Perception of police officer effectiveness in China: Does organisational support matter?
| Date | 01 September 2020 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X19862015 |
| Published date | 01 September 2020 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Perception of police officer
effectiveness in China:
Does organisational
support matter?
Francis D Boateng
Department of Legal Studies, The University of Mississippi, Mississippi,
USA
Guangzhen Wu
Department of Sociology, University of Utah, Utah, USA
Abstract
The primary objective of this study is to examine the influence of officers’ perceptions of
organisational support on their perceived effectiveness in China. The study also exam-
ined demographic differences in how Chinese police officers perceived the support they
receive from the police organisation. To achieve these objectives, the present study
surveyed and analysed data obtained from 271 officers who were conveniently selected
from one of the two major national police universities in China. Findings from the
analysis revealed that officers’ perception of organisational support and their effective-
ness were unrelated. However, findings indicated significant demographic differences in
perceived organisational support. Officers’ rank, department and the location of their
agencies predicted perceptions of organisation support. Policy implications of the study
findings are discussed.
Keywords
Policing, police effectiveness, organisation, support, China
Corresponding author:
Francis D Boateng, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice, Department of Legal Studies, University
of Mississippi, University Park, MS 38677, USA.
Email: fboateng@olemiss.edu
The Police Journal:
Theory, Practice and Principles
2020, Vol. 93(3) 229–247
ªThe Author(s) 2019
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/0032258X19862015
journals.sagepub.com/home/pjx
Introduction
The primary objective of the present study is to examine the influence of perception of
organisational support on officers’ perceived effectiveness
1
in China. Additionally, the
study examines demographic differences in officers’ perception of organisational sup-
port in China. In recent times, the influence of organisational characteristics on employ-
ees’ work habits has been extensively studied (Adebayo, 2005; Boateng, 2014; Eder and
Eisenberger, 2008; Shoss et al., 2013; Tankebe, 2010). Collectively, these studies have
concluded that employees model their behaviours based on their perceptions of available
supports in the organisation. Organisational and psychological studies have specifically
demonstrated that employees who believed the organisation cares for their emotional and
social needs as well as their well-being tend to perform effectively at work (Bowling and
Mitchel, 2011; Eisenberger et al., 1986). Similarly, the few police studies that have
examined the relationship between organisational support and officers’ effectiveness
have observed a significant positive relationship between the two variables (Boateng,
2014; Gillet et al., 2013). Thus, police organisational support is largely considered a
booster for effective performance.
The present study supplements previous efforts in two ways. First, we analysed field
data collected in China to understan d better the relationship between org anisational
support and officers’ work behaviour, and to provide a recent evidence to support such
a relationship. Second, findings from the present study will enhance our knowledge on
the explanatory power of socio-demographic characteristics in understanding variations
of officers’ perceptions of organisational support. This will help to tailor efforts directed
at improving supports for officers.
Policing in China: Structure and contextual review
It is nearly four decades since China adopted the open-door policy to allow foreign
businesses to operate in China, and since then the country has experienced remarkable
social and economic transformation. The policy, which was adopted by Deng Xiaoping
in 1978, changed the phase of policing in the country in several significant ways (Dai,
2008). For instance, the passage of the 1995 Police Law was a landmark effort to
professionalise policing in China. The law was an attempt by the Chinese government
to control and regulate policing in the country (Sun and Wu, 2010). The Chinese police,
according to Jiao (2001), have created a mobile patrol programme relying upon the use
of marked patrol vehicles, adopted rapid response strategies with the help of modern
techniques, and increasingly employed a network-based crime information system, all of
which indicate that the police force in China has become more modernised and profes-
sional. Evidently, professionalisation and modernisation in Chinese policing is one part
of the greater social, political and economic development that started in the late 1970s
and fundamentally changed the landscape of the country. However, it should be noted
that police reform in China was a response to rising crime rates (Boateng and Wu, 2018;
Wu and Makin, 2019; Cao and Dai, 2001) and increasing challenges that the police were
facing in exercising effective social control in the new social context characterised by
greater population mobility (Sun and Wu, 2010).
230 The Police Journal: Theory, Practice and Principles 93(3)
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