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Two major forms of organizational trust are supervisor trust and management trust. Guided by the job demand-resources model, this exploratory study examined how the job demand variables of role conflict, role ambiguity, role overload, and fear of being victimized at work and the job resource variables of instrumental communication, job autonomy, job variety, and quality training were linked to both forms of organizational trust among staff at a private U.S. prison. Results showed that workplace variables predicted both types of trust and were generally stronger predictors than personal attributes. Moreover, resources played a greater role than job demands in shaping both supervisor and management trust. Among the demands, only role conflict was a significant negative predictor of supervisor trust and management trust. Instrumental communication, job autonomy, and job variety were significant positive predictors of supervisor trust. Job autonomy and job variety both had significant positive associations with management trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Private prison staff are a valuable resource, and they can be affected by various workplace variables. The effects of organizational justice on counterproductive staff behaviors in a sample of correctional staff at a private prison were examined using organizational-justice theory. Specifically, the association of distributive and procedural justice with turnover intent, sick-leave views, and absenteeism were tested while controlling for demographic characteristics (position, gender, age, tenure, and race/ethnicity). OLS regression models show that procedural justice was the strongest predictor and was negatively associated with all three measures of counterproductive behaviors; distributive justice was only predictive of turnover intent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the relationships between public service motivation and self-reported perceptions of vocational fit among one cohort of upper-level criminal justice students at a Midwestern university, while controlling for race, gender, age, and political orientation. The data come from a survey administered in the spring of 2021 to criminal justice students in a mandatory class taken between their junior and senior year of their bachelor's degree program. The findings indicated that increased public service motivations were significantly associated with better perceptions of pre-career vocational fit. Additionally, more conservative political orientations were associated with increased perceptions of fit to criminal justice roles. The study adds to a small but growing body of research applying public service motivation and person-environment fit theory to criminal justice occupations and emphasizes the importance placed on sustaining the value of public service as a possible method of recruiting and maintaining the criminal justice workforce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Correctional staff are sometimes in fear of being injured on the job. Concerns about issues relating to inmate medical care could be related to feeling at risk on the job for staff. The current study explored how perceived inmate medical care issues were related to fear of being at risk on the job among staff at a large Southern US jail. The provided survey asked about staff about their concerns of being at risk and medical views dealing with if infectious diseases are handled correctly, if quality medical care was provided to inmates, if staff responded in a timely manner, if there was a high turnover of medical staff, and if inmate privacy rates put staff at risk. In a multivariate regression analysis, a view that inmate infectious diseases are handled correctly and quality medical care is provided were significantly related to lower levels fear of being in danger from the job, while the view that inmate medical privacy rights placed staff at risk had a positive effect. Views that staff respond quickly to inmate medical needs and that there is a high level of medical staff turnover both had nonsignificant effects on fear of being at risk at work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing from organizational justice theory, this study examined the mediating effects of organizational trust on the association between organizational justice (i.e. in the forms of distributive and procedural justice) and the job attitudes of job satisfaction and organizational commitment in a sample of 220 correctional staff employed full-time at a high-security prison in the U.S. Midwest. Ordinary least squares regression results indicated that participant perceptions of organizational trust fully mediated the association between procedural justice and job satisfaction, but only partially mediated the association between distributive justice and job satisfaction. Further, organizational trust fully mediated the association between both distributive and procedural organizational justice and staff commitment toward the organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the influence of job demands (role ambiguity, role conflict, role overload and dangerousness) and job resources (job variety, supervisor structure and training views) on employee perceptions of procedural justice, general perceptions of distributive justice, and specific perceptions of distributive justice. Using a sample of 160 employees at a high‐security prison, the regression analyses found that only demands of role conflict was inversely correlated with procedural justice and both distributive justice measures. Role ambiguity was inversely related to procedural but was not related to either dimension of distributive justice. Furthermore, dangerousness was inversely associated with distributive justice (both general and specific), but it was not correlated with procedural justice. Among the job resources, job variety was positively associated with procedural and both distributive justice measures. Supervisor structure was predictive of procedural but not distributive justice. Role overload, and training views had non‐significant relationships with all the justice measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Correctional officers are a valuable and expensive resource for prisons. Working as a correctional officer is a unique experience; it involves controlling incarcerated individuals, and this results in demands that can wear on officers, increasing chances of suffering depression. Social support has been postulated to help buffer the negative effects of working in a prison and reduce depressive symptomatology. Using data from 501 correctional officers employed in a Southern prison system, this study examined the relationship between the three types of social support – family, coworker, and supervisor – on depression symptoms measured using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CESD) scale. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression results indicated both family support and supervisor support were significantly related to the level of depression symptoms; coworker support, however, had a nonsignificant association. The results indicate efforts should be made to raise family support and supervisor support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing body of research on organizational justice views indicates that distributive (i.e. perceived fairness of outcomes) and procedural justice (i.e. perceived fairness of procedures to reach outcomes) are linked to salient correctional staff outcomes, such as job stress, job involvement, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and life satisfaction; however, limited research investigates the relationships between workplace factors and the organizational justice views among prison staff. The current study investigated the relationships between organizational structure variables of instrumental communication, formalization, integration, and input into organizational decision-making with the procedural and distributive views of staff at a state-run U.S. prison. Data was from 257 staff who worked at a prison holding medium- and high-security convicted male offenders. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression analysis indicated formalization, integration, and input were significantly positively correlated with procedural justice. Instrumental communication, however, was not significantly correlated with procedural justice. Input was a significant positive predictor of distributive justice, while instrumental communication, formalization, and integration were not significant predictors. Considerably more variance was explained in procedural justice compared to distributive justice views. The findings suggest that correctional administrators should be aware that input into decision-making is associated with prison staff’s views of both distributive and procedural justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two major forms of organizational trust are supervisor trust and management trust. Guided by the job demand-resources model, this exploratory study examined how the job demand variables of role conflict, role ambiguity, role overload, and fear of being victimized at work and the job resource variables of instrumental communication, job autonomy, job variety, and quality training were linked to both forms of organizational trust among staff at a private U.S. prison. Results showed that workplace variables predicted both types of trust and were generally stronger predictors than personal attributes. Moreover, resources played a greater role than job demands in shaping both supervisor and management trust. Among the demands, only role conflict was a significant negative predictor of supervisor trust and management trust. Instrumental communication, job autonomy, and job variety were significant positive predictors of supervisor trust. Job autonomy and job variety both had significant positive associations with management trust., Competing Interests: Nancy L. Hogan declared no conflicts of interest Eric G. Lambert declared no conflicts of interest Jennifer L. Lanterman declared no conflicts of interest Emily Berthelot declared no conflicts of interest, (© 2023 The Australian and New Zealand Association of Psychiatry, Psychology and Law.)