Attitudes toward peers, supervisors, and citizens: a comparison of Chinese and Taiwanese police officers

Abstract

PurposeThis paper comparatively assesses the connections between individual demographic traits, occupational characteristics, and organizational factors and officers' attitudes toward important groups in China and Taiwan.Design/methodology/approachSurvey data used in this study were collected from 722 police officers from mainland China and 531 officers from Taiwan. Multivariate regression analyses were conducted to assess the correlates of police attitudes toward peers, supervisors, and citizens.FindingsThe Chinese and Taiwanese officers do not differ in their trust in peers, but the Chinese officers hold significantly more positive views on the trustworthiness of supervisors and citizens compared to the Taiwanese officers. Supervisor justice and organizational identification are significant predictors of officers' attitudes toward all three groups in both countries.Research limitations/implicationsA major limitation revolves around the inability to test and explain exactly why findings from the two groups vary in their ways. Future research should include specific social, political, and cultural predictors.Originality/valueThis study represents one of the few studies that compare police attitudes toward important groups of peers, supervisors, and citizens across nations/cultures.

Guest editorial: Reexamining the police culture

“…official language, tradition of Confucianism), their developments over the course of the last 70 years indicate dramatically different routes, as indicated, for example, by the quality of governance indicators (World Bank, 2022). The results of the study by Wu et al (2023) partly reflect these differences; while the country is not a determining factor in police officers' perceptions of their peer support, it is highly relevant for the police officers' perceptions of trustworthiness of both citizens and supervisors.…”

“…Cochran and Worden, 2023; Hacin and Meško, 2022; Nam, 2023; Orosco and Gaub, 2023; Paoline and Gau, 2023; Patterson and King, 2023; Peacock et al ., 2023a; Wu et al ., 2023), and that external environments matter as well (e.g. Amagnya, 2023; Peacock et al ., 2023b; Wu, 2023; Wu et al ., 2023). These papers reaffirm some previously established notions—that the police culture could vary across police agencies, units and assignments (e.g.…”

“…The police officers' attitudes toward their peers, supervisors and civilians are explored in several other papers in this special issue. Wu et al (2023) embark on the study of whether the society at large influences the relationship between supervisor and peer evaluations on the police officers' attitudes. While China and Taiwan share many social and cultural aspects rooted in their common history (e.g.…”

“…Donner and Mask aly, 2023), that the internal environment matters (e.g. Cochran and Worden, 2023;Hacin and Me sko, 2022;Nam, 2023;Orosco and Gaub, 2023;Paoline and Gau, 2023;Patterson and King, 2023;Peacock et al, 2023a;Wu et al, 2023), and that external environments matter as well (e.g. Amagnya, 2023;Peacock et al, 2023b;Wu, 2023;Wu et al, 2023).…”