J Happiness Stud (2015) 16:367–380

DOI 10.1007/s10902-014-9513-8

RESEARCH PAPER

Linking Positive Emotions to Work Well-Being

and Turnover Intention Among Hong Kong Police
Officers: The Role of Psychological Capital

Oi Ling Siu • Francis Cheung • Steve Lui

Published online: 15 February 2014

 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Abstract This study aimed to investigate the mechanism underlying the relationships
among positive emotions, work well-being (job satisfaction and stress symptoms) and
turnover intention based on the broaden-and-build theory (Fredrickson in Am Psychol
56:218–226, 2001) and conservation of resources theory (Hobfoll in Am Psychol
44:513–524, 1989; Rev Gen Psychol 6:307–324, 2002). A total of 311 Chinese police
officers in Hong Kong were recruited in this study. Our results showed that, in line with
previous studies, psychological capital (PsyCap) was composed of four dimensions,
namely self-efficacy, hope, optimism and resiliency. Furthermore, we found that positive
emotions were positively related to PsyCap; that work well-being (both job satisfaction and
stress symptoms) fully mediated the association between PsyCap and turnover intention. In
addition, positive emotions had a direct negative effect on stress symptoms. The theoretical
and practical implications of the findings and issues for future research were discussed in
the paper.

Keywords Positive emotions
PsyCap
Work well-being
Turnover

intention
Police officers

1 Introduction

Police work is one of the most stressful occupations in the world (e.g., Brown and
Campbell 1994; Toch 2002). To help police officers cope with their stressful work roles, it
is important for police forces to enhance health and performance through investment in
human resources. Failure to address these concerns may increase officers’ intention to
leave the police force. Psychological capital (PsyCap) is an important personal resource
that increases people’s capability for development (Luthans et al. 2008) and usefulness in

O. L. Siu (&)
F. Cheung
S. Lui

Department of Applied Psychology, Lingnan University, Tuen Mun, NT, Hong Kong
e-mail: siuol@ln.edu.hk

123
368 O. L. Siu et al.

the workplace (e.g. Avey et al. 2010; Luthans et al. 2007). PsyCap has been found to be
beneficial to both organizations and employees in promoting desirable work outcomes,
including job satisfaction (Weiss et al. 1999), employees’ health (Lyubomirsky et al.
2005), and turnover intention (Harvey et al. 2007). PsyCap also alleviates undesirable
outcomes such as employee’s counter-productive behaviors (e.g. Avey et al. 2010).
Therefore, we believe that it is important to build PsyCap among police officers. According
to Fredrickson’s (2001) broaden-and-build theory, positive emotions broaden an individ-
ual’s momentary thought-action repertoire and build that individual’s personal resources
including physical and intellectual resources, social and psychological resources. Thus
positive emotions can enhance one’s psychological resources of PsyCap. PsyCap and
positive emotions are two important capacities/resources in organizational behavior. Yet,
little is known about how they interact. Further, there is relatively less empirical evidence
to support the broaden-and-build theory in the context of an organization. Based on the
broaden-and-build theory (Fredrickson 2001), the main purpose of this study was to
investigate the roles of PsyCap in linking positive emotions to employees’ work well-being
and turnover intention among Hong Kong police officers.

2 Theoretical Background and Hypotheses

Our study adapted the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions (Fredrickson 1998,
2009; Fredrickson et al. 2008) as the theoretical framework to examine whether positive
emotions will enhance psychological capital and work well-being (enhancing job satis-
faction, and reducing stress symptoms), which eventually relates to turnover intentions
among police officers.

2.1 Psychological Capital

There has been a call for more positive organizational behavior (POB) (Bakker and
Schaufeli 2008). PsyCap is positive state-like psychological capacities, its focus is on
people’s strength and how they grow and thrive. It has been defined as an individual’s
characteristics by (1) having confidence (self-efficacy) to take on and put in the necessary
effort to succeed at challenging tasks; (2) making a positive attribution (optimism) about
succeeding now and in the future; (3) persevering towards goals, and when necessary,
redirecting paths to goals (hope) in order to succeed; and (4) when beset by problems and
adversity, sustaining and bouncing back and even beyond (resiliency) to attain success
(Luthans et al. 2007, p. 3)’’. Conceptually, it has been summarized and argued that PsyCap
is a higher-order construct consisting of the shared variance of hope, efficacy, optimism,
and resiliency (Avey et al. 2010; Luthans et al. 2007; Siu 2013); and this higher-order core
factor has been empirically demonstrated and it may be a better predictor of performance
than the four individual facets (Luthans et al. 2007). PsyCap has been found to be bene-
ficial in human resource management such as combating employee stress and enhancing
organizational members’ psychological well-being, and positive work attitudes and
behaviors (Avey et al. 2009, 2010; Luthans et al. 2007, 2007).

2.2 Positive Emotions and PsyCap

Emotions are ‘‘multiple component response tendencies that unfold over relatively short
time spans’’ (Fredrickson 2001, p. 218). Emotions are generated when people start

123
Positive Emotions, PsyCap, Work Well-Being and Turnover Intention 369

assessing the personal meanings of events, and positive emotions are elicited particularly
when individuals are in pleasant situations. According to the broaden-and-build theory of
positive emotions (Fredrickson 1998, 2009), ‘‘positive emotions momentarily broaden
people’s attention and thinking, enabling individuals to draw flexibly on higher level
connections and wider-than-usual ranges of percepts and ideas. In turn, these broadened
and flexible outlooks help people to discover and build survival-promoting personal
resources’’ (Fredrickson and Kurtz 2011, p. 35). One of the resources is psychological
resource, such as be resilient to adversity. For instance, Fredrickson et al. (2003) reported
the buffering effect of positive emotions in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist
attack. They found that positive emotions were the active force driving the ‘‘bounce back’’
effect of the resilient personalities. Specifically, they reported that those with high resilient
personalities also reported experiencing positive emotions. Thus, they concluded that
positive emotions fueled the resilience that promoted more rapid emotional growth and
recovery. Drawing on this theory, Ouweneel et al. (2011) have found that positive emo-
tions among students had a significant effect on future personal resources (academic self-
efficacy, study-related hope and optimism) after controlling the baseline personal resources
and study engagement. Findings from a diary study among restaurant employees have
shown that daily positive emotions were positively related to personal resources (e.g., day-
level self-efficacy, and optimism) (Xanthopoulou et al. 2011). Moreover, in an experi-
mental study by Fredrickson et al. (2008), increases in participants’ positive emotions
following an intervention predicted changes in their level of ego resilience and pathway
thinking, which is an element of hope.
Past research has shown that people who frequently experience positive emotions are
more likely to be successful in various domains in their lives, such as their work life
(Lyubomirsky et al. 2005). For example, Tugade and Fredrickson (2007) suggested that
increasing or enhancing positive emotional experience during set back could buffer the
negative emotional circumstances, and the positive emotion will help building other per-
sonal resources, such as resilience and optimism. Specifically, with reference to the job
nature of police officers, it is possible that positive emotions fuel employees with useful
psychological resources of PsyCap (resiliency, self-efficacy, optimism, hope) to deal with
the stress and challenges they face in the work domain. It is therefore hypothesized that
H1 Positive emotions will have a positive relationship with PsyCap.

2.3 PsyCap, Work Well-Being and Turnover Intention

The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions (Fredrickson 1998, 2009) also holds
that positive emotions expand awareness (attention and thinking), the broaden effect. The
expansive awareness can in turn prompt growth in personal and social resources that
increase well-being, the build effect. Police officers who are equipped with such growth in
personal and social resources to cope successfully with problems and adapt to adversities
in the work environment enjoy higher level of job satisfaction, fewer stress symptoms
including physical strain (e.g. insomnia), and psychological strain (e.g. depressive mood).
Positive emotions can also build the personal resource that equipping individuals to better
meet life’s opportunities and challenges, thus experiencing life satisfaction (e.g., Cohn
et al. 2009). Therefore, police officers with positive emotions can experience greater sense
of satisfaction and in turn have lower intention to quit their current job. Thus, positive
emotions can be conceptualized as an antecedent of the resource of PsyCap for achieving
desirable work outcomes.

123
370 O. L. Siu et al.

Behavioral intention is an important precursor of actual behavior (Fishbem and Ajzen

1975). In general, it has been speculated that employees with higher PsyCap will have
lower turnover intention (Avey et al. 2010). It can be argued that efficacious employees are
more likely to perceive themselves as able to cope with their work demands, thus they have
greater motivation to stay in the organization. Using a similar argument, employees with
high levels of resiliency recover from setbacks more easily than others, which in turn
reduce the likelihood of them leaving the organization. However, as mentioned earlier, a
higher-order construct of PsyCap may be a better predictor of performance than the four
individual components (Luthans et al. 2007). According to Hobfoll (1989, 2002), resources
include objects, conditions, personal characteristics, and energies. Based on Hobfoll’s
(2002) review on different resource theories, the four distinct components which manifest
the core construct of PsyCap identified as resources of personal characteristics, which
could exert their impacts on stress resistance, and thus enhance the capability of indi-
viduals in tackling problems and thus they are less likely to quit even under stressful
circumstances. Hence, we propose that PsyCap will affect the behavioral intention of
turnover through its influence on work well-being in the current study. In studies of work
well-being among the Chinese population, job satisfaction and stress symptoms are often
considered as indicators of turnover intention (e.g. Siu et al. 2005, 2006, 2007).
Furthermore, past studies show that PsyCap and job satisfaction are positively related
(e.g., Luthans et al. 2007). Job satisfaction is one of the core mechanisms relating to
turnover. For example, in the turnover model proposed by Mobley (1977), job satisfaction
was considered one of the antecedents of turnover intention. Lambert et al. (2001) showed
that job satisfaction was a significant antecedent of turnover intention even when demo-
graphic variables such as age and tenure were considered. Brough and Frame (2004)
examined the relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention among police
officers. They found that job satisfaction, particularly intrinsic job satisfaction, was sig-
nificantly related to the turnover intention. We therefore hypothesize that
H2 Job satisfaction will mediate the relationship between PsyCap and turnover intention.
As discussed, police officers encounter much difficulties and challenges in their work
role. According to conservation of resources (COR) theory, stress will occur when indi-
viduals’ resources are threatened with loss or experience actual loss (Hobfoll 1989, 2002).
Thus, if police officers continue to expense their resource in their work, they will expe-
rience a net loss of resource and more stress related symptoms will emerge. In order to
offset the net loss, COR theory also suggests that people are motivated and strive to acquire
and protect their resources. One coping strategy of offsetting the loss of resource will be to
quit their jobs to reduce the continual loss of resources in the workplace. Firth et al. (2004)
provided empirical evidence of a direct moderate correlation between stress symptoms and
turnover intention among employees working in schools. Furthermore, Avey et al. (2009)
proposed that stress symptoms mediated the relationship between PsyCap and turnover
intention and also job-searching behavior. Similarly, we suggest that individuals who
already possess reserves of PsyCap are capable of replenishing the resources they use in
dealing with the demands of stressful situations, and thus are less likely to suffer from
stress symptoms and less likely to quit the job. Hence, it is hypothesized that
H3 Stress symptoms will mediate the relationship between PsyCap and turnover
intention.
The proposed model of the study is shown in Fig. 1.

123
Positive Emotions, PsyCap, Work Well-Being and Turnover Intention 371

Job
satisfaction

Positive Turnover
PsyCap
emotions intention
Stress
symptoms

Fig. 1 The proposed model of the study

3 The Present Study

In Hong Kong, the actions of the Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) are subject to close
scrutiny by the public and mass media, and police officers are subject to strict discipline
and accountability. In addition, most officers’ operational duties include shiftwork and
outdoor duties in all weather conditions, and their contractual hours of work are 48 h per
week. As revealed by Leung (2009), turnover of police officers at the constable level
increased more than fivefold between 2005/2006 and 2008/2009. Though most of the
police officers who left the HKPF went on to work in other departments of the government
or disciplined forces, the loss of employees incurs the additional cost of finding and
training new police officers to fill those vacancies and duties. Considering the challenging
circumstances currently faced by the HKPF, the exploration of possible resources that may
promote police officers’(particularly at the constable level) satisfaction with their jobs,
protect them from the adverse effects of work stress, and finally reduce the turnover of
employees is of utmost importance. In order to examine factors that may enhance work
well-being and lower the intention to leave, our study aimed to explore whether positive
emotions and psychological capital were related to work well-being (job satisfaction and
stress symptoms), and how the latter related to intention to leave.

4 Method

4.1 Sample and Procedures

The data were collected between June and December 2010. Purposive sampling was
employed in two ways. Some of the data were collected by distributing self- administered
surveys to police officers at the start of a half-day workshop. The completed questionnaires
were returned immediately on site. The rest of the data were collected through a designated
person working in the Hong Kong Police Force, who distributed the survey to constable
level participants, through his personal network. The survey booklet contained a cover
page indicating the purpose of the study and instructions for completing the questionnaire.
Participants were assured of the anonymity and confidentiality of their responses. In total,
320 questionnaires were distributed and 311 were returned, making a response rate of
97.19 %. The ages of the participants ranged from 20 to 54 years (see Table 1). Most
participants were male (80.4 %, n = 250). The participants’ tenure in the present orga-
nization ranged from 2 months to 35 years (Mean = 4.70 years, SD = 7.08). Table 1
depicts the demographic characteristics of the sample.

123
372 O. L. Siu et al.

Table 1 Descriptive statistics

Variable Percentage
for demographic variables
(N = 311)
Age
20–24 37.6
25–29 42.8
30–34 6.4
35–39 2.9
40–44 2.9
45–49 4.8
50–54 2.6
Gender
Male 80.4
Female 19.3
Missing data 0.3
Education
Secondary school graduate 35.4
Sixth form 21.2
Associate degree or higher diploma certificates 28.3
University degree or above 15.1

4.2 Measures

PsyCap was measured by the Psychological Capital Questionnaire (PCQ) developed by

Luthans et al. (2007). The four scales measuring the four components of PsyCap (resil-
iency, optimism, hope and self-efficacy) have been validated by confirmatory factor ana-
lysis across multiple samples (Luthans et al. 2007). The original scale consisted of 24
items. Three items with reverse scoring were dropped because of low inter-item correla-
tions, and negative wording items often produce artificial factors (Podsakoff et al. 2003).
Further, as explained by Siu (2002), due to differences in cultures and styles of grammar,
Chinese are not used to negative wordings as Western people are. Chinese are therefore
more confused by negative items. Participants were asked to rate the extent to which each
item applied to them over the past 3 months and rate their agreement on a six-point Likert
scale (1 = totally disagree, 6 = totally agree). Higher scores for each dimension indicate
higher levels of self-efficacy, hope, resiliency and optimism, respectively. Sample items
included: self-efficacy—‘‘I feel confident analyzing a long-term problem to find a solu-
tion;’’ hope—‘‘If I should find myself in a jam at work, I could think of many ways to get
out of it;’’ resiliency—‘‘I usually manage difficulties one way or another at work;’’ and
optimism—‘‘When things are uncertain for me at work, I usually expect the best.’’ The
reliability of the self-efficacy, hope, resiliency and optimism subscales were .88, .82, .82
and .80, respectively.
Positive emotions were measured by five items taken from the study of Siu et al. (2006).
The reliability of this scale in a Chinese context was supported in Siu’s research studies. A
sample item is ‘‘In the past 3 months, how frequently did you feel happy?’’ Participants
responded on a six-point Likert scale (1 = never, 6 = very often) to indicate how fre-
quently they had experienced positive emotions in the past 3 months. Higher scores
indicate a higher frequency of experiencing positive emotions. The alpha coefficient in this
study was .89.

123
Positive Emotions, PsyCap, Work Well-Being and Turnover Intention 373

Job satisfaction was assessed with three items adopted from the job satisfaction sub-
scale of the Michigan Organizational Assessment Questionnaire (Cammann et al. 1979).
The Chinese version of these items have been used and found reliable in studies by Siu
et al. (2005, 2007). A sample item is ‘‘All in all, I am satisfied with my job’’. Participants
responded on a five-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree), with
higher scores indicating a higher level of job satisfaction. The alpha coefficient for job
satisfaction was .82.
Stress symptoms were measured by six items originating from the psychological well-
being scale of An Organizational Stress Screening Tool (ASSET) (Cartwright and Cooper
2002). The construct validity of this scale has been demonstrated in earlier research
(Johnson and Cooper 2003). The Chinese version of this scale is available and the reli-
ability of the short version, which consists of six items taken from the original scale, has
been demonstrated among Hong Kong employees (Siu et al. 2006). Three items each were
used to measure physical and psychological symptoms. A sample item for physical
symptoms was ‘‘insomnia’’ and for psychological symptoms, ‘‘depressed mood’’. In the
questionnaire, participants were asked to indicate how frequently they had experienced the
corresponding symptoms in the past month. The items were rated on a six-point Likert
scale (1 = never, 6 = very often), with higher scores indicating higher frequency of
physical and psychological stress symptoms. The coefficient alpha for this short scale was
.87.
Turnover intention was measured by a three-item scale from Brough and Frame (2004).
This scale was used in an Australian police force and demonstrated adequate reliability and
construct validity. The three items were in English. A sample item was ‘‘How frequently
have you seriously considered leaving your job in the past six months?’’ Participants
responded to the items on a five-point Likert scale (1 = never, 5 = very often) on which
higher scores implied greater turnover intention. The coefficient alpha for this short scale
was .84.
A back-translation method (Brislin 1980) was used to translate the scales into Chinese if
the Chinese version is not available.

4.3 Confirmatory Factor Analysis of PsyCap

A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted by Amos 18.0 to examine the validity
of the PsyCap measure in the current study. PsyCap was assessed by examining whether a
higher-order model of PsyCap (M1) or a single-order model of PsyCap consisting of four
inter-correlated factors (M2) had a better model fit (see Table 2). Because these two
models are not nested, Akaike’s Information Criterion (AIC) was used instead of a Chi
square difference test to compare the model fit. The result of the CFA showed that M2 had
a lower AIC value than M1. Higher CFI and NNFI values and lower RMSEA and SRMR
values also confirmed that M2 had a better fit with the data than M1. Table 3 depicts the
means, standard deviations and correlations among the variables.

5 Results

5.1 Structural Equation Modeling

Using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), we attempted to test the proposed model (M1)
which examined how positive emotions enhanced psychological capital and which,

123
 374

123
Table 2 Means, standard deviations, correlations, and Cronbach’s alphas among variables (N = 311)
Mean SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1. Positive emotions 3.78 .86 (.89)

2. PsyCap 4.27 .57 .50*** (.92)
3. Self-efficacy 4.19 .73 .37*** .82*** (.88)
4. Hope 4.22 .68 .48*** .85*** .61*** (.82)
5. Optimism 4.36 .73 .40*** .78*** .45*** .62*** (.82)
6. Resiliency 4.34 .68 .37*** .79*** .58*** .54*** .46*** (.80)
7. Job satisfaction 3.66 .82 .36*** .50*** .33*** .50*** .46*** .31*** (.82)
8. Stress symptoms 2.64 .95 -.34*** -.32*** -.24*** -.24*** -.30*** -.27*** -.29*** (.87)
9. Turnover intentions 1.79 .88 -.19*** -.26*** -.13* -.25*** -.28*** -.20*** -.44*** .38*** (.84)

* p \ .05; *** p \ .001. Cronbach’s alphas are in diagonals

O. L. Siu et al.
Positive Emotions, PsyCap, Work Well-Being and Turnover Intention 375

Table 3 Model fit summary of measurement model of the proposed model (N = 311)
Model v2 df p CFI NNFI SRMR RMSEA AIC
a
Five-factor model 450.36 179 .000 .96 .96 .061 .071 563.84
b
Four-factor model 761.97 183 .000 .92 .91 .089 .115 1,025.14
c
One-factor model 1,991.03 189 .000 .75 .73 .140 .216 3,007.04
2
v Chi square, df degree of freedom, CFI comparative fit index, NNFI non-normed fit index, SRMR
standardized root mean square residual, RMSEA root mean square error of approximation, AIC Akaike’s
Information Criterion
a
Five-factor model assumes positive emotions, PsyCap, job satisfaction, stress symptoms, and turnover
intentions are distinct variables
b
Four-factor model locates positive emotions under the factor of PsyCap with other four sub-factors
c
One-factor model assumes all indicators are constrained to load on a single factor

eventually lowered the intention to leave. Theoretically, it is plausible to argue that psy-
chological capital increased positive emotions and the latter affected the work outcomes.
Therefore, it is important to compare alternative models and to evaluate how these models
fit with the empirical data. We thus constructed an alternative model (M2), with psycho-
logical capital as the antecedent and positive emotions as the mediator between psycho-
logical capital and outcomes. The results show that the model fit of the alternative model
was generally satisfactory. However, the proposed research model (M1) demonstrated
overall model fit when compared to the alternative model. In particular, the proposed
model (463.83) had lower Chi square than the alternative model (506.70). In addition, the
proposed model had a lower AIC coefficient (564.82) than the alternative model (614.58).
These statistical results suggest that the proposed model (M1) fit better to the empirical
data than M2. Further, to ensure that the proposed model (M1) was the best portrayal of the
relationships examined, we compared it to the other four other plausible alternative models
(M3, M4, M5 and M6) that depicted partial mediation. M3, M4, M5 and M6 were identical
to M1 except that we added a direct path from positive emotions to turnover intention in
M3, a direct path from positive emotions to job satisfaction in M4, a direct path from
positive emotions to stress symptoms in M5, and a direct path from PsyCap to turnover
intention in M6. After a series of comparisons of changed Chi square, we concluded M5,
which was presented in Fig. 2 provided the best fit to the data. The results from these
analyses are depicted in Table 4.
Figure 2 shows that positive emotions were positively correlated with psychological
capital (b = .57, p \ .001). Therefore Hypothesis 1 is supported. PsyCap was positively
correlated with job satisfaction (b = .61, p \ .001) and negatively correlated with stress
symptoms (b = -.26, p \ .001). And job satisfaction was negatively related to turnover
intention (b = -.37, p \ .001) and stress symptoms were positively related to turnover
intention (b = .32, p \ .001). Besides, positive emotions had a direct effect on stress
symptoms (b = -.24, p \ .01).
We used bootstrapping estimate to further test the mediating role of work well-being
(i.e., Hypothesis 2 and 3) employing Amos 18.0. Bootstrapping is a statistical re-sampling
method that estimates the parameters of a model and their standard errors strictly from the
sample (Preacher and Hayes 2008). Bootstrapping computes accurate confidence intervals
(CI) of indirect effects (x ? m ? y) when the sampling distribution is not normal
(Preacher and Hayes 2008). This is especially relevant for indirect effects, as these have
distributions that are skewed away from zero (Shrout and Bolger 2002). We extracted new

123
376 O. L. Siu et al.

Job
-.37*** (.083)
.61*** satisfaction
(.134)
Positive .57*** PsyCap -.09(.03) Turnover
emotions (.038) intention
-.26**
Stress .32***
(.132)
symptoms (.085)

-.24**
(.067)

Fig. 2 The final model. Notes Figures in brackets are standard errors; *p \ .05; **p \ .01; ***p \ .001

Table 4 Comparisons of alternative models

Model v2 df p CFI NNFI SRMR RMSEA AIC

M1, PsyCap as the full mediator 463.83 183 .000 .96 .96 .070 .071 564.82
M2, positive emotions as the full 506.70 183 .000 .96 .95 .084 .077 614.58
mediator
M3, positive emotions to turnover 463.02 182 .000 .96 .96 .070 .071 566.05
intention
M4, positive emotions to job 463.11 182 .000 .96 .96 .070 .071 564.79
satisfaction
M5, positive emotions to stress 453.30 182 .000 .96 .96 .062 .071 562.28
symptoms
M6, PsyCap to turnover intention 463.58 182 .000 .96 .96 .070 .071 566.34
2
v Chi square, df degree of freedom, CFI comparative fit index, NNFI non-normed fit index, SRMR
standardized root mean square residual, RMSEA root mean square error of approximation, AIC Akaike’s
Information Criterion

samples (with replacement) from our sample 2,000 times and calculated the indirect effect
of PsyCap on turnover intention. In line with our expectations, the bootstrap analyses
confirmed the indirect effect of PsyCap on turnover intention through job satisfaction
(bootstrap estimate = -.23, standard error = .07, lower CI = -.37, higher CI = -.10,
p \ .001) and also through stress symptoms (bootstrap estimate = -.09, standard
error = .04, lower CI = -.20, higher CI = -.03, p \ .01). Therefore, Hypotheses 2 and 3
can be supported.

6 Discussion

Police work entails handling different sources of challenges on a daily basis. Failure to
cope with these work challenges would result in higher intention the profession. Thus,
finding remedy to lower their intention is crucial for the organization. As discussed by
Tugade and Fredrickson (2007), facilitating and maintaining positive emotions in job set-
back can broaden ones thought and actions and consequently enabling the individual to
build personal resource. Our study attempted to adapt the broaden-and-built theory of
positive emotions (Fredrickson 1998, 2009; Fredrickson et al. 2008) as the theoretical
framework to examine whether positive emotions would enhance psychological capital,

123
Positive Emotions, PsyCap, Work Well-Being and Turnover Intention 377

job satisfaction, and (reducing stress symptoms), which would eventually relate to turnover
intentions among police officers. Specifically, we found that positive emotions were related
to higher psychological capital that in turn improve their work-related well-being and
hence reduce the intention to leave the organization. Our findings corroborate previous
studies on positive emotions and PsyCap (e.g., Brough and Frame 2004; Fredrickson et al.
2008; Luthans et al. 2007; Ouweneel et al. 2011). For example, Fredrickson et al. (2008)
found that changes in participants’ positive emotions predicted increases in several
resources, including resilience and pathway thinking; the resources acquired through the
promotion of positive emotions fully mediate the relationships between positive emotions
and life satisfaction.

6.1 Research Contributions

In this study, significant associations between positive emotions and PsyCap provided
support for the generalizability of Fredrickson’s theory in the police force in a Chinese
context. Our findings provide further empirical evidence to support the idea that the
resources built from positive emotions are likely to be the mechanism underlying the
beneficial effects of positive emotions (enhancing work well-being and reducing turnover)
across a variety of life domains. Hence, the current study extends the broaden-and-build
theory and applied it from a more general view of life to the more specific domain of work
life. Our study has thus contributed to the empirical literature in organizational and positive
psychology.
In addition, a potential mechanism for the relationship between positive emotions and
turnover intention was demonstrated by showing that PsyCap and work well-being have
potential mediating roles in the relationship. This finding may bring some insights to the
turnover literature and encourage further exploration of possible ways of reducing
employees’ intention to quit, particularly for police officers.
To date, studies on positive emotions or PsyCap among Chinese employees have been
rare, and studies on positive emotions or PsyCap among police officers are even rarer. Only
one study investigating PsyCap among police officers has recently emerged in the United
States (Walumbwa et al. 2010). Thus, it is valuable to study positive emotions and PsyCap
among police officers in Hong Kong, one of the largest Chinese societies in the world. The
current study makes an empirical contribution by applying Fredrickson’s theory and
providing insights on alleviating the problem of turnover in this specific occupation. It can
be tentatively concluded that PsyCap, built by positive emotions, is functional in both
Western and Chinese societies and its application is not limited to Chinese factory workers
and health care workers (Luthans et al. 2005; Siu 2013; Siu and Lin 2007).

6.2 Practical Implications

This study provides evidence for a link between positive emotions and turnover
intention, suggesting that they are best addressed together to improve both the well-
being (enhancing job satisfaction and reducing stress symptoms) of police officers and
the organizational health of the HKPF simultaneously. One implication is that a
managerial focus on promoting positive affect in the HKPF might prove useful in
enhancing the effectiveness of individual officers (specifically police constables) and the
organization. This could be accomplished by training senior inspectors or superinten-
dents to adopt a positive mindset and positive communication in the workplace, which
in turn would have a positive influence on their subordinates. Workshops should also be

123
378 O. L. Siu et al.

organized by trainers in the HKPF to enhance officers’ psychological capacities to deal

with ongoing challenges and demands. The Chinese version of the PsyCap scale can be
used in future research studies or for human resource departments to evaluate the
effectiveness of PsyCap interventions in relation to turnover. Trainers in the police
force or human resource managers should consider job satisfaction and stress symptoms
to examine their meditating effects on turnover intention.

6.3 Limitations and Directions for Future Study

This study has several limitations and the results should be interpreted with caution.
First, the causal directions of the relationships could not be inferred as the study used a
cross-sectional design (Edwards 2008). Even though the test of alternative models
support the original proposed model fit better with empirical data, a longitudinal
research design would be more appropriate to examine direction of causality. Second,
as the data were collected by purposive sampling method, there may be a potential bias
that would limit the representativeness of the sample. Furthermore, the participants were
mainly police constables, and most were aged between 20 and 29, thus it is possible
that the relationships between the variables measured in this study are different in other
age groups. More research on this issue should be undertaken with police officers at
different levels in the Hong Kong Police Force and also in other professions to explore
the generalizability of findings. A related issue was the gender ratio in this study. In
this study, male participants had outnumbered their female counterparts. To a great
extent it reflects the uneven gender distribution in the police force. However, how the
gender imbalance affects the result is unknown.
We find a mean of 2.64 for stress symptoms which indicates low stress symptoms.
One may query how these contribute to turnover intentions. It might be attributed to the
fact that the participants of our study were mainly recruited from constables who were
either studying in the Police College or participants of the training workshops. Given
that they were receiving some support either from the Police College or opportunities to
access to resource building workshop, it is likely that they were equipped with personal
resources (e.g., PsyCap) or job resources (e.g., supervisory support) to cope with work
stress. Further, as argued earlier, due to the limitation of adopting a cross-sectional
design in the study, we could just measure stress symptom at one time point. Future
research using a longitudinal design is more desirable to find out the causal relation-
ships. Nevertheless, there was variance in stress scores (SD = .95), indicating that some
participants reported relatively higher scores of stress symptoms. They might see
quitting their jobs as a coping strategy to reduce the continual loss of resources in the
workplace. More importantly, stress symptoms were positively related to turnover
intention, which means that the score of symptoms can also explain some variance in
the score of turnover intention. Our results indicated that the higher stress level par-
ticipants experienced, the more they were likely to quit the job.
Finally, because the responses were collected through questionnaire survey, it is pos-
sible that common method variance artificially inflated the observed associations. Future
studies should adopt the remedies outlined by Podsakoff et al. (2003), such as obtaining
measures of the independent and dependent variables from different sources, to control
common method bias.

123
Positive Emotions, PsyCap, Work Well-Being and Turnover Intention 379

References

Avey, J. B., Luthans, F., & Jensen, S. (2009). Psychological capital: A positive resource for combating stress
and turnover. Human Resource Management, 48, 677–693.
Avey, J. B., Luthans, F., & Youssef, C. M. (2010). The additive value of positive psychological capital in
predicting work attitudes and behaviors. Journal of Management, 36, 430–452.
Bakker, A. B., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2008). Positive organizational behavior: Engaged employees in flour-
ishing organizations. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 29, 147–154.
Brislin, R. W. (1980). Translation and content analysis of oral and written materials. In H. C. Triandis & J.
W. Berry (Eds.), Handbook of cross-cultural psychology: Methodology (Vol. 2, pp. 389–444). Boston:
Allyn & Bacon.
Brough, P., & Frame, R. (2004). Predicting police job satisfaction and turnover intentions: The role of social
support and police organisational variables. New Zealand Journal of Psychology, 33, 8–16.
Brown, J. M., & Campbell, E. A. (1994). Stress and policing: Sources and strategies. New York: Wiley.
Cammann, C., Fichman, M., Jenkins, D., & Klesh, J. (1979). The Michigan organizational assessment
questionnaire. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan.
Cartwright, S., & Cooper, C. L. (2002). ASSET: An organizational stress screening tool, the management
guide. Manchester: RCL Ltd.
Cohn, M. A., Fredrickson, B. L., Brown, S. L., Mikels, J. A., & Conway, A. M. (2009). Happiness unpacked:
Positive emotions increase life satisfaction by building resilience. Emotion, 9, 361–368.
Edwards, J. R. (2008). To prosper, organizational psychology should…overcome methodological barriers to
progress. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 29, 469–491.
Firth, L., Mellor, D. J., Moore, K. A., & Loquet, C. (2004). How can managers reduce employee intention to
quit? Journal of Managerial Psychology, 19, 170–187.
Fishbem, M., & Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, attitude, intention and Behavior: An introduction to theory and
research. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Fredrickson, B. L. (1998). What good are positive emotions? Review of General Psychology, 2, 300–319.
Fredrickson, B. L. (2001). The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The broaden-and build
theory of positive emotions. American Psychologist, 56, 218–226.
Fredrickson, B. L. (2009). Positivity: Groundbreaking research reveals how to embrace the hidden strength
of positive emotions, overcoming negativity, and thrive. New York: Crown.
Fredrickson, B. L., Cohn, M. A., Coffey, K. A., Pek, J., & Finkel, S. M. (2008). Open hearts build lives:
Positive emotions, induced through loving-kindness meditation, build consequential personal resour-
ces. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 1045–1062.
Fredrickson, B. L., & Kurtz, L. E. (2011). Cultivating positive emotions to enhance human flourishing. In S.
I. Donaldson, M. Csikszentmihalyi, & J. Nakamura (Eds.), Applied positive psychology: Improving
everyday life, health, schools, and society (pp. 35–47). New York and Hove: Psychology Press.
Fredrickson, B. L., Tugade, M. M., Waugh, C. E., & Larkin, G. (2003). What good are positive emotions in
crises? A prospective study of resilience and emotions following the terrorist attacks on the United
States on September 11th, 2001. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 365–376.
Harvey, P., Stoner, J., Hochwarter, W., & Kacmar, C. (2007). Coping with abusive supervision: The
neutralizing effects of ingratiation and positive affect on negative employee outcomes. Leadership
Quarterly, 18, 264–280.
Hobfoll, S. E. (1989). Conservation of resources: A new attempt at conceptualizing stress. American
Psychologist, 44, 513–524.
Hobfoll, S. (2002). Social and psychological resources and adaptation. Review of General Psychology, 6,
307–324.
Johnson, S., & Cooper, C. L. (2003). The construct validity of the ASSET stress measure. Stress and Health,
19, 181–185.
Lambert, E. G., Hogan, N. L., & Barton, S. M. (2001). The impact of job satisfaction on turnover intent: A
test of a structural measurement model using a national sample of workers. The Social Science Journal,
38, 233–250.
Leung, C. W. (2009, August 16). Rapid turnover among elite constables due to career change for promotion
is raised by 5 times. Mingpao, A06.
Luthans, F., Avey, J. B., & Patera, J. L. (2008). Experimental analysis of a web-based training: Intervention
to develop positive psychological capital. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 7,
209–221.
Luthans, F., Avolio, B. J., Avey, J. B., & Norman, S. M. (2007a). Positive psychological capital mea-
surement and relationship with performance and satisfaction. Personnel Psychology, 60, 541–572.

123
380 O. L. Siu et al.

Luthans, F., Avolio, B. J., Walumbwa, F. O., & Li, W. (2005). The psychological capital of Chinese
workers: exploring the relationship with performance. Managerial and Organization Review, 1,
247–269.
Luthans, F., Youssef, C. M., & Avolio, B. J. (2007b). Psychological capital: Developing the human
competitive edge. New York: Oxford University Press.
Lyubomirsky, S., King, L., & Diener, E. (2005). The benefits of frequent positive affect: Does happiness
lead to success? Psychological Bulletin, 131, 803–855.
Mobley, W. H. (1977). Intermediate linkages in the relationship between job satisfaction and employee
turnover. Journal of Applied Psychology, 62, 237–240.
Ouweneel, A. P. E., Le Blanc, P. M., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2011). Flourishing students: A longitudinal study
on positive emotions, personal resources, and study engagement. Journal of Positive Psychology, 6,
142–153.
Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Lee, J. Y., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2003). Common method biases in
behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied
Psychology, 88, 879–903.
Preacher, K. J., & Hayes, A. F. (2008). Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing
indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Behavior Research Methods, 40, 879–891.
Shrout, P. E., & Bolger, N. (2002). Mediation in experimental and nonexperimental studies: New procedures
and recommendations. Psychological Methods, 7, 422–445.
Siu, O. L. (2002). Occupational stressors and well-being among Chinese employees: The role of organi-
zational commitment. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 51, 527–544.
Siu, O. L. (2013). A study of psychological capital, work well-being, and work-life balance among Chinese
employees: A cross-lagged analysis. Journal of Personnel Psychology, 12, 170–181.
Siu, O. L., Chow, S. L., Phillips, D. R., & Lin, L. (2006). An exploratory study of resilience among Hong
Kong employees: Ways to happiness. In L.S. Ho and Y.K. Ng (Eds.), Happiness and public policy:
Theory, case studies, and implications (pp. 209–220). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Siu, O. L., & Lin, L. (2007, December). Exploring psychological capital to face new challenges of global
business: Evidence from Chinese employees. Paper presented at AIB conference, Hangzhou.
Siu, O. L., Lu, C. Q., & Spector, P. E. (2007). Employee’s well-being in Greater China: The direct and
moderating effects of general self-efficacy. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 56,
288–301.
Siu, O. L., Spector, P. E., & Cooper, C. L. (2006b). A three-phase study to develop and validate Chinese
coping strategies scales in Greater China. Personality and Individual Differences, 41, 537–548.
Siu, O. L., Spector, P. E., Cooper, C. L., & Lu, C. Q. (2005). Work stress, self-efficacy, Chinese work
values, and work well-being in Hong Kong and Beijing. International Journal of Stress Management,
12, 274–288.
Toch, H. (2002). Stress in policing. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Tugade, M. M., & Fredrickson, B. L. (2007). Regulation of positive emotions: Emotion regulation strategies
that promote resilience. Journal of Happiness Studies, 8, 311–333.
Walumbwa, F. O., Peterson, S. J., Avolio, B. J., & Hartnell, C. A. (2010). An Investigation of the rela-
tionships between leader and follower psychological capital, service climate and job performance.
Personnel Psychology, 63, 977–1003.
Weiss, H. M., Nicholas, J. P., & Daus, C. S. (1999). An examination of the joint effects of affective
experiences and job beliefs on job satisfaction and variations in affective experiences over time.
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 78, 1–24.
Xanthopoulou, D., Bakker, A. B., Demerouti, E., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2011). A diary study on the happy
worker: How job resources relate to positive emotions and personal resources. European Journal of
Work and Organizational Psychology. doi:10.1080/1359432X.2011.584386.

123