Does officer self-legitimacy mediate the linkage between internal and external procedural justice? Evidence from Taiwanese police officers

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to assess whether internal procedural justice is directly and indirectly through self-legitimacy connected to external procedural justice among Taiwanese police officers.Design/methodology/approachSurvey data used in this study were collected from 316 Taiwanese police officers in 2019. Structural equation modeling was performed to examine the direct and indirect relationships between internal and external procedural justice.FindingsSupervisors' internal procedural justice is directly related to the external procedural justice rendered to the public by police officers. Internal procedural justice also directly enhances officers' perceptions of internal legitimacy and external legitimacy. Greater senses of internal legitimacy are then accompanied by higher external procedural justice.Research limitations/implicationsSurvey data collected from a non-random sample of officers limit the study findings' generalizability. Organizational justice in the form of supervisory justice is instrumental in promoting officers' perception of self-legitimacy and their delivery of fair treatment to the public.Originality/valueThe present study represents a first attempt to link two important veins of studies in recent policing literature, organizational justice and officer self-legitimacy. This study provides needed evidence to support the value of supervisory justice in policing in a non-Western democracy.

Perceived COVID-19 impacts on auxiliary police in China

“…Third, additional psychological mediators that may link supervisor justice to the impacts of COVID-19 are not included in our model. For example, job satisfaction and perceived self-legitimacy may explain the effects of supervisor procedural justice on officers' experience of COVID-19 impacts (Chen et al ., 2021; Wu et al ., 2017) and should be assessed by future research. Finally, we scrutinized officers' self-report behavior associated with their immediate supervisors, which may or may not match supervisors' actual treatments of their subordinates.…”

Explaining Police Procedural Justice in a Democracy: An Expanded Internal-External Model

“…Organizational support (OS) captures departmental supports and trainings devoted to advancing officers' abilities in work. The mediating variable, supervisory trust (ST), was measured by five survey questions that signaled officers' belief in organizational decisions being correctly made and out of good intentions (Chen et al, 2021). The other mediating variable concerning self-legitimacy (SL) was obtained from three survey questions that captured officers' recognition of their own legitimacy to rule, such as officers holding a higher level of moral standard and playing an important role in society (Gau & Paoline, 2021).…”

“…Subsequently, such a closed system can be a double-edged sword that on one hand chocks initiatives and hides potential problems within the police force (Kuo, 2018). On the other hand, shaping a team culture and developing officers' self-legitimacy is facilitated in such a structural environment (Chen, et al, 2021).…”

Does citizen opinion matter? An analysis of police officers’ support for democratic policing in South Korea

“…Officers' perceived self-legitimacy plays a key role in connecting the social context of policing, both the working environment and social supports, to external procedural justice for citizens (Bradford and Quinton, 2014;Tankebe, 2019;Wang et al, 2023). Chen et al (2021) assessed whether internal procedural justice is directly and indirectly connected to external procedural justice mediated by self-legitimacy among Taiwanese police officers. They found supervisors' internal procedural justice is directly related to the external procedural justice rendered to the public by police officers.…”

“…Except for several results of the PIJPSM 47,2 study, there are mistakes in the theoretical relationship between the main variables. Internal procedural justice contains only the content of the relationship with the supervisor in the office, however, Chen et al (2021) assumed the theoretical relationship between the variable and the externally justified legitimacy.…”