1. Introduction
With deterioration of the natural environment, changes in the international situation, and the acceleration of domestic, economic, and social reform, the frequency of various natural disasters, accident disasters, mass incidents, and public health events has shown a significant upward trend [
1,
2,
3,
4]. This has become a significant problem affecting economic development, social governance, and even national security. Globally, China is one of the countries with severe disaster risk situations; all types of accidents, hidden dangers and safety risks are prone to occur frequently and continue to evolve into social crises [
5]. In particular, the large-scale spread of COVID-19 in the early stage of the pandemic has caused some shortcomings in China’s paramount epidemic prevention and control system, public health emergency management system, etc., especially in prevention and early warning, advance disposal, emergency material reserve supply, and other aspects of the lack of necessary adaptability and response [
6,
7]. Currently, China is in a critical period of moving from a large developing country to a modern social power; the importance and urgency of people’s livelihoods and well-being, and social and economic construction, together put forward higher requirements for the national emergency management level [
8]. However, the key to excellent emergency management is to strengthen emergency preparedness, which should run through the entire process of dealing with emergencies [
7].
Emergency preparedness is a sub-field of emergency management, mainly referring to the establishment and maintenance of various preparations for emergency prevention, early warning, response, and recovery. It includes emergency plan formulation, personnel training, preparation and custody of emergency supplies and equipment, drills within the emergency plan, and connection with external emergency forces. Its ultimate goal is to maintain the emergency capacity and rapid response capacity needed for emergency rescue in relation to significant accidents and ultimately reduce casualties and unnecessary losses [
9]. The Medical and Health Organization (MHO) is the main institution for the treatment of diseases and wounds, and its goal is to protect and improve people’s health, including hospitals, grass-roots medical and health institutions, professional public health institutions, etc. It is undeniable that no matter what kind of disaster or accident occurs, MHO staff (e.g., doctors, nurses, hospital administrators, CDC staff, health management staff) are at the forefront of response. For example, after an emergency public health incident, the CDC will formulate effective prevention and control measures as soon as possible; the medical and health teams will also go to the disaster areas to assist in medical treatment, health prevention and psychological assistance. As the main force of the rescue effort, they are also the core force in the construction of the national emergency system, and their emergency preparedness capacity and motivation directly affect the quality of medical rescue. Therefore, strengthening the emergency preparedness of MHO staff is also an essential task of national emergency capacity construction [
10]. However, currently, few studies have focused on the MHO staff’s behavior related to emergency preparedness.
In order to fill the gap in this field, we try to use the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to understand the self-driving mechanism of MHO staff’s emergency preparedness behavioral intention (EPBI). In this study, EPBI is considered to be the intention of MHO staff to prepare so as to avoid losses from emergencies. As an essential theory to explain the general decision-making process of individual rational behavior, TPB is widely used in the field of behavioral science, and has been proved to have good explanatory and predictive power of human behavior, and can help researchers understand how people change their behavior patterns [
11,
12,
13]. TPB holds that thoughtful and planned behavior comes from behavior intention, which depends on people’s attitude towards behavior, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control [
14]. However, TPB is not an omnipotent theory, it has a strict scope of application. For example, TPB is based on the premise of completely rational people, and cannot explain well the individual behavior related to emotion and community [
15,
16]. Therefore, the traditional TPB model is not suitable to predict and explain all behaviors in specific areas, especially those with a wider range, higher conditions, more initiative and beyond the formal requirements of the position. In today’s increasingly tricky emergency management situation, the government calls on all MHO staff to be prepared for emergencies, and to respond in order to minimize the damage caused by the accident. These behaviors generally go beyond the job description of MHO employees, and are undertaken entirely out of personal will and have nothing to do with the formal reward system, nor the behavior required by the role. This requires MHO staff to have a broader level of competence, which requires the use a large number of resources that can motivate them to take the initiative to perform a wider range of tasks.
Therefore, we attempt to add psychological capital (PsyCap) as an antecedent factor to the TPB model in order to better understand the formation mechanism of MHO staff’s EPBI, and simultaneously stimulate their subjective initiative to participate in emergency preparedness work. The psychological capital proposed by the American management scientist Luthans et al. is regarded as a positive psychological state in the process of individual growth and development, a core psychological element beyond human capital and social capital, and a psychological resource to promote personal growth and performance improvement, including hope, optimism, resilience, and self-efficacy [
17,
18,
19]. Among these factors, hope refers to “a positive motivational state of success based on the interaction between agents (goal-oriented vitality) and paths (plans to achieve goals)”; optimism is the characteristic of individuals who “expect things to go their way, and generally believe that good, rather than bad, things will happen to them”; resilience is “the positive psychological capacity to rebound, to ‘bounce back’ from adversity, uncertainty, conflict, failure, or even positive change, progress and increased responsibility”; self-efficacy is a role-breadth characteristic and is defined as an “employee’s perceived capability of carrying out a broader and more proactive set of work tasks that extend beyond prescribed technical requirements” [
20]. The PsyCap study calls on people to turn their attention to individuals’ positive, effective, and efficient aspects, rather than focusing on correcting their problems [
21]. Previous studies proved PsyCap to be a kind of psychological quality similar to the state described, and related to specific tasks, situations, and environment; it will change with time and has strong plasticity [
22]. More studies support this view, suggesting that PsyCap can be developed through interventions, and influence individual action processes [
23,
24,
25]. This makes it possible to develop the PsyCap of MHO staff as a positive way to promote their EPBI. Moreover, PsyCap is also regarded as a role-width resource, which is a further expansion and extension of the positive psychological movement in the field of active behavior research, emphasizing the broader role competence of staff members. It helps staff to participate in out-of-role behavior in a more active state. Therefore, this study believes that for the emergency rescue work with MHO staff as the backbone, the positive role that PsyCap can bring is particularly important. It is reasonable for us to explore the intermediary mechanism of TPB in the process of the influence of PsyCap on MHO staff’s emergency preparedness behavior.
5. Conclusions and Suggestions
With the continuous spread of global social risks, the emergency management system plays an increasingly important role in China’s national governance system [
59]. However, improving the awareness of MHO staff’s emergency preparedness is a crucial way to enhance the foresight, scientificity, and initiative of emergency management. This study focused on the perspective of positive psychological movement and extended the theory of planned behavior by integrating PsyCap to investigate the mechanism by which EPBI is formed. Almost all the hypotheses were supported. The main results of this study are as follows: (1) Attitude and perceived behavioral control had significant positive effects on MHO staff’s EPBI, and subjective norms can positively influence attitude and perceived behavioral control. (2) Although subjective norms do not have a direct impact on EPBI, they will have an indirect impact through the intermediary roles of attitude and perceived behavioral control. (3) PsyCap had a significant influence on the decision-making process of MHO staff’s emergency preparedness behavior. Specifically, PsyCap had significant positive effects on attitude toward emergency preparedness behavior, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. Additionally, PsyCap affected MHO staff’s EPBI through the intermediary effects of attitude and perceived behavioral control.
5.1. Theoretical Contribution
Firstly, in the context of China, TPB can be used to predict and explain the intention of emergency preparedness behavior, which further expands the application field of TPB. Secondly, external motivation and internal opportunity work together to affect the EPBI of MHO staff. Most of the previous literature considered the influence of external environmental factors on the formation of EPBI, but seldom considered the influence of individual internal factors. However, the impact of external drivers on EPBI is not real-time and effective, which largely depends on individual self-management. Therefore, this study integrates the theoretical viewpoints in the field of positive psychology and organizational behavior, and further discusses the self-driving mechanism of MHO staff’s EPBI. Talking about the influence of PsyCap on EPBI enriches the existing research literature in the field of emergency preparedness, and its conclusions deepen our understanding of the formation mechanism of EPBI. Finally, this study complements the original TPB model by including role-width resources that can promote individuals to perform a broader range of tasks, which provides a more perfect theoretical model for predicting role-width behavior in MHO staff’s behavior database and provides an important update consideration for the development of a comprehensive behavioral model.
5.2. Practical Significance
Understanding the influence of TPB on EPBI and the influence of PsyCap on behavioral decision-making process are of great significance to the practical application of positive psychology and organizational behavior theory. Firstly, considering the impact of TPB mechanism on EPBI, management can take corresponding measures to encourage MHO staff to develop the necessary safety skills and knowledge, and stimulate their EPBI in multiple ways. These measures are as follows:
- (1)
Cultivate crisis awareness and improve the psychological risk reserve of MHO staff.
- (2)
Strengthen the training of emergency knowledge to make MHO staff fully aware of the significance and value of EP.
- (3)
Conduct emergency practice drills to enhance the confidence of MHO staff in dealing with unexpected accidents.
- (4)
Establish emergency logistics support work to ensure MHO workers’ health and life safety, etc.
Additionally, the influence of PsyCap on the behavioral decision-making process also provides a unique opportunity for managers to improve the enthusiasm of MHO staff to carry out emergency preparedness work. Managers can develop the PsyCap of MHO staff at the sub-structure or macro-level to improve their attitude towards emergency preparedness behavior, perceived behavioral control and subjective norms. The following are several measures to develop the PsyCap of MHO staff:
- (1)
Involve MHO staff in the process of preparing emergency preparedness and response plans.
- (2)
Make realistic and optimistic expectations to counteract the pessimism of MHO staff about emergency preparedness.
- (3)
Reinforce the transferable value of emergency preparation behavior in the career development of MHO staff.
- (4)
Provide positive feedback to MHO staff who are actively involved in emergency preparedness, etc.
5.3. Limitations and Prospect
This study has important theoretical and practical significance for understanding and stimulating MHO staff’s EPBI, but there are still some limitations. First, the subjects of this study are MHO staff, and the original data were collected through the form of a network questionnaire; hence, the homologous bias cannot be eliminated. Therefore, the research method should be further improved in subsequent studies. Second, the model in this study only considered the mediating effect and did not involve moderating variables. Therefore, future studies should consider more influencing variables to make the results more objective and comprehensive. Finally, the samples used in this study to verify the hypothesis are from China, and whether the research results can be inferred in other countries (regions) needs to be further verified. Follow-up research can increase the scope of the survey and sample size, so that the research results can adapt to a wider range of research objects, and improve the external validity of the research results.