Perceived organizational support’s moderating effect on the relationship between personality and emotional exhaustion of Chinese armed police force

Abstract

Objective To test the hypothesis that perceived organizational support(POS) plays a moderate role in the process of personality’s effect on emotional exhaustion. Methods Using POS, Revised NEO Personality Inventory and Emotional Exhaustion Inventory, 376 special combat soldiers were tested from the Chinese Armed Police Force. Then SPSS16.0 was used to conduct descriptive analysis, correlational analysis and hierarchical regression analysis. Results The interaction of neuroticism and POS as well as the interaction of conscientiousness and POS were significant or marginally significant, respectively. POS significantly moderated the relationship between neuroticism and emotional exhaustion(β=-0.19, t=-2.82, P<0.01)as well as the relationship between conscientiousness and emotional exhaustion(β=-0.12, t=-1.95, P=0.052). Conclusion Neuroticism and conscientiousness are more strongly related with emotional exhaustion among individuals with low POS than high POS. Key words: Special combat soldiers; Perceived organizational support; Personality; Emotional exhaustion