A test of the moderating effects of environmental labour on the job demand-control-support model: a study of metropolitan police officers in Thailand

Abstract

A sample of 816 metropolitan police officers in Thailand completed a survey consisting of a set of job characteristics, including job control, support, and job demands, in addition to measures of emotional labour (surface acting and deep acting), and a set of psychological outcomes, to test a proposition based on Karasek and Theorell's (1990) model. 1t was argued that the emotional labour requirements of police officers would act as a moderating factor that would impact adversely on their wellbeing. The survey instruments were translated and back-translated from the original English to Thai, and their psychometric properties were assessed through confirmatory factor analysis. Tests based on validation and cross-validation procedures indicated that the measurement model was valid and reliable. The effects of job characteristics on wellbeing were assessed through canonical correlation and hierarchical moderated multiple regression analyses. Results revealed that deep acting was inversely related to wellbeing, and had a moderating effect on the relationship between job demands and wellbeing/psychological distress. A moderating effect was also detected for surface acting on the relationship between co-worker support and wellbeing. Neither surface acting nor deep acting had a moderating effect on the relationship between job control and wellbeing/ psychological distress. Implications of the results and recommendations for future research are discussed together with methodological limitations of the study.