The security of people, animals, and the environment has been present in our society for a long time, and trends indicate that it will become even more important in the future. It is crucial that security services and the work of security guards are carried out with quality and professionalism, which is not possible without appropriate working conditions. Without these conditions, security guards cannot successfully perform their duties. In my master's thesis, I examined how the use of coping strategies affects the job performance of security guards, the impact of work experience on the choice of coping strategies, and whether shift work is associated with job performance. The study included 157 Slovenian security guards from various security companies. For the purposes of the research, they completed the Brief Cope questionnaire on coping strategies and the Individual Work Performance Questionnaire (IWPQ). The results showed that security guards with more work experience do not use effective coping strategies significantly more than their younger colleagues, despite expectations based on previous literature. However, more experienced security guards make significantly less use of avoidance strategies. Additionally, those who rely more on effective coping strategies achieved higher scores on job performance scales, with this correlation proving to be statistically significant. On the other hand, we did not confirm the assumption that security guards working in shifts achieve lower job performance scores, which was also suggested by previous studies. This study provides a solid foundation for further research in this field in Slovenia. The knowledge gained from this research will be beneficial both to work and organizational psychology researchers and to practitioners who design intervention programs aimed at reducing stress and improving job performance in the security sector.
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