Article

Police Quarterly
2018, Vol. 21(2) 223–249
Emotional Labor, Role ! The Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/1098611118757230
Police Officer Burnout journals.sagepub.com/home/pqx

in South Korea: The

Mediating Effect of
Emotional Dissonance

Hyounggon Kwak1, Susan McNeeley2

and Sung-Hwan Kim3

Abstract
This study examines the extent to which emotional labor and role stressors (such as
role conflict and ambiguity) required of police officers contribute to police officer
burnout. In particular, it is hypothesized that these aspects of police work cause
officers to experience emotional dissonance, thereby leading to burnout. To test
these hypotheses, we conduct mediation analyses using survey data from 466 police
officers in Seoul, South Korea. Overall, emotional labor, role stressors, and
emotional dissonance are related to greater police officer burnout. In addition,
there were several significant indirect effects between emotional labor, role
stressors, and burnout, via emotional dissonance.

Keywords
burnout, emotional dissonance, police, role stressor

1
University of Arkansas at Little Rock, AR, USA
2
Minnesota Department of Corrections, Saint Paul, MN, USA
3
Dongguk University, Gyeongju, South Korea
Corresponding Author:
Hyounggon Kwak, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Little Rock, AR, USA.
Email: hxkwak1@ualr.edu
224 Police Quarterly 21(2)

Introduction
A substantial body of literature has documented that police officers have a high
risk of suffering from job burnout, with symptoms such as job dissatisfaction,
psychological distress, suicidal ideation, alcohol abuse, physical health prob-
lems, and divorce (Bishopp & Boots, 2014; Brown, Fielding, & Grover, 1999;
Gershon, Barocas, Canton, Li, & Vlahov, 2009; He, Zhao, & Ren, 2005; Kop,
Euwema, & Schaufeli, 1999; Kurtz, Zavala, & Melander, 2015; Martinussen,
Richardsen, & Burke, 2007; Morash et al., 2008; Violanti, 1997). These prob-
lems result in mounting costs for police agencies due to the resulting health
issues and high turnover. In addition, burnout increases officers’ aggressive
attitudes and support for the use of force (Kop & Euwema, 2001; Queiros,
Kaiseler, & DaSilva, 2013). Due to the high risk of burnout among police
officers as well as its negative consequences, it is imperative to reduce burnout,
which requires scholars to identify factors that contribute to it.
Many scholars argue that burnout is common among the police because
officers work in unpredictable and dangerous circumstances (Adams & Buck,
2010; Anshel, 2000; Dowler, 2005; Manzoni & Eisner, 2006). In addition, police
departments have become more focused on community-oriented policing in
response to public demands for greater accountability and legitimacy (Kwak
& McNeeley, 2017), bringing police officers into frequent interaction with the
public, which can increase job stress (Bayley & Shearing, 1996; Paoline, Myers,
& Worden, 2000; Seron, Pereira, & Kovath, 2004).
Given these aspects of policing, officers are frequently required to inhibit
their true feelings and instead express a variety of emotions compatible with
the organization’s needs and expectations (McCarty & Skogan, 2013; Schaible &
Six, 2016). This seems to be consonant with emotional labor, or “the act of
displaying socially desirable emotions during interpersonal interactions or ser-
vice transactions” (Ashforth & Humphrey, 1993, pp. 88–89). As a consequence
of this emotional labor, police officers’ felt emotions may not match with the
emotional displays they must perform—a phenomenon known as emotional
dissonance—which can, in turn, contribute to burnout (Bakker & Heuven,
2006; Hochschild, 1983; Schaible & Gecas, 2010; Van Gelderen, Heuven, Van
Veldhoven, Zeelenberg, & Croon, 2007; Van Gelderen, Konijn, & Bakker, 2017;
Zapf, 2002). In addition, the police role is a complex interaction between an
individual’s interpretation of the role and the formal and informal interpreta-
tions held by the police organization (Violanti, 1997). This complexity, intensi-
fied by the competing philosophies in modern policing, can lead to stress
associated with the police officer’s work role, which is associated with burnout
(Lee & Ashforth, 1993).
The existing literature on police officer burnout has provided valuable
information; still, some limitations of prior work reduce our understanding of
this issue. First, past studies have examined the effects of emotional labor
Kwak et al. 225

(Bakker & Heuven, 2006; Schaible & Gecas, 2010; Van Gelderen et al., 2007;
Van Gelderen et al., 2017) and role conflict (Johnson, 2012; Kumar &
Kamalanabhan, 2017) on police officer burnout, but the mechanism through
which these factors—especially role conflict—lead to burnout is still unknown
(see Jaramillo, Nixon, & Sams, 2005). Second, although emotional labor is
conceptualized as stemming from interactions with citizens or clients, past stud-
ies measured global stressors, with no specific reference to citizens or clients.
This may lead to confounding effects, as these measures may capture emotional
regulation caused by interpersonal conflicts within the organization, such as
with supervisors or coworkers (Nixon, Bruk-Lee, & Spector, 2017). Finally,
few studies on police burnout have accounted for officers’ ability to regulate
emotions (see Schaible & Gecas, 2010). For example, emotional intelligence is
highly correlated with emotional labor and also with burnout (Daus &
Ashkanasy, 2005; Guy & Lee, 2015; Johnson & Spector, 2007) but is often
not included in studies on police burnout. Failure to include these components
may produce omitted variable bias.
This study attempts to address these limitations and fill the gaps in the extant
literature on burnout among police officers. Using a sample of 466 front-line
officers in Seoul, South Korea, we hypothesize that police officer burnout is
increasingly affected by officers’ emotional labor resulting from contact with
citizens as well as by the ambiguity and conflict that exists in the police role. We
examine these relationships net of a wide range of factors including emotional
intelligence, thereby providing more rigorous evidence of the relationship
between emotional labor and burnout. We also explore the mechanism through
which these characteristics lead to burnout—which increases the ability of
administrators to design successful interventions (Lord, 1996)—by hypothesiz-
ing that the emotional labor and role stressors increase burnout indirectly by
causing officers to experience emotional dissonance.

Emotional Labor, Role Stressors, and Police Officer Burnout

Emotional Labor
Hochschild (1983) argued that workers are likely to experience dissatisfaction
and burnout as a result of feelings of inauthenticity and alienation when orga-
nizational expectations and pressures contradict their actual emotional state (see
also Erickson & Ritter, 2001; Wharton & Erickson, 1993). In other words,
employees are required to express organizationally desired emotions while regu-
lating their genuine emotions during interpersonal transactions (Ashforth &
Humphrey, 1993; Morris & Feldman, 1996). Emotional labor is generally asso-
ciated with two quantitative dimensions—the frequency of interpersonal inter-
actions and the variety of emotions that must be performed—and one qualitative
dimension—the intensity of emotional display (Cordes & Dougherty, 1993;
226 Police Quarterly 21(2)

Morris & Feldman, 1996). One of the adverse consequences of emotional work
requirements is high levels of burnout, which consists of emotional exhaustion,
cynicism, and low professional efficacy (Bakker & Heuven, 2006; Dowler, 2005;
Hawkins, 2001; Kula, 2017; Kop et al., 1999; Manzoni & Eisner, 2006;
Van Gelderen et al., 2007). Employees in emotionally demanding roles—those
requiring frequent and intense interpersonal encounters—are likely to experience
higher levels of burnout than those in less emotionally arduous roles
(Brotheridge & Lee, 2003; Cordes & Dougherty, 1993; Dowler, 2005; Grandey,
2000; Morris & Feldman, 1997).
A police officer’s role requires frequent displays of a variety of emotions
(Bhowmick & Mulla, 2016; Grandey, 2000; Martin, 1999; Morris & Feldman,
1996; Seron et al., 2004; Van Gelderen, Bakker, Konijn, & Demerouti, 2011;
Van Gelderen et al., 2017; Wharton & Erickson, 1993). Under community polic-
ing, which places a high importance on bonds between police and citizens, police
officers are expected to display positive emotions to the public to convey friend-
liness and politeness (Queiros et al., 2013; Schaible & Gecas, 2010). On the other
hand, police officers need to display negative emotions such as anger, hostility,
and intimidation when they are interrogating suspects, enforcing the law, and
subduing criminals (Rafaeli & Sutton, 1987, 1991; Schaible & Six, 2016; Van
Gelderen et al., 2011). Neutral emotional rules (Morris & Feldman, 1996) are
also required in order to demonstrate fairness and professionalism when inter-
acting with the public (Seron et al., 2004; Van Gelderen et al., 2011).
Furthermore, police officers have to regulate their emotional expression to
show appropriate levels of sympathy for crime victims (Daus & Brown, 2012;
Van Gelderen et al., 2007).
This routine emotional work leads officers to suffer from psychological dis-
tress (Brown et al., 1999; Dowler & Arai, 2008; Griffin & Sun, 2017; Kim, Wells,
Vardalis, Johnson, & Lim, 2016; Kula, 2017; Kurtz et al., 2015; McCarty, Zhao,
& Garland, 2007; Turgoose, Glover, Barker, & Maddox, 2017), even when
expressing neutral emotions (e.g., Rutter & Fielding, 1988). As a result, when
officers have to display a greater variety of displayed emotions, burnout is more
likely (Bakker & Heuven, 2006; Morris & Feldman, 1996; Schaible & Gecas,
2010; Van Gelderen et al., 2011).
The intensity of emotional display also can affect burnout. Greater attention
to emotional display requires more psychological and emotional investment,
and officers who are more emotionally invested in their jobs and who are
more empathetic are especially susceptible to burnout (Bakker & Heuven,
2006; Cordes & Dougherty, 1993). In addition, organizational requirements to
display certain emotions—also known as display rules—lead officers to engage
in emotional regulation using either surface acting—which involves outward
displays of insincere emotion—or deep acting—which requires an effort to sin-
cerely hold the emotions required by one’s work (Brotheridge & Grandey, 2002;
Hochschild, 1983; Van Gelderen et al., 2011). Greater efforts to use deep acting
Kwak et al. 227

to suppress one’s personal emotions in favor of the organizationally required

emotions may result in escalated burnout (Hochschild, 1983; Hsieh, 2014; Hsieh
& Guy, 2009; Hsieh, Jin, & Guy, 2012; Morris & Feldman, 1996; Schaible &
Gecas, 2010).
To summarize, this work shows that police officers are recognized as an
occupational group that conducts emotional labor by engaging in a wide
array of emotional display (Dowler, 2005; Kohan & Mazmanian, 2003;
Martin, 1999; Stearns & Moore, 1993; Violanti & Aron, 1995), while frequent
changes of displayed emotions are required (Van Gelderen et al., 2007).

Role Stressors
Role conflict. Police in South Korea have undergone considerable changes in
operational strategies in an attempt to improve the police accountability, legit-
imacy, effectiveness, and efficiency (Kwak & McNeeley, 2017; Moon & Morash,
2008). This has made the police role more service oriented, with greater empha-
sis on community-oriented policing (Bayley & Shearing, 1996; Kelling & Moore,
1988). Importantly, under the new paradigm, officers may experience stress due
to changes in their work roles (Callan, 1993; Lord, 1996) that come about due to
changes in the philosophy of policing (Lord & Friday, 2008; Paoline et al., 2000;
Zhao, He, & Lovrich, 1998). More specifically, these changes can result in role
confusion and value dissonance (Bakker & Heuven, 2006; Huey & Ricciardelli,
2015; Schaible & Gecas, 2010; Van Gelderen et al., 2007).
Role conflict is associated with conflicting demands, feeling pressure to get
along with people, and having differences with supervisors (Rizzo, House, &
Lirtzman, 1970). In other words, role conflict occurs when role senders’ expect-
ations do not match with those of workers; it also stems from the requirement
that police officers maintain multiple objectives (Cooper & Marshall, 1976; Katz
& Kahn, 1978). For example, in a constitutional democracy, the police are
expected to investigate crime, engage in proactive crime control, and maintain
order while at the same time ensuring individual rights (Goldstein, 1977; Jones
& Newburn, 2002; Seron et al., 2004). Community service is often perceived
negatively as taking officers away from their Number 1 priority—fighting crime.
Role conflict may occur when officers become frustrated because of a lack of
emphasis on “real” law enforcement matters (Ayres, 1990; Huey & Ricciardelli,
2015). However, Johnson (2012) found that officers experience discomfort when
their law enforcement role requires them to be strict and aggressive.
Importantly, role conflict has been linked to job stress, fatigue, burnout, and
poor performance (Huey & Ricciardelli, 2015; Jin, Sun, Jiang, Wang, & Wen,
2016; Schaible & Gecas, 2010; Schaubroeck, Cotton, & Jennings, 1989; Tubre &
Collins, 2000; Violanti & Aron, 1993).
228 Police Quarterly 21(2)

Role ambiguity. Role ambiguity is defined as a lack of clarity in one’s work role
concerning work goals, the scope of responsibilities, and colleagues’ expecta-
tions (Abramis, 1994; Cooper & Marshall, 1976; Jackson & Schuler, 1985). Law
enforcement officers encounter complex situations that require decision-making
authority that cannot be predefined with explicit task expectations (Lord &
Friday, 2008; Shane, 2010). In addition, officers experience frustration when
there is a lack of direction or mission for the department (Kim et al., 2016),
which leads to a lack of clarity about their goals or objectives, reducing their job
satisfaction (Ingram & Lee, 2015). It is impossible for officers to recognize all the
rules they have to conform to; as a result, they can stay in a constant state of
confusion about what behavior is expected.
Role ambiguity is regarded as a leading stressor for many employees
(Armstrong & Griffin, 2004; Lambert, Hogan, Paoline, & Clarke, 2005) and
yields adverse outcomes including burnout and job dissatisfaction (Abramis,
1994; Cordes & Dougherty, 1993; Jackson, Turner, & Brief, 1987; Jawahar,
Stone, & Kisamore, 2007; Jin et al., 2016; Johnson, 2012; Kim & Stoner,
2008). For instance, according to Lord (1996), police officers who experience
role stressors often emotionally detach from their work, showing a higher
degree of physiological responses and a lack of job involvement. Importantly,
these relationships between role ambiguity and burnout have been noted among
police officers in India (Kumar & Kamalanabhan, 2017) and correctional officers
(Jin et al., 2016; Lambert et al., 2005; Lambert, Hogan, Jiang, & Jenkins, 2009).

Emotional Dissonance
Emotional labor has more negative consequences when employees are required
to engage in emotional displays at work without personally accepting the organ-
ization’s expectations (Ashforth & Humphrey, 1993; Grandey, 2000; Morris &
Feldman, 1997). As a consequence of complying with these emotional demands,
employees suffer from emotional dissonance (Van Gelderen et al., 2017), which
refers to the discrepancy between felt emotions and the emotions that were
displayed (Hochschild, 1983; Zapf, Seifert, Schmutte, Mertini, & Holz, 2001;
Zapf, Vogt, Seifert, Mertini, & Isic, 1999). That is, emotional dissonance is
considered the negative product of emotional labor (Adelmann, 1989).
The literature on emotional labor has revealed that emotional dissonance is
likely to result in negative outcomes such as job burnout (Ashforth &
Humphrey, 1993; Bakker & Heuven, 2006; Brotheridge & Grandey, 2002;
Morris & Feldman, 1996; Van Gelderen et al., 2007; Zapf, 2002). For example,
Schaible and Gecas (2010) found that emotional work demand and value dis-
sonance increased depersonalizing burnout among police officers.

Mediating effects of emotional dissonance. Police officers are confronted with unfa-
vorable contexts including death and violence as well as uncivil interactions with
Kwak et al. 229

the general public; these situations induce emotional reactions (Kohan &
Mazmanian, 2003; Manzoni & Eisner, 2006; Van Gelderen et al., 2011).
However, officers are required to suppress these felt emotions during the
course of their interactions with the public (Schaible & Gecas, 2010; Van
Gelderen et al., 2011). As a result, emotional job demands breed heightened
levels of emotional dissonance that, in turn, will contribute to burnout. In fact, a
few studies revealed that police officers who experienced emotionally charged
interactions with civilians were more likely to suffer from emotional dissonance
and, in turn, emotional exhaustion and cynicism (Bakker & Heuven, 2006; Van
Gelderen et al., 2007).
Importantly, prior work focusing on the mediating effects of emotional dis-
sonance overlooked the critical variation in individual coping and emotion man-
agement ability. For example, Guy and Lee (2015) found that, although
emotional labor increased burnout, public service workers with higher abilities
of self-regulation were less likely to report burnout. Likewise, since emotional
intelligence allows individuals to regulate their emotions and understand the
emotions of others (Mayer & Salovey, 1995; Mayer, Salovey, & Caruso, 2004;
Salovey & Mayer, 1990), the influence of emotional labor on burnout is likely
lower among emotionally intelligent people (Johnson & Spector, 2007;
Mikolajczak, Menil, & Luminet, 2007; Mikolajczak, Nelis, Hansenne, &
Quoidbach, 2008). We account for this issue by examining the mediating
effect of emotional dissonance while controlling for emotional intelligence.
In addition, we propose a previously unexplored hypothesis that role conflict
and role ambiguity may have an indirect effect on burnout though emotional
dissonance. Every officer holds a preference or a personal conviction for specific
values and a notion of the ideal police role (Huey & Ricciardelli, 2015); these
preferences may not match those of the organization or the public. Therefore,
police officers are likely to suffer from certain levels of emotional dissonance as
a product of the paradoxical philosophies or ideals of policing (Huey &
Ricciardelli, 2015; Schaible & Gecas, 2010). Thus, role conflict and role ambi-
guity could increase emotional dissonance and escalate burnout indirectly via
emotional dissonance.

Data and Methods

Participants
Participants were police officers at 27 police substations or patrol divisions from
four districts1 in the Seoul metropolitan area. Permission was obtained from
police department administrators to conduct the survey. One of the authors then
explained the purpose of the study to the agencies’ representatives and distrib-
uted the questionnaires to police officers in the studied substations. Paper-and-
pencil survey methods were conducted; officers were provided with envelopes
230 Police Quarterly 21(2)

to seal their questionnaires and with an instruction page explaining the intent of
the survey and ensuring the confidentiality and anonymity of the answers. The
survey was implemented from February 1 to March 10, 2013. Among the 600
distributed surveys, 505 surveys were returned, with a response rate of 84.2%.
A total of 466 police officers were included for the analyses.2
Table 1 presents descriptive statistics for all the variables included in the anal-
yses. Of those participants who were included in the analyses (n = 466), 444 were
male (95.3%). This is similar to the general police force; women make up less than
5% of South Korean police (Yun, Hwang, & Lynch, 2015). Most of the respond-
ents (84.1%, n = 392) were married. Years of police experience ranged from 1 to
40 years, with an average of about 18.6 years. Approximately 59% (n = 277) of
the officers held a college or bachelor degree.

Dependent Variables
To measure police officer burnout, we employed the Maslach Burnout
Inventory-General Survey (Schaufeli, Leiter, Maslach, & Jackson, 1996).
Recent research supports the use of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General
Survey in the South Korean context (Sin, 2003). We examine three subscales of

Table 1. Descriptive Statistics.

N Min Max Mean SD

Dependent Variables
Exhaustion 466 5 25 16.339 4.08777
Cynicism 466 4 20 10.2792 3.18659
Low professional efficacy 466 6 30 13.7099 3.82113
Independent variables
Emotional labor
Emotional frequency 466 3 15 11.412 2.18813
Emotional variety 466 4 20 12.2298 2.4721
Emotional intensity 466 7 20 15.9979 2.32101
Role characteristics
Role conflict 466 4 20 12.2359 2.45462
Role ambiguity 466 3 15 6.5515 1.89278
Emotional dissonance 466 3 15 8.7705 2.5788
Emotional intelligence
Aware of others’ emotions 466 6 15 10.4295 1.82389
Regulation of emotions 466 5 20 14.0993 2.48504
Employee characteristics
Male 466 0 1 0.9528 0.21232
Married 466 0 1 0.8412 0.36588
Experience 466 1 40 18.6094 9.39102
Education 466 1 4 2.0451 0.95496
Kwak et al. 231

police officer burnout: emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and low professional

efficacy (see also Bakker & Heuven, 2006). First, emotional exhaustion was
measured by summing five items (Cronbach’s a = .903) that asked respondents
to indicate the extent to which they agreed with the following statements: (a) I
feel emotionally drained from my work, (b) I feel used up at the end of a
workday, (c) I feel tired whenever I get up and think of facing another day
on the job, (d) Working all day is really a strain for me, and (e) I feel burned
out from my work. The response set was a 5-point Likert-type scale (1 =
strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree).
Second, cynicism points to distancing oneself from one’s work. To measure
cynicism, we summed four questions in which respondents were asked to assess
the degree to which they agreed with the following statements (on a 5-point
Likert-type scale): (a) I have become less interested in my work since I started
my job, (b) I doubt the significance of my work, (c) I have become more cynical
about whether my work contributes anything, and (d) I have become less enthu-
siastic about my work (Cronbach’s a = .870).
Third, low professional efficacy involves the tendency to experience feelings
of insufficiency, poor professional achievement, and poor self-esteem when eval-
uating one’s work. The scale of low professional efficacy was derived by adding
six items (Cronbach’s a = .900) asking participants how strongly they agreed
(on a 5-point Likert-type scale) the following: (a) I can effectively solve the
problems that arise in my work, (b) I feel exhilarated when I accomplished
something at work, (c) I feel I am making an effective contribution to what
this organization does, (d) In my opinion, I am good at my job, (e) I have
accomplished many worthwhile things in this job, and (e) I feel confident that
I am effective at getting things done. These items were reverse coded so that
higher scores reflect low levels of professional efficacy.

Independent Variables
Emotional labor. Three concepts were used to operationalize emotional labor:
emotional frequency, emotional variety, and emotional intensity. Emotional
frequency and variety were measured based on the Emotional Labour Scale
(Brotheridge & Lee, 2003) and the Job-Focused Emotional Labor measure
(Brotheridge & Grandey, 2002). First, emotional frequency (the perceived fre-
quency of interactions with the public) was measured with three items asking
participants about the extent to which they interacted with the general public in
the course of their work (Cronbach’s a = .684): (a) My job is related to frequent
contact and conversation with citizens, (b) It is common to encounter the same
citizens for grievance, and (c) I spend most of my work time interacting with
citizens. These items, which were measured using a 5-point Likert-type scale
(1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree), were summed so that higher
scores represented more frequent interactions with the public.
232 Police Quarterly 21(2)

Second, emotional variety (or the variety of emotions that officers must
express) was measured by summing four items (measured with 5-point Likert-
type scales ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree) regarding
how much respondents displayed various emotions when interacting with
citizens (Cronbach’s a = .602): (a) Express various sorts of emotions depending
on the citizens I contact, (b) Display depth and rich emotions to the citizens
depending on the situations, (c) Change from positive emotion to negative emo-
tion to the citizens depending on the contexts, and (d) Change from negative
emotion to positive emotion to the citizens depending on the contexts.
Emotional intensity involves the efforts that individuals undergo to express
or regulate emotions during the interactions. Based on the Emotion Work
Requirements Scale (Best, Downey, & Jones, 1997) and previous research
(Brotheridge & Grandey, 2002; Cordes & Dougherty, 1993; Morris &
Feldman, 1996), this variable was constructed by summing four items
(Cronbach’s a = .753): (a) I try to leave trust in and make a favorable impres-
sion of the police when I display my emotions to the public or citizens for
grievance, (b) I try to leave trust in and make a favorable impression of the
police when I display my feelings to drunken people, (c) I try to do my best not
to express my feelings outwardly to the public or citizen for grievance when I
feel distasteful or offensive, and (d) I try to do my best suppress my emotions
outwardly when I address drunken people and feel distasteful or offensive.

Role characteristics. Role ambiguity and role conflict were measured using the
Role Conflict and Role Ambiguity Scale (Rizzo et al., 1970). Role conflict con-
cerns the presence of divergent or controversial demands from their supervisors
or fellow officers and the public (Lord, 1996). Respondents were asked to score
their agreement with four questions (Cronbach’s a = .606), which were mea-
sured on a 5-point Likert-type scale and summed: (a) I receive inconsistent
instructions and work under vague directives/orders and guidelines, (b) I
often experience trouble and conflict in the course of role performance as a
consequence of incongruence between the demand and expectation from super-
visors and colleagues, (c) I often have trouble and conflict with citizens in the
course of work performance as a result of discrepancy between the demand and
expectation, and (d) I have to do various kinds of work at the same time.
The index of role ambiguity tapped three items regarding the clarity and
articulation about their duties and actions required in the job (Ingram & Lee,
2015; Jackson & Schuler, 1985; Lord, 1996). These items were measured on a
5-point Likert-type scale, reverse coded, and then summed (Cronbach’s a =
.867): (a) I know what my responsibilities are in the police organization, (b) I
know exactly what is expected of me, and (c) I know clearly what my roles are
for my job.
Kwak et al. 233

Emotional dissonance. Based on prior research (Bakker & Heuven, 2006; Morris &
Feldman, 1997), emotional dissonance was constructed by summing three items
that were measured on a 5-point Likert-type scale (Cronbach’s a = .844): (a) I
have a hard time because I cannot express my true feelings due to my work roles,
(b) There are significant gaps between what I felt during my work performance
and what I openly display emotions that I was unfelt, and (c) Since there is the
discrepancy of felt emotions and expressed emotions required by my job, I feel
confused.

Control Variables
Two measures of emotional regulation were adapted from the Wong and Law’s
Emotional Intelligence Scale (Wong & Law, 2002). Three items were used to
measure awareness of others’ emotions (Cronbach’s a = .863). Officers were
asked to indicate the extent to which they agreed with the following statements:
(a) I am a good observer of others’ emotions, (b) I have a good understanding of
the emotions of people around me, and (c) I always know my colleagues’ emo-
tions from their behavior. The items were based on five-point Likert-type scales
and were added together to create a scale of emotional awareness.
Regulation of emotions was measured by summing four items (Cronbach’s a
= .875). Respondents responded to these items on a 5-point Likert-type scale
and were asked to represent the extent to which they agreed with the following
questions: (a) I have a good control of my own emotions, (b) I can always calm
down quickly when I am very incensed, (c) I am quite capable of controlling my
own emotions, and (d) I am able to control my temper and handle difficulties
rationally.
We also included several demographic characteristics as control variables.
Gender and marital status were dichotomous measures indicating whether
respondents were male and married, respectively. Experience was a continuous
variable measured in officers’ years of police experience. Education was mea-
sured in four ordinal categories from 1 (high school degree) to 4 (graduate
degree).

Analysis
To test the hypothesis that emotional labor and role characteristics influence
burnout indirectly via emotional dissonance, the analysis proceeded in two
steps. First, a multivariate linear regression model predicting emotional disso-
nance was conducted. Second, the three burnout subscales (emotional exhaus-
tion, cynicism, and low professional efficacy) were regressed separately on the
independent variables. To observe the effects of the exogenous variables before
and after emotional dissonance is entered, each analysis predicting a component
of burnout included two models, with emotional dissonance omitted in the first
234 Police Quarterly 21(2)

model and included in the second. We conducted bootstrapped mediation anal-

ysis with bias-corrected confidence estimates3 to test the statistical significance of
the mediating effects of emotional dissonance (Hayes, 2013; Preacher & Hayes,
2008).4 This test is preferable when the sample size is not large; with other
methods of testing indirect effects (such as structural equation modeling), the
assumption of normality of the sampling distribution of the indirect effect can
be questionable with small samples (MacKinnon, Lockwood, Hoffman, West, &
Sheets, 2002; Preacher & Hayes, 2008). Missing data were handled using listwise
deletion. With no variance inflation factors exceeding 2.5 and no tolerance
scores lower than 0.4, multicollinearity did not appear to be a problem for
the independent variables.

Results
First, we examined whether the exogenous variables were significantly associat-
ed with emotional dissonance. The results of this analysis are presented in the
first column in Table 2. Emotional variety (b = .176, p < .001), role conflict
(b = .447, p < .001), and role ambiguity (b = .136, p < .05) were positively

Table 2. OLS Regression Model Predicting Emotional Dissonance.

b (SE)

Emotional labor
Emotional frequency 0.095 (.053)
Emotional variety 0.176 (.044)***
Emotional intensity 0.066 (.054)
Role characteristics
Role conflict 0.447 (.044)***
Role ambiguity 0.136 (.066)*
Emotional intelligence
Aware of others’ emotions 0.006 (.069)
Regulation of emotions
0.136 (.052)**
Employee characteristics
Male
0.593 (.518)
Married
0.023 (.339)
Experience
0.009 (.015)
Education
0.224 (.128)
Constant 1.182 (1.545)
R2 0.283
F ratio 16.259***
N 466
Note. Unstandardized coefficients are presented with standard errors in
parentheses.
*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.
Kwak et al. 235

associated with emotional dissonance, even after controlling for emotional intel-
ligence and individual characteristics; officers whose jobs were high in these
characteristics were more likely to experience emotional dissonance. Other ele-
ments of emotional labor, however, were not related to emotional dissonance. It
is worth noting that officers’ ability to regulate their emotions was linked with
lower emotional dissonance (b =
.136, p < .01).
Then, we examined whether the exogenous variables were related to burnout.
The results predicting emotional exhaustion are provided in the first column of
Table 3. None of the employee characteristics had significant effects on emo-
tional exhaustion. Only one indicator of emotional labor—the frequency of
interactions—had a statistically significant effect on emotional exhaustion (b
= .206, p < .05). Specifically, emotional exhaustion was higher when officers
had more frequent contact with the public. In terms of role characteristics, role
conflict had a significant and positive impact on emotional exhaustion (b =
.827, p < .001), while role ambiguity showed no significant effect. In Model 2,
we added emotional dissonance, which was related to higher emotional exhaus-
tion (b = .389, p < .001). After the inclusion of emotional dissonance, the
coefficients for emotional frequency and role conflict, while still significant,
were reduced by roughly 18% and 21%, respectively. This suggests that the
relationships of emotional frequency and role conflict with emotional exhaus-
tion might be partially mediated by emotional dissonance.
Second, we regressed cynicism on employee characteristics, emotional labor,
role characteristics, and emotional dissonance. As with emotional exhaustion,
none of the employee characteristics were associated with cynicism. Emotional
variety was positively correlated with cynicism (b = .158, p < .01); police
officers who changed their emotional expression frequently were more likely
than their counterparts to report cynicism, suggesting that they tend to be dis-
tant from their work or job. Emotional intensity was negatively associated with
cynicism (b =
231, p < .01); contrary to our hypothesis, officers who tried to
comply with organizationally expected emotions were less likely to show a cyn-
ical attitude toward their work. Role conflict (b = .642, p < .001) and role
ambiguity (b = .294, p < .001) also had positive and statistically significant
impacts on cynicism. In the second model, emotional dissonance was related to
higher cynicism (b = .289, p < .001). In this model, the exogenous variables
retained significant relationships with cynicism; however, the coefficients for
emotional variety, role conflict, and role ambiguity were substantially lower
than in Model 1.
Third, we regressed low professional efficacy on employee characteristics,
emotional labor, role characteristics, and emotional dissonance. Among
employee characteristics, only gender was statistically significant, with female
officers more likely to report low professional efficacy (b =
1.607, p < .05).
With regard to emotional labor, emotional intensity had a negative and statis-
tically significant influence on low professional efficacy (b =
.284, p < .001).
236
Table 3. Multiple Regression Analyses Predicting Police Officer Job Burnout.

Exhaustion Cynicism Low professional Efficacy

Model 1 Model 2 Model 1 Model 2 Model 1 Model 2

Emotional labor
Emotional frequency .206 (.082)* .169 (.080)* .099 (.061) .071 (.059) .033 (.060) .037 (.060)
Emotional variety .076 (.068) .007 (.067) .158 (.050)** .107 (.049)*
.050 (.050)
.043 (.051)
Emotional intensity .116 (.084) .091 (.081)
.203 (.062)**
.222 (.060)***
.284 (.061)***
.281 (.061)***
Role characteristics
Role conflict .827 (.068)*** .653 (.073)*** .642 (.050)*** .513 (.054)*** .167 (.050)** .184 (.055)**
Role ambiguity .114 (.103) .061 (.101) .294 (.076)*** .255 (.074)*** .976 (.076)*** .982 (.076)***
Emotional dissonance — .389 (.071)*** — .289 (.052)*** —
.039 (.053)
Emotional intelligence
Aware of others’ emotions .046 (.107) .044 (.104) .061 (.079) .059 (.076)
.335 (.078)***
.334 (.078)***
Regulation of emotions
.039 (.081) .014 (.079)
.115 (.060)
.076 (.059)
.226 (.059)***
.231 (.060)***
Employee characteristics
Male
.426 (.808)
.196 (.785) .182 (.596) .353 (.578)
1.607 (.590)*
1.630 (.591)*
Married
.101 (.529)
.092 (.513) .708 (.390) .715 (.378)
.469 (.386)
.470 (.386)
Experience .031 (.023) .034 (.023)
.032 (.017)
.029 (.017) .015 (.017) .015 (.017)
Education .018 (.201) .105 (.195)
.189 (.148)
.124 (.144)
.166 (.146)
.175 (.147)
R2 .304 .347 .378 .418 .576 .576
DR2 .304 .043 .378 .039 .576 0
F ratio 18.057*** 20.103*** 25.118*** 27.071*** 56.063*** 51.382***
Note. Unstandardized coefficients are presented with standard errors in parentheses. (N ¼ 466).
*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001
Kwak et al. 237

Table 4. Bootstrapped Confidence Intervals for the Total and Indirect Effects.

Bootstrapping (BC 95% CI)

Indirect Total
Path effects effects Lowera Upper Lowerb Upper

Role Conflict ! .174*** .827 .099 .265 .097 .266

Emotional Dissonance !
Emotional Exhaustion
Emotional Variety ! .051** .158 .018 .093 .019 .096
Emotional Dissonance !
Cynicism
Role Conflict ! .129*** .642 .082 .200 .077 .191
Emotional Dissonance !
Cynicism
BC ¼ bias corrected.
a
The first bootstrap estimates used 1,000 replications for bootstrap resamples.
b
The second bootstrap used 5,000 replications for bootstrap resamples.
*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

Role conflict (b = .167, p < .01) and role ambiguity (b = .976, p < .001) had
positive and significant effects on low professional efficacy. In Model 2, emo-
tional dissonance had no relationship with low professional efficacy; therefore,
emotional dissonance has neither directly affects low professional efficacy nor
mediates the effects of the exogenous variables.

Mediating effect of emotional dissonance. As noted earlier, several relationships

between the exogenous variables and two dimensions of burnout, emotional
exhaustion and cynicism, appear to have been partially mediated by emotional
dissonance. To determine whether these indirect effects are statistically signifi-
cant, we tested mediation analyses using the bootstrapping method with bias-
corrected confidence estimates (Hayes, 2013). The 95% confidence interval (CI)
of the indirect effect was obtained with 5,000 bootstrap resamples (Preacher &
Hayes, 2008). Table 4 presents the significant results of the mediation analysis.
These confirmed that role conflict was indirectly related to emotional exhaustion
through emotional dissonance (b = .174; [CI = .099, .265]). When examining
cynicism, we found that two exogenous variables were related to cynicism via
emotional dissonance: emotional variety (b = .051; [CI= .018, .093]) and role
conflict (b = .129; [CI= .082, .200]).

Discussion
This study investigated whether emotional labor, role stressors, and emotional
dissonance lead to higher levels of job burnout among a sample of frontline
police officers in South Korea. Our findings revealed that, first, the frequency of
238 Police Quarterly 21(2)

interaction with citizens was a significant predictor of emotional exhaustion,

while variety of emotional expression was found to increase officers’ cynicism.
Second, we found that role stressors had significant impacts on burnout. Finally,
several indirect effects of emotional labor and role stressors via emotional dis-
sonance were observed.
We found that emotional variety had an indirect effect through emotional
dissonance. It is reasonable that employees in emotionally demanding roles are
more likely to experience burnout because the number of emotions that must be
displayed is likely proportional to the degree of clash with displayed emotions
that occurs. This suggests that expressing a wide range of emotions depending
on specific situational contexts may require officers to manage and regulate their
own feelings while publicly expressing a differing emotion. This may lead offi-
cers to feel the discrepancy between felt and displayed emotion that, in
turn, results in detached or cynical attitudes toward their work (Bakker &
Heuven, 2006; Heuven & Bakker, 2003; Van Gelderen et al., 2011; Zapf,
2002; Zapf et al., 1999).
Contrary to expectations, the intensity of emotional display was negatively
associated with cynicism and low professional efficacy. This shows that display-
ing positive emotions required by a job not only increases officers’ interest in
their job but also promotes their feelings of professional efficacy or a sense
of occupational accomplishment. It is noteworthy that the measure of intensity
of emotional display used for this study concerns the expression of positive
emotions and entails more deep acting. Although deep acting may be demand-
ing, it can have potential benefits for the employee, such as a sense of satisfac-
tion with work efforts and increase in service performance (Brotheridge &
Grandey, 2002; Brotheridge & Lee, 2003; Grandey, 2000; Van Gelderen et al.,
2017). Based on this idea, officers’ endeavors to express positive emotions may
make them actually feel the required emotions, which may be rewarding
(Humphrey et al., 2015; Johnson & Spector, 2007; Schaible & Six, 2016;
Storch & Panzarella, 1996). Officers who strive to display positive emotions to
the general public may be more likely to witness citizen satisfaction and coop-
eration with the police. Consequently, such experiences may boost officers’
interest in their work and facilitate professional efficacy (Bhowmick & Mulla,
2016).
The results revealed that, consistent with previous research (Bakker &
Heuven, 2006; Cordes & Dougherty, 1993), emotional variety was related to
heightened levels of cynicism. Officers who expressed a variety of emotional
display were more likely to be distant with the public or have no interest in
their work because of cynicism. Scholars pointed out that the frequency of
contacts alone may not require the skill needed to regulate and express emo-
tional display (Ashforth & Humphrey, 1993; Morris & Feldman, 1996). Given
the significant correlation between emotional frequency and emotional variety,5
it is reasonable that varied emotional expressions naturally increases
Kwak et al. 239

as frequency of contacts with citizens increases, thereby resulting in heightened

levels of cynicism.
Consistent with previous research (Cordes & Dougherty, 1993; Holgate &
Clegg, 1991; Kim & Stoner, 2008; Lee & Ashforth, 1996; Lord, 1996), role
conflict and role ambiguity had considerable effects on each of the burnout
dimensions, suggesting that incompatibility and lack of clarity in role responsi-
bility are sources of occupational burnout among police officers. Importantly,
emotional dissonance played a mediating role in the relationship between role
conflict and burnout dimensions. Officers experiencing incompatible or irrecon-
cilable expectations associated with multiple roles seem to feel psychologically
uncomfortable which, in turn, leads to fatigue and detachment from their jobs
(Jawahar et al., 2007; Schaible & Gecas, 2010; Schaubroeck et al., 1989). The
influences of role stressors from organizational environments on burnout were
noticeably pronounced in comparison to the effects of emotional labor. This is
consistent with previous findings (Lee & Ashforth, 1996) demonstrating that
job-related stressors and organizational constraints such as inadequate systems
of supervision and management were more strongly associated with burnout
among police officers than situational factors (Kop et al., 1999). Thus, it is
important for future research on burnout to consider these factors. It would
allow researchers to avoid overestimates of the effects of emotional labor on
burnout of police officers.
Taken together, these findings demonstrate that police officers are subjected
to emotional work dealing with emotionally disturbing situations. Police officers
who deal with a large number of citizens on a daily basis are more likely to
display certain emotions. In addition, those officers who experience role conflict
and engage in diverse emotional displays need to put more efforts into managing
and regulating their emotions in order to produce the organizationally desired/
required emotions (Grandey, 2000). Consequently, these efforts to control their
feelings induce a clash between genuinely felt emotions and the organizationally
required expressed emotions, which, in turn, depletes their energy resources and
make them cynical toward their work (Bakker & Heuven, 2006; Van Gelderen
et al., 2011).
Our findings have important practical implications. Given the nature of
modern policing in which police services and interpersonal interactions are
inherent parts of the job, it is unrealistic to eliminate emotionally taxing circum-
stances (Johnson, 2012). Thus, the major implication of this study is that police
administrators might diagnose current levels of emotional labor, role-specific
stressors, and burnout among police officers (Kim & Stoner, 2008; McCarty,
Schuck, Skogan, & Rosenbaum, 2011). By doing so, police agencies can come
up with solutions to help their officers effectively handle their stress and main-
tain both individual and organizational well-being (Bakker & Heuven, 2006;
Karaffa & Koch, 2015). Our findings suggest that psychological counseling
or therapy, stress debriefing, and emotional management programs should
240 Police Quarterly 21(2)

be widely accessible to front-line police officers (Dowler & Arai, 2008; Turgoose
et al., 2017). However, stigma in the public or within the police agency may
discourage officers from seeking psychological help (Fair, 2009; Karaffa &
Koch, 2015; Tucker, 2015). Thus, the existence of those human resources is
not sufficient and officers must also perceive such services and programs as
available and organizationally appropriate. When implementing therapeutic
interventions, confidentiality must be guaranteed to combat this issue.
Furthermore, agencies could provide regular seminars or programs for all offi-
cers and supervisors. This would reduce stigma by informing officers that the
stress they experience is a logical and common reaction to their work demands
(Blum, 2000; Turgoose et al., 2017) and by normalizing the use of psychological
services.
Our findings regarding emotional intelligence suggest that police officers
should receive training at the police academy that provides them with skills
for coping with emotional labor. Furthermore, police administrators should
pay more attention to emotional intelligence when selecting officers, perhaps
by using different psychological tests. Similarly, police agencies need to provide
regular job training along with routine stress management seminars (Turgoose
et al., 2017). Role stressors may be drawn from the myth of the police officers,
which hold the image of a crime fighter (Huey & Ricciardelli, 2015; Paoline
et al., 2000). The reality, however, is that this is a very narrow part of the
services offered by police (Jones & Newburn, 2002; Martin, 1999). Police officers
are expected to perform many roles such as peacekeeping, community service,
and crime fighting. Thus, trainings and programs should be designed to allow
officers to embrace shifts in the occupational paradigm of policing and improve
their psychological well-being (Zhao et al., 1998).
While this study provides a better understanding of burnout among police
officers, there are several limitations related to this study. First, because of the
cross-sectional nature of the data, these relationships cannot be interpreted as
causal. Burnout may be a developmental process, as the three burnout compo-
nents may be linked over time (Taris, Le Blanc, Schaufeli, & Schreurs, 2005).6
Longitudinal studies would be warranted to elaborate causal models and
account for the possibility that burnout changes over an officer’s career.
Second, it is unclear how well these findings can be generalized to other police
agencies. Emotional labor and burnout may vary in terms of agency size and
other characteristics. In particular, protective factors such as social support
from supervisors or colleagues and job autonomy may mitigate the development
of burnout (Johnson & Spector, 2007; Martinussen et al., 2007; McCarty &
Skogan, 2013; Morash et al., 2008; Violanti & Aron, 1995). Future studies
should examine more comprehensive frameworks by incorporating these cova-
riates as well as various components of emotional intelligence. A similar concern
is that, since we used a sample of front-line police officers working at police
stations, our findings may be limited to the front-line officer or patrol officer.
Kwak et al. 241

The leading causes of police burnout may be different for officers who work in
other departments of police agencies (Van Gelderen et al., 2011), especially
those who do not frequently interact with citizens.
Under the new paradigm emphasizing the police–citizen relationship and
police services to citizens, police officers are required to meet citizens’ expect-
ations despite a shortage of police personnel and a lack of other resources. Thus,
emotional work might be inevitable for front-line police officers. It is also an
integral part of policing as a way of eliciting citizens’ positive evaluation of
performance, support, and cooperation. More attention must be paid to the
emotional aspects of police work to seek a way to reduce burnout and develop
strategies for performing emotional work properly.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research,
authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publica-
tion of this article.

Notes
1. Among 25 districts in Seoul, 4 districts were selected on the basis of the characteristics
of areas: Green District (Secho Gu including seven police substation/patrol divisions),
Residential District (Gangdong Gu including eight police substations/patrol divi-
sions), Commercial District (Jung Gu including seven police substations/patrol divi-
sions), and Industry District (Geumcheon Gu including five police substations/patrol
divisions). Gu is equivalent to the notion of district in the West. In terms of physical
size, Gu is smaller than counties in the United States.
2. Of 505 respondents, 16 were excluded due to insufficient data. A few respondents did
not answer some items on the questionnaire, resulting in a small amount of missing
data (less than 1.2% of cells in the dataset). In supplemental analyses, multiple impu-
tation was conducted to replace missing values, and this made no substantive differ-
ences in the results.
3. The 95% CI of the indirect effects was obtained with 1,000 bootstrap resamples as
reported in parentheses for interpretation of the result. To check the stability of
the bootstrap estimates, we reran the analysis with 5,000 replications (Preacher &
Hayes, 2008).
4. We also conducted a recursive path model using maximum likelihood estimation in
AMOS 22.0. The statistical significance of the indirect effects was evaluated through
a bootstrapping procedure. The results (available on request) were almost identical
to those reported in the text. The exhaustion model, for instance, fit the data well
(v2/df = 4.217/4 with p = .377, (comparative fit index = 1.00, goodness of fit = .999,
242 Police Quarterly 21(2)

adjusted goodness of fit index = .968, standardized root mean square residual = .008,
root mean square error of approximation = .011). Two other models demonstrated
similar fit indices and were above cutoff values (Hu & Bentler, 1999; Kline, 2005).
5. The bivariate correlation between emotional frequency and a variety of emotions was
.159 (p < .01).
6. Likewise, our findings showed substantial correlations among the three burnout
dimensions. The correlations imply that emotional exhaustion is more correlated
with cynicism than with low professional efficacy.

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Author Biographies
Hyounggon Kwak is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Criminal Justice
at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. His research interests involve
topics related to issues of confidence in the police and procedural justice.
Other research areas include juvenile delinquency.

Susan McNeeley is a senior research analyst with the Minnesota Department of

Corrections. She holds a PhD in Criminal Justice from University of Cincinnati.
In addition to corrections, her research interests include criminological theory
and victimology.

Sung-Hwan Kim is an assistant professor in the Department of Public Affairs

and Police Administration at Dongguk University Gyeongju, South Korea. His
research focus is on occupational and organizational stress in policing, as well as
officer’s resilience trait.