Background: Policework is a profession with a high risk of operational and organizational stress at work. The aim of this research was to investigate the effect of job-related affectivity and fatigue on burnout; specifically we aimed to study the relation between acute fatigue and burnout and the indirect role of emotion during work.

We adopted the concept of burnout with two components: exhaustion and disengagement (Halbesleben & Demerouti, 2005). In this concept, exhaustion is related to the energetic aspect, and disengagement is connected to the motivational aspect. We hypothesized that acute fatigue is a precursor to burnout. According to Van Katwyk et al. (2000), psychological well-being is synonymous with work-related affectivity, and emotions are classified into four categories: high and low-arousal of pleasant emotions and high and low-arousal of unpleasant emotions. According to the theory of stress by Selye (1978), eustress and distress are assumed to be a high arousal of emotion.

Methods: Acute fatigue was measured by the index in accordance with the Japan Society for Occupational Health. In order to investigate exhaustion and disengagement the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory was used (Halbesleben & Demerouti, 2005). Job-related affective well-being was used to assess emotions within the work context (Van Katwyk et al., 2000). Hierarchical regressions analyses were performed.

Group: 187 policemen (28 women) filled in the questionnaires. Half of them worked in the prevention department and one-third were on duty in the criminal division. Their average work experience was 14.7 years (range 5 - 28).

Results: Fatigue had a direct impact on exhaustion and disengagement. This first effect was 3 times stronger than the second. In the next step the emotions were entered into these separate models. We observed that a low arousal of unpleasant emotions had an indirect relation with fatigue and exhaustion. Additionally, a high arousal of positive and negative emotions (eustress and distress) mediated between fatigue and disengagement. These effects of partial mediation were large (f2 = .34 and f2 = .32 respectively).

Conclusion: Our results indicate that a high arousal of emotions can lead to a deterioration of motivation of work, but a low arousal of negative emotions reduce energetic ability to work among policemen.