How does compulsory citizenship behavior disturb police employees' psychological health? The roles of work–family conflict and putting family first

• Date: 04 September 2023
• Pages: 420-439
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPSM-03-2023-0073
• Published date: 04 September 2023
• Subject Matter: Public policy & environmental management,Politics,Public adminstration & management
• Author: Arooba Chaudhary,Amna Umer Cheema,Labiba Sheikh,Talat Islam

How does compulsory citizenship

behavior disturb police employees’

psychological health? The roles

of work–family conflict and putting

family first

Arooba Chaudhary

Institute of Business Administration, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan

Amna Umer Cheema

Institute of English Studies, University of the Punjab,

Lahore, Pakistan, and

Labiba Sheikh and Talat Islam

Institute of Business Administration, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan

Abstract

Purpose –This study investigates how compulsory citizenship behavior (CCB) restricts police employees

from fulfilling their family responsibilities [i.e. work–family conflict (WFC)] and affects their psychological

health. The authors also examined putting family first (PFF) as a conditional variable on the association

between CCB and WFC.

Design/methodology/approach –This quantitative study collected data from 341 police employees on

convenience basis. Further, the authors tackled the issue of common method bias (CMB) by collecting data in

two waves.

Findings –The data were analyzed through structural equation modeling (SEM), and the result revealed that

WFC mediates the association between CCB and police employees’psychological health. In addition, the

authors noted that individuals high in PFF were less likely to experience WFC in the presence of CCB.

Originality/value –This study contributes to the scant literature on police employees’psychological health.

Specifically, this study is the first to investigate the mediating role of WFC between CCB and psychological

health with the boundary condition of PFF.

Keywords Compulsory citizenshipbehavior, Work–family conflict, Putting family first, Psychological health,

Conservation of resources

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

Policingis one of the most-wearing jobsas police have to deal with riskycircumstances and put

their lives in danger as part of their duty (Velazquez and Hernandez, 2019). Police personnel

experience more stress than other professionals, e.g. correctional officers, digital forensic

investigatorsand assistingfields (Galbraith et al., 2021).Police employeesare subjected to risky

situations, erratic schedules, long shifts and drawn-out administrative processes due to the

nature of theirjob (Agrawal and Mahajan, 2022;Islamet al., 2020a). Further,it serves as a front

lineof action and public interventionwhen handlingcrime, severe circumstancesand violations

against civil safety and addresses a wide range of requests from citizens for services

(Deschenes et al.,2019); nonetheless, such difficulties make police officers more vulnerable to

psychological health issues (Kamkar et al., 2020). Psychological health is “inter and

intraindividual levels of positive functioning that can include one’s relatedness with others

and self-referent attitudes that include one’s sense of mastery and personal growth”(Burns,

IJPSM

36,4/5

420

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/0951-3558.htm

Received 9 March 2023

Revised 10 June 2023

17 August 2023

Accepted 17 August 2023

International Journal of Public

Sector Management

Vol. 36 No. 4/5, 2023

pp. 420-439

© Emerald Publishing Limited

0951-3558

DOI 10.1108/IJPSM-03-2023-0073

2017,p. 1). Nowadays, psychologicalhealth is describedas overall well-beingthat includes both

lack of sicknessand the existence of positive factors(Bouchard and Meunier, 2023).Moreover,

poor psychological health has a similarimpact as poor physical health on different aspects of

one’s life, like satisfaction and performance (Beaulieu et al., 2022). Therefore, it is noteworthy

that police employees are more vulnerable to psychological health problems. Despite these

health hazards, the accurate statistics on the frequency and factors associated with

psychological issues among police officers are still unidentified (Syed et al.,2020).

While looking at the causes of police officers’health issues, the role of a job seems organic

and natural. Researchers found that job stress can severely impact police officers’physical

and psychological health, family connections and inclination to employ unhealthy coping

mechanisms like drug usage (Galbraith et al., 2021). Nevertheless, many abrupt,

unpredictable and unavoidable circumstances make their job cumbersome (Desch^

enes

et al., 2019). Therefore, it is widely acknowledged that police personnel face high-stress levels

(Galbraith et al., 2021), which is also supported by biological and self-reported indicators

(Planche et al., 2019). While defining job roles, compulsory citizenship behavior (CCB) is a

related concept that covers extra-role behavior performed against the employees’will

because of external environmental pressure or a particular motive (Vigoda-Gadot, 2006).

In contrast to organizational citizenship behavior (OCB, i.e. voluntary action), employees

rebel against carrying out such activities if they are free to choose (He et al., 2022;Gnankob

et al., 2022). Thus, CCB is a negative look-alike of OCB (Vigoda-Gadot, 2006). It involves non-

voluntary actions that are performed due to pressure from organization, social pressure or

coercive power of boss, which is detrimental to workers, and performance of an organization

(Lin and Chi, 2022). CCB is considered a different way through which those with power and

authority exploit others who have less power and cannot say no or resist (Abdulla, 2019).

Specifically, public administration workers are likelier to perform CCBs because of the nature

of their job and expectations of the institute and society (Min et al., 2020). They face extra

pressure, like the need to abide by bureaucratic laws and regulations, resulting in CCBs

(Yildiz and Elibol, 2021). CCBs are not particularly prevalent in public administration but are

also present in many other industries like information technology, education, manufacturing,

service, finance and health care (Pradhan and Gupta, 2021), with similar demands and

expectations as in public administration, contributing to the predominance of CCBs. For

instance, workers in health care have a strong sense of obligation and responsibility to

provide their patients with the best care possible (Yildiz and Elibol, 2021). Likewise, workers

in the education industry feel compelled to go above and beyond what is required of them to

ensure the success of their students, which can result in CCB (Abukhait et al., 2023). Although

CCBs are profitable for a firm in the short run, they still inflict great harm to employees in the

long run, which is why they received more attention in recent years in public administration

and other disciplines (Yildiz et al., 2023). High CCB demands can backfire on the organization

by increasing counterproductive behaviors, burnout, job stress and turnover intention (He

et al., 2020;Pradhan and Gupta, 2021;Chen et al., 2021a,b;Jin and Hahm, 2019); therefore, this

study is an effort to identify the negative consequences of CCB on the police force of Pakistan.

The CCB seems to be part of police officers’job as Pakistan’s law and order conditions are the

worst in comparison to its other adjacent developing nations, as Pakistani police are not only

fighting the danger of terrorism but also have a far more significant burden which

encompasses duties like upholding law and order, handling protests, observing the activities

of VIPs and controlling their safety (Islam et al., 2020a). On the other hand, the police sector is

one of the most ignored and unexplored fields in Pakistan (Nisar and Rasheed, 2020;Ahmad

and Islam, 2019). Against this backdrop, this study aims to highlight the role of CCB in police

officers’psychological health.

According to Wenjun (2022), CCB adversely affects employees’well-being and the

accomplishment of institutional goals in the long term. When in such a weary job atmosphere,

CCB and

police’s

psychological

health

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