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Correctional institutions rely on staff to accomplish a variety of tasks and objectives to ensure the safety and security of society. A significant body of research has focused on characteristics and attitudes of correctional staff to uncover positive work outcomes. One area that rarely appears in the correctional literature is organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), which refers to those prosocial work behaviors in which employees engage that reflect extra effort and benefit the organization. This study examined the influence of work environment variables (i.e., organizational commitment, job stress, and job involvement) and individual-level characteristics on OCB. The results indicate that organizational citizenship behavior is affected by both organizational commitment and job stress. Findings are discussed in terms of possible policy implications for correctional organizations as well as the need to examine further the reciprocal nature of the employee/employer relationship. Keywords: correctional officers; job stress; organizational commitment; prison environments

During the past decade, there has been increasing pressure on correctional agencies to attract and keep quality staff. Raising worker job satisfaction is seen as a fundamental way of decreasing turnover. There has been a considerable amount of research in the area of the possible causes of correctional staff job satisfaction and, to a lesser extent, the possible consequences of job satisfaction. However, due to the numerous studies, some with conflicting results, it is difficult to understand clearly the factors associated with job satisfaction. A review of the literature is presented to provide a better understanding of correctional staff job satisfaction. Based on this review, correctional administrators are urged to concentrate more on improving the work environment rather than focusing on correctional staff characteristics.

This study examined the relationship between social support and burnout among correctional staff at a private midwestern correctional facility for juveniles tried as adults. Research on correctional staff burnout often calls for social support to help combat the problem; however, there has been no published research on whether different types of social support influence the different dimensions of job burnout. As such, the analyses examined the effects of family-and-friends support, coworker support, management support, and supervisor support on emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and ineffectiveness. The results revealed that different types of social support influenced different dimensions of burnout. Each dimension of job burnout was influenced by at least one type of social support. Furthermore, the effects of some types of social support were unique to specific dimensions of job burnout, and none of the types combined to influence any dimension of job burnout in a uniform manner. The results point to the need to develop different forms of social support to deal with the different dimensions of burnout.

In an era in which rising costs, shrinking budgets, and personnel shortages are common, it is increasingly important to provide a positive work situation to ensure worker stability. Research indicates that job burnout is a negative response that is harmful to the employee and to the organization. Depersonalization, emotional exhaustion, and feeling a lack of accomplishment at work are all dimensions of job burnout. This study examined the association of job involvement, job stress, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment with burnout among correctional staff. The findings highlight the significance of these variables in relation to burnout. Specifically, job satisfaction had an inverse relationship with emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a sense of reduced accomplishment at work, whereas job stress had a significant positive relationship with depersonalization and emotional exhaustion. Job involvement also had a positive association with emotional exhaustion, whereas commitment to the organization had no relationship with any of the three dimensions of burnout.