psychosocial Work Environment among Patrolling Police Officers. Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, 31(4), 229–237. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-015-9189-y

Parikh, P., Taukari, A., & Bhattacharya, T. (2004). Occupational Stress and Coping among Nurses.

Journal of Health Management, 6(2), 115–127. https://doi.org/10.1177/097206340400600203

Qureshi, H., Lambert, E. G., & Frank, J. (2019). The relationship between stressors and police job involvement. International Journal of Police Science and Management, 21(1), 48–61. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461355719832621

Saunders, M. N. K., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2019). Chapter 4: Understanding research philosophy and approaches to theory development. In Research Methods for Business Studies (Issue January). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330760964_Research_Methods_for_Business_Students_Cha pter_4_Understanding_research_philosophy_and_approaches_to_theory_development

Siu, O. L., Cheung, F., & Lui, S. (2015). Linking Positive Emotions to Work Well-Being and Turnover Intention Among Hong Kong Police Officers: The Role of Psychological Capital. Journal of Happiness Studies, 16(2), 367–380. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-014-9513-8

Swanson, V., Power, K. G., & Simpson, R. J. (1998). Occupational stress and family life: A comparison of male and female doctors. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 71(3), 237–260. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1998.tb00675.x

Violanti, J. M., Burchfiel, C. M., Miller, D. B., Andrew, M. E., Dorn, J., Wactawski-Wende, J., Beighley, C. M., Pierino, K., Joseph, P. N., Vena, J. E., Sharp, D. S., & Trevisan, M. (2006). The Buffalo Cardio-Metabolic Occupational Police Stress (BCOPS) pilot study: Methods and participant characteristics.         Annals              of                                             Epidemiology,    16(2),          148–156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annepidem.2005.07.054

Yun, I., & Lee, C. (2015). Hazardous alcohol use among South Korean police officers?: Examining predictions from general strain theory. International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice, 43(2), 194– 213. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlcj.2014.08.002