How does work well-being affect work well-being? A study on police work in China

Purpose In China, where police officers face unique challenges, such as long working hours, strict hierarchical structures and societal expectations of unwavering service, understanding the drivers of work well-being is particularly urgent. Consequently, this study investigates how job characteristics promote police work well-being among police officers in China through positive and negative busyness perceptions, moderated by psychological capital. Using the job demands-resources model, we define challenge job demands (e.g. workload and time pressure) and hindrance job demands (e.g. bureaucracy and role conflict) as job demand variables and organizational justice, leadership support, autonomy and career development as job resource variables. Design/methodology/approach Employing SPSS 24.0 and Amos 24.0 statistical software, this study utilised multivariate regression analysis to empirically examine a sample of 384 police officers from China, thereby uncovering the relationships among the variables. Findings The study’s findings show that challenge job demands and job resources positively predict work well-being, while hindrance job demands negatively predict it. Positive busyness mediates the link between job resources and work well-being, and negative busyness weakens the association with hindrance job demands. Psychological capital reduces the impact of challenge and hindrance demands on negative busyness and strengthens the effect of organizational justice on positive busyness. Practical implications Work well-being is vital for police officers. Strong psychological capital helps good work well-being boost positive busyness and diminish negative busyness, thereby enhancing work well-being. This offers police authorities insights for optimising job features and provides policy guidance for agencies aiming to improve officers’ work well-being. Originality/value Grounded in the job demands-resources model, this study explores the influence of job resources and job demands on the well-being of police officers and examines the mediating function of perceptions of job busyness alongside the modulating effect of psychological capital.