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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]

Private security staff play an important role in protecting society, including those who work in private prisons. Working in a private prison is a demanding job. Staff are responsible to ensure that the correctional facility is safe, secure, and humane. Past research has found that organizational trust, in terms of supervisor and management trust, influences private prison staff in many outcome areas, such as job involvement, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, job stress, feeling at risk at work, and job burnout; however, there is a dearth of research on how workplace variables may contribute to organizational trust. The current study examined how the major forms of social support (family, coworkers, supervisor, and management) were related to supervisor trust and management trust among 160 staff at a private U.S. prison. Based on ordinary least squares (OLS) multivariate regression, the results indicated coworker, supervisor, and management support each had significant positive effects on supervisor trust, with supervisor support having the largest effect. In another OLS multivariate regression analysis, family, supervisor, and management support had significant positive effects on management trust, with management support having the largest effect. The findings suggest that private prison administrators should consider increasing all four forms of social support in order to raise both supervisor and management trust. It would be a valuable investment in staff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Staff are the most vital resource for any correctional facility. As corrections is a very expensive budget item in the U.S., finding and keeping dedicated employees is essential. Organizational commitment refers the bond between correctional staff and their institution. A strong bond is essential for the safety and security of both employees and inmates, as well as ensuring that the institution runs effectively. This review explores past research on three different types of organizational commitment (affective, moral, and continuance), in order to summarize past results and to reveal areas remaining unexplored. This paper examines both the antecedents and outcomes of organizational commitment. Through a systematic review of past studies, we have identified both positive and negative workplace factors that influence organizational commitment. In addition, we report how organizational commitment affects various outcomes, such as burnout and turnover intent. Understanding how to increase staff commitment can provide a blueprint for administrators to enhance correctional operations and employee satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) have been the subject of considerable research attention within business organizations. Much less attention has been directed at OCBs within criminal justice agencies, and even less research has addressed OCBs within police organizations. The present study uses survey data collected from 829 police officers in India to assess the antecedents of several dimensions of OCBs. Unlike most prior research, we use a path model in an effort to disentangle the direct and indirect effects of organizational justice, job demands and job resources, organizational justice, stress, and work attitudes on OCBs while controlling for officer personal characteristics. Our findings indicate that job satisfaction and organizational commitment are strong predictors of OCBs and that they mediate the effects of job stress, which did not directly influence OCBs. In addition, organizational justice factors exerted inconsistent effects on OCBs. Strategies for increasing the likelihood that officers will engage in OCBs are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the factors that lead to correctional officer (CO) turnover intent is vital. Using a gendered career stage model, this study focused on male and female CO similarities and differences in workplace variable effects on turnover intent across career stages. The results indicated that organizational commitment was a consistent predictor of turnover intent for all correctional officers at all career stages, and, at various career stages, quality of supervision, coworker support, and safety concerns affected both males and females. Male officers were more likely to leave at all career stages, with the impact of job stress and role ambiguity influencing male turnover intent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States, institutional corrections is a major undertaking that requires substantial financial resources. Correctional staff are the essential element to ensuring the safety and security of these institutions, which house approximately 2.2 million adults. Thus, it is invaluable to explore work environment variables that contribute to their success. One area that has received scant attention is staff views of inmate medical care and their effect on job involvement and organizational commitment. This study focused on the effects of views concerning the proper handling of inmate infectious diseases, the quality of medical care provided to inmates, the timeliness of the responses to inmate medical needs, turnover of medical staff, and inmate medical privacy rights. Results indicate that proper handling of inmate infectious diseases and quality of medical care positively increase job involvement and organizational commitment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing from person–environment fit theory, the current study adds to recent empirical inquires that have considered how workplace factors affect jail staff. In doing so, the focus is on how perceptions of pay fairness effect the job stress, job involvement, and organizational commitment of jail personnel. Utilizing survey data from a large county correctional system in Orlando, Florida, the results of multivariate analyses reveal that staff that hold more favorable perceptions of pay fairness are more involved in their jobs and more committed to the overall organization. The implications of these findings for correctional research and practice are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Correctional research has just begun to explore the effects of variables and their differences over the course of a career within the field. This study examined several correctional staff outcomes and how they varied over three identified career stages (initial, establishment, and maintenance) at a state-government operated prison. Results indicated that job involvement, job satisfaction, affective commitment, moral commitment, and turnover intent were highest during the initial stage of employment, which is contrary to other occupations. Job stress and continuance commitment remained equal across all three career stages. Findings suggest that the effects on career stages are contextual and vary across different types of organizations. Furthermore, the strains and stresses of working in a correctional institution may not be cumulative but remain steady across a career. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past empirical research has indicated that workplace factors affect the work attitudes of police officers. Police officers (N = 827) were surveyed in two districts (Sonipat and Rohtak) in the State of Haryana in the Republic of India. Ordinary least squares regression analysis was used to test the effects of job variables (i.e., job autonomy, job variety, training, and supervision) on job attitudes (i.e., job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment). Results indicate that variety, training, and supervision had positive associations with involvement, satisfaction, and commitment. Job autonomy had no association with job satisfaction or organizational commitment and had a negative association with job involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent literature has found that organizational commitment of correctional staff is highly influenced by the workplace and can either result in positive or negative behaviors. Most research, though, has examined predictors of only one type of commitment. This study looked at three types of commitment (continuance, moral, and affective) and their influence on the outcomes of correctional orientation, views of absenteeism, and turnover intent. The results indicate that the three dimensions of commitment varied in their impact on the organization outcomes and provide insight into the complex nature of the bonds that tie employees to this unique organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personnel are critical to the success of any security organization, and this is especially true of private prisons. Therefore, it is essential to understand how their organizational commitment is affected by workplace factors. There are two major forms of organizational commitment, continuance and affective. To examine how the salient workplace factors of job stress, job involvement, and job satisfaction were related to the continuance and affective commitment of personnel working for a private prison, data from a survey of personnel at a maximum security private prison were examined. Two ordinary least squares regression equations were run with continuance and affective commitment as the dependent variables. The amount of variance explained between the two regression equations was noticeably different. A larger percentage of the variance was accounted for in the affective commitment regression equation as compared to the continuance commitment multivariate analysis. Moreover, job stress had a positive association with continuance commitment, and a nonsignificant relationship with affective commitment. Job involvement had a nonsignificant effect on continuance commitment and a positive effect on affective commitment. Job satisfaction had a negative impact on continuance commitment and a positive relationship with affective commitment. Overall, the results support the contention that the two commitment measures are not affected similarly by job stress, involvement, and satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Finding strategies to prevent burnout is imperative for correctional administrators. Ordinary least squares regression analyses of survey results from 160 employees at a private prison for offenders aged 14 to 19 who were tried as adults were used to examine the effects of affective and continuance commitments on the three dimensions of staff burnout. The results indicate that affective commitment had a negative association with emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and feelings of reduced accomplishment, while continuance commitment had a positive relationship with these dimensions of burnout. Of the control variables, tenure had a positive association with emotional exhaustion, age had a negative relationship with depersonalization, and average daily contact with inmates had a positive association with feelings of reduced accomplishment. One strategy that administrators could employ to reduce staff burnout is to strengthen staffs’ emotional ties and feelings of loyalty to the organization, while attempting to decrease perceptions that the employee is trapped in the job. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Life is filled with the demands of work and family. When conflict exists in one domain, research indicates it can spill over and affect the other. In corrections, many workplace factors have been shown to affect the organizational commitment of staff. As staff are the most valuable resource in this labor intensive field, this study focused on the effects of two types of organizational commitment (affective and continuance) on three work–family conflict variables (time based, strain based, and behavior based). Using ordinary least squares regression analysis of survey data from 160 correctional staff at a Midwest private prison, the results indicated that as affective commitment rises, all three work-on-family conflict variables decreased. Conversely, when continuance commitment rose, all three work-on-family conflict variables increased as well. Surprisingly, both forms of commitment had nonsignificant associations with family-on-work conflict. The only significant control variable was age, which revealed that older staff had less conflict between work and family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research on correctional staff turnover intent and turnover generally assumes that staff are impacted by the workplace in a similar manner regardless of career stage. This study examined whether correctional officers (N = 2,621) with a Southwestern correctional agency differed in their level of turnover intent across different career stages, and whether the impact of work environment variables on turnover intent varied across career stages. Results indicated that turnover intent was lowest among staff with less than 1 year into their careers, and that the effects of work environment variables on turnover intent varied greatly across the 4 career stages. Commitment to the organization was the only work environment variable to be a significant predictor of intent to leave among four career stages, with a negative association in each of the four career groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the recent burgeoning of the private prison industry, little research has focused on private prison personnel. This study attempts to help fill this research gap by examining the relationship between two distinct forms of organizational commitment, continuance and affective, and the withdrawal outcomes of absenteeism and turnover intent for personnel at a Midwestern U.S. private prison. Results of an ordinary least squares (OLS) multivariate regression analysis supported our prediction of an inverse relationship between affective organizational commitment and the withdrawal outcomes of absenteeism and turnover intent; however, contrary to our hypotheses, the analysis indicated no statistically significant relationship between continuance organizational commitment and these withdrawal outcomes, after controlling for custody position, gender, age, tenure, education, race, and supervisory status. Our results suggest that enhancing employees’ affective organizational bonds should be a priority for private correctional facilities because it has positive effects for both employees and the organization. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Much of the research on correctional officers over the past two decades has focused on job stress, job satisfaction, the job environment, and how demographic variables such as gender, race, health and family conflict influenced stress and job satisfaction. Because correctional staff is such an integral part of corrections, understanding job involvement and its impact on correctional employees is important, yet it has received little attention in the literature. Using survey data from a private correctional facility in the Midwest, the authors examined the effects of job involvement on job stress, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, absenteeism, and turnover intentions. A multivariate analysis indicated that job involvement had significant effects on all the predicted outcome variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A gendered model of the effects of role stressors on job stress, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment was tested. Ordinary least squares regression analysis of survey data from correctional staff provided partial support for the proposition that men and women perceive and respond to the work environment differently. Work-family conflict was found to influence levels of job stress, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment among women but not among men. Conversely, role ambiguity, role overload, and perceived dangerousness influenced levels of job stress for men but not women. Furthermore, levels of role conflict and role ambiguity influenced levels of job satisfaction for men but not for women. These findings lend support to further development of gendered theoretical models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Correctional organizations need committed, relatively unstressed, and satisfied staff. Thus, it is important to identify and understand the factors that help shape the job stress, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment of correctional workers. Past research has shown that many different dimensions of the work environment are important predictors. Yet not all dimensions of the work environment have been examined, including perceptions of organizational innovation. Thus, it is unclear whether and how perceptions of organizational innovation may influence the job stress, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment of correctional employees. Using survey data from staff at a Midwestern correctional facility, the effects of perceptions of organizational innovation are studied while controlling for the shared effects of other salient work environment dimensions (i.e., job variety, job autonomy, and perceived dangerousness of the job) and personal characteristics (i.e., gender, age, position, tenure, educational level, and race). In multivariate analyses, perceptions of organizational innovation had a statistically negative association with job stress, whereas it had statistically significant positive associations with job satisfaction and organizational commitment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Working in corrections is not only a demanding job, but a socially important one. While a growing number of studies have examined how the work environment impacts the job stress, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment of staff, very few studies have examined how working in corrections impacts the life satisfaction of workers. The current study utilized OLS regression to examine the antecedents of life satisfaction among staff at a Midwestern private prison. Job satisfaction had a positive relationship with life satisfaction, while age, work on family conflict, family on work conflict, and job involvement all had statistically significant negative effects. Finally, perceptions of the level of financial rewards, job stress, organizational commitment, gender, race, educational level, tenure, supervisory status, position, marital status, and having children, all had non-significant associations with overall satisfaction with life. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

There are two fundamental models used to explain the attitudes and behaviors of correctional staff The first is the Importation Model, which holds that work attitudes are primarily shaped by factors that employees bring with them to the workplace, and the second is the Work Environment Model, which holds that employee work attitudes are primarily shaped by dimensions of the work environment. Most of the correctional staff literature on job satisfaction and organizational commitment has supported the Work Environment Model but not the Importation Model; however, most of the research on the Importation Model has focused on demographic characteristics, which tend to be weak measures of imported factors. This study examined the impact of work ethic and importance of money as importation factors, and trust in management, participation in management, and support by management as work environment factors, on the job satisfaction and organizational commitment among staff at a private Midwestern correctional organization. The findings provide support for both models. Specifically, work ethic and trust in management had statistically significant effects on job satisfaction, while work ethic, trust in management, and participation in management had significant effects on organizational commitment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Correctional staff are the backbone of any correctional organization, and building organizational commitment among employees is critical for an effective organization. Although there is a small but growing body of literature on the antecedents and consequences of organizational commitment, there has been little discussion on the various types and levels of commitment and whether results differ depending on the form of commitment being measured. This study reviewed the three major types (i.e., affective, moral, and continuance) and two levels (i.e., agency and institutional) of organizational commitment. Multivariate analysis of survey results from 272 staff at a high-security prison in the Midwest revealed that the effects of the major forms of organizational structure (i.e., input into decision making, job autonomy, promotional opportunities, institutional communication, and organizational fairness) and job stress varied considerably depending on which form of organizational commitment was measured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Work-family conflict (WFC) occurs when the work domain and family domain are incompatible with one another in some manner. A survey of staff at a private Midwestern prison measured four dimensions of WIC: time-based work on family conflict, strain- based work on family conflict, behavior-based WFC and family on work conflict. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression results indicate that strain-based conflict was the only form of WFC to have a significant effect on job stress. Both strain-based conflict and behavior-based conflict had a significant impact on job satisfaction. Finally, time-based conflict, behavior-based and family on work conflict all had significant effects on organizational commitment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the impact of occupational stressors on correctional staff organizational commitment. Generally, job stress is defined as an employee's feelings of job-related hardness, tension, anxiety and frustration. Thus, it is seen as the outcomes of stressors. According to a study, which studied the causes of job stress concluded that it is still unclear that occupational stressors have an effect on the organizational commitment of correctional workers. Another study that examined the effect of role conflict and other job stressors reported that these stressors are often related negatively to correctional staff job satisfaction.

The literature suggests that social support, in general, is linked to positive outcomes among correctional staff, but the different types of social support may differ in their effects. Using survey data from staff working at a privately-owned, maximum security prison for juveniles sentenced as adults, this study analyzes three intra-organizational supports, administrative, supervisory, and coworker, and one extra-organizational form, family/friends support, as antecedents of job stress, job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Personal variables serve as controls. Administrative and supervisory support are inversely related to job stress, while job involvement is affected positively by supervisory support and negatively by family/friends support. All three intra-organizational forms of support are significant antecedents of job satisfaction and organizational commitment however family/friends support is not. These findings hold implications for improving job outcomes among correctional staff and for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Previous research suggests that life satisfaction is a stronger predictor of job performance than job satisfaction, and life satisfaction is negatively associated with absenteeism and a desire to retire early. Despite the fact that employees with high life satisfaction are essential for organizations’ optimal efficiency, little empirical research exists to determine the individual and workplace factors that shape and maintain high correctional staff life satisfaction levels. This study investigates the impact of two types of organizational commitment, continuance and affective, on correctional staff life satisfaction at two Midwestern prisons, one private and one public. Continuance commitment was negatively related and affective commitment was positively related with life satisfaction for staff in both prisons. Possible methods to increase affective commitment and life satisfaction for correctional staff are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]