Perceived COVID-19 impacts on auxiliary police in China

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to assesses whether supervisor justice is linked to COVID-19 negative and positive impacts directly and indirectly through the mechanisms of stress and resiliency among auxiliary police in China.

Design/methodology/approach

This study utilized survey data from more than 300 auxiliary police in a large Chinese provincial capital city in 2020. Structural equation modeling was conducted to analyze the direct and indirect relationships between supervisor justice and COIVD-19 impacts.

Findings

Results indicate that supervisor justice connects to COVID-19 negative impacts indirectly through stress. Supervisor justice is also indirectly related to positive impact through resiliency.

Research limitations/implications

The findings' generalizability is limited due to using a nonrandom sample of officers. Officers' emotional states in the forms of stress and resiliency are important in mediating the association between supervisory justice and COVID-19 impacts.

Originality/value

The present study represents one of the first attempts to empirically investigate the occupational experiences of a vital group of frontline workers in Chinese policing. This study also generates evidence to support the importance of officers' emotional conditions in reducing negative COVID-19 impacts in an authoritarian country.

Citation

Chen, Y., Sun, I., Wu, Y. and Han, Z. (2023), "Perceived COVID-19 impacts on auxiliary police in China", Policing: An International Journal, Vol. 46 No. 2, pp. 401-417. https://doi.org/10.1108/PIJPSM-08-2022-0114