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Organizational trust is an important workplace factor for organizations and their employees. There are different types of organizational trust, with coworker, supervisor and management trust being major ones. Yet, limited research has examined how organizational trust is associated with the work attitudes of correctional officers, such as job involvement, job satisfaction and organizational commitment. The current study explored how coworker, supervisor and management trust were related to the job involvement, job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment of Chinese correctional officers at two prisons in southeast China. Management trust had significant positive associations with involvement, satisfaction and commitment. The current results indicate the need to enhance management trust among the studied Chinese correctional officers to raise the three work attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Burnout is a phenomenon commonly found in the workplace. When burnout is job-related, it is considered job burnout. Historically, job burnout has been most common among those who work in human services fields and who deal with stressful situations on a regular basis. Job burnout consists of three components: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and feelings of work ineffectiveness. While job burnout may be common, not all workers in stressful fields experience it, which indicates that there must be organizational or individual factors that limit the likelihood of job burnout for some workers. This study examined the impact of four job-related factors (job stress, job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment) on the three components of job burnout for correctional workers in a large, maximum-security prison in the Southern United States. The findings indicated that the four job-related factors were related strongly and in the predicted direction to two or three of the measures of job burnout. [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]

The concept of organizational justice refers to employee perceptions about whether the employing organization treats workers in a fair and just manner. Policing research has shown that officers' organizational justice views are associated with various salient outcomes (e.g., job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and misconduct). No research has been published on the relationship of justice views and the life satisfaction of police officers. The current preliminary study explored how distributive and procedural justice were related to life satisfaction based on self-reported survey data from 827 police officers from the state of Haryana in India. Factor analysis suggested that two variables represent procedural justice: one focused on the perceived fairness of procedures for evaluation and the other focused on the perceived fairness of the procedures for promotion decisions. Only one factor was needed for distributive justice. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis indicated that all three justice variables had significant positive associations with life satisfaction. The results suggest that enhancing distributive and procedural justice views of officers should increase the level of reported satisfaction with life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public trust in the police is an important element of a healthy democracy. Concurrently, trust within the workplace is essential for a healthy organization, including the police. The main forms of organizational trust are management, supervisor, and coworker trust. However, there has been little research on how organizational trust affects police officers. This study examines the effects of these three forms of organizational trust on the job satisfaction, job involvement, and organizational commitment of police officers. The sample of 827 officers was drawn from two districts in Haryana, India. The findings indicate that all three forms of trust play an important role in improving the work attitudes of Indian police officers and that personal characteristics account for a lesser variance than the trust variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Correctional institutions are manpower-intensive organizations, and organizational commitment is important for their successful functioning. This study uses the job demands model to examine effect of workplace variables on organizational commitment. Using a sample of 163 correctional officers from a prison in Haryana State, India, we find that job demands (fear of being hurt and work and role overload) have no significant effect of organizational commitment. All four components of job resources (instrumental communication, job autonomy, quality of supervision, and job variety) were found to be positively and significantly associated with organizational commitment. The study highlights the importance of adequate knowledge of job resources in trying to raise the affective commitment of correctional officers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Officers are a valuable resource for prisons across the globe. Working in corrections is a demanding job with a higher-than-average risk of job burnout. Most prison burnout studies have focused on staff working in Western prisons, particularly those in the U.S. These studies have generally found an association between work attitudes and burnout among prison officers. However, a key question is whether the associations are universal or contextual, varying by nation. The current study examined the link between the major work attitudes of job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment and the burnout dimensions of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and feeling ineffective at work among staff at two Chinese prisons. According to the results of ordinary least squares multivariate regression tests, job involvement, and job satisfaction had significant negative effects on emotional exhaustion, but commitment did not. Only job involvement had significant negative effects on depersonalization. Job involvement and organizational commitment had significant negative effects on feeling ineffective, while job satisfaction had non-significant effects. The results indicate that the major work attitudes are negatively linked to job burnout for the studied Chinese prison staff; efforts should be undertaken to build these work attitudes to reduce burnout since burnout is linked to negative consequences for officers, inmates, and the prison. Based on previous research and current findings, some of the effects of work attitudes appear to be universal, and others appear to be contextual. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizational trust includes both supervisor trust and management trust. Additionally, the three main work attitudes are job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. The objective of this study was to explore the effects of the two types of trust on the three work attitudes with data from a survey of 255 U.S. social workers. In multivariate ordinary least squares regression, the effects of the two forms of organizational trust varied across the three work attitudes. Only management trust had a significant positive effect on job involvement, while both forms of trust had positive relationships with job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment. For job satisfaction, the effect sizes of both forms of trust were similar; however, for organizational commitment, management trust's effect was far greater than the effects of supervisor trust. The current findings support the overall contention that supervisor and management trust play important roles in shaping social worker job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment, and they also underscore the need for improving perceptions of supervisor and management trust among social workers. Future longitudinal research will be able to demonstrate the causal process of the effects of trust on the three work attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study explored the effects of coworker, supervisor, and management trust on the job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment of Nigerian prison staff working in a prison in southeast Nigeria. In multivariate regression, only management trust was a significant positive predictor of job involvement. Supervisor and management trust, but not coworker trust, had significant positive associations with organizational commitment. All three dimensions of organizational trust had significant positive relationships with job satisfaction. These results suggest that both supervisory and management trust are important to correctional officers in Nigeria, which are similar to empirical research studies in the United States. The effects of trust may be universal among correctional staff across different cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prisons depend on their employees, and staffing a prison is expensive. Approximately 80% of a prison's budget is for staff wages and benefits. Prisons are not generally viewed as desirable places to work, thus recruiting and retaining correctional officers can be difficult. Work-related stress can negatively affect staff members' home lives, and home stress can make an employee distracted and endangered at work. Time-, strain-, behavior-, and family-based work–family conflicts were hypothesized to impact three work attitudes (job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment) negatively. Time-based conflict had no significant effects on any of the work attitudes. Strain-based conflict had significant negative effects on job satisfaction and organizational commitment but not job involvement. Behavior-based conflict had significant negative effects on all three work attitudes. Contrary to our hypotheses, family-based conflict had significant positive effects on all three. Work–family conflict is a significant work attitude-associated stressor for correctional staff; therefore, policy recommendations to address it are made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Life satisfaction is an important concept for both police and other law enforcement organizations. Past research on the spillover theory has found that higher life satisfaction results in better physical health, being more open-minded, improved effort, and longer life expectancy. The spillover theory holds what happens at work does not stay at work but spills over and affects a person's overall life. Workplace variables, particularly job stress, job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment do not just affect people at work, but also affect people's satisfaction with their overall lives. The current study examined how job stress, job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment were associated with life satisfaction among a sample of 827 police officers from the state of Haryana in India. In a multivariate ordinary least squares regression analysis, job stress had a significant negative effect on life satisfaction, whereas job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment had significant positive effects. The results suggest that police administrators should attempt to lower job stress and increase job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment among officers to raise their life satisfaction, which, in turn, should benefit the individual officers, the police agency, and the community being served. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Staff are essential to running safe and humane correctional institutions. To this end, staff sometimes need to report coworker misconduct. Doing so requires a propensity to engage in whistleblowing, a topic that has received very little attention in the criminal justice literature. Using results from the Work Experiences Questionnaire (WEQ), an instrument designed to measure various features of correctional work environments, we found several exploratory variables to be significantly associated with individual whistleblowing propensity. Specifically, male staff, White staff, and staff with college degrees had higher propensity scores. Increases in job satisfaction and organizational whistleblowing propensity were also related to greater willingness to report wrongdoing, whereas affective organizational commitment had a negative effect. To the extent replicated, such findings can guide policy and practice concerning the reporting of correctional staff wrongdoing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organisational commitment is an important concept in the field of corrections. The current study examined how workplace variables affected commitment among Nigerian correctional staff and compared the results to the findings of past studies of U.S. correctional staff. Specifically, the effects of the workplace variables of input into decision-making, quality training, job variety, quality supervision, perceived dangerousness of the job, and role overload were examined. Input, quality training, job variety, and quality supervision had significant positive effects on commitment. Dangerousness and overload had nonsignificant effects. As with past U.S. studies, the current findings indicate commitment to the organisation is stronger when staff are treated in a positive manner. [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]

While the issue of trust is theoretically essential for the effective operation of correctional organizations, few researchers have examined how the different types of trust are related to salient outcomes for staff. In this study, we examined the effects of coworker, supervisor, and management trust on the job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment of 322 Southern U.S. correctional staff. The types of workplace trust, however, varied in their effects. Specifically, multivariate analysis indicated only management trust had a significant positive effect on job involvement, but both coworker trust and management trust had significant positive effects on job satisfaction, whereas both supervisor trust and management trust had significant positive effects on organizational commitment. The current findings support the overall contention that workplace trust plays an important role in shaping prison staff job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. The results underscore the need for improving perceptions of trust in the workplace, particularly management trust. [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]

Correctional staff are a necessary and valuable resource for correctional institutions, in both Western and Nonwestern nations; however, studies of correctional staff in Nonwestern nations, particularly those in Africa, are lacking. Improving the job satisfaction and organizational commitment of these staff are imperative, as both of these job attitudes have been linked to many salient beneficial outcomes. Most of the existing empirical research on correctional staff organizational justice explores only the effects of procedural and distributive justice and ignores interpersonal justice. Additionally, there has been little research on how procedural, distributive, and interpersonal justice affect correctional staff in Nonwestern correctional organizations. The current study explored the effects of all three forms of organizational justice on the job satisfaction and organizational commitment of staff at a medium security prison in southeast Nigeria. Based on Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression, all three forms of justice had significant positive effects on commitment. Procedural and interpersonal justice had positive effects on job satisfaction, while distributive justice had nonsignificant effects. Correctional administrators need to be aware the importance of procedural, distributive, and interpersonal justice and attempt to improve perceptions of these organizational justice variables. [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]

Past research among U.S. correctional staff has found that work-family conflict has negative outcomes such as decreasing job satisfaction, decreasing organizational commitment, and increasing job stress. Little empirical research has addressed the association of the specific types of work-family conflict with job involvement. The present study contributes to the literature by separately analyzing the relationship of the four specific major types of work-family conflict (time-based conflict, strain-based conflict, behavior-based conflict, and family-on-work conflict) with job involvement among surveyed staff at two Chinese prisons. Job involvement varied by the type of work-family conflict. Specifically, time-based conflict and strain-based conflict had nonsignificant association with job involvement, but behavior-based and family-based conflicts had significant negative associations. [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]

Police operate around the world. Police organizations are tasked with a wide variety of duties, and successful police organizations need committed officers. The three main forms of organizational commitment are affective, normative, and continuance commitment. This study examined the relationship of overall job satisfaction and facet job satisfaction (transfers, pay, promotions, and supervision) on affective, normative, and continuance commitment among 550 officers working in the operations and investigation wings of the Lahore Police Stations in Punjab, Pakistan. Based on multivariate ordinary least squares (OLS) regression results, overall job satisfaction and facet satisfaction with transfers, pay, and supervision had significant positive effects on affective and normative commitment and negative associations with continuance commitment. Satisfaction with promotions, however, had a negative relationship with affective and normative commitment and a positive association with continuance commitment. [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]

Policing is a stressful occupation that may give rise to work–family conflict (WFC). WFC arises when the work domain encroaches into the family domain, or vice versa, causing officers to become less attached to their job and the police organization. Using survey data collected from a sample of police officers in India, we examined the relationship between four dimensions of WFC (time-based, strain-based, behavior-based, and family-based WFC) and two dimensions of organizational commitment (continuance and affective). Family-based WFC was found to reduce continuance commitment, while strain-based WFC reduced affective commitment. Time-based, strain-based, and behavior-based WFC increased continuance commitment. We examined the implications of these findings for police policy makers and administrators. In addition, we also discussed our findings in the context of cross-cultural comparisons. [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]

There has been limited research on the correlates of organizational commitment among community correctional staff, regardless of the nation. Using data from 225 community correction officers from Hubei, China, this study examined community correctional staff commitment to their agencies and its predictors. The study found the majority of the respondents had commitment to their organizations. Organizational structure variables were more powerful than job characteristics in explaining the variance of the organizational commitment. All relationships between organizational structure variables, job characteristics, and organizational commitment were mediated by job satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Successful police organizations rely on involved, satisfied, and committed workers. The concepts of job involvement (i.e., connection with the job), job satisfaction (i.e., affective feeling toward the job), and organizational commitment (i.e., bond with the employing organization) have been shown to significantly affect intentions and behaviors of employees. The current study used multivariate ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis on survey results from a sample of 827 Indian police officers to explore how perceptions of work environment factors affect officers' job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Organizational support, formalization (i.e., level of codified written rules and guidelines), promotional opportunities, institutional communication (i.e., salient work information is transmitted), and input into decision-making (i.e., having a voice in the process) significantly influenced the job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment of Indian police officers. Specifically, in the multivariate analysis, perceptions of formalization and instrumental communication had a positive relationship with job involvement; perceptions of organizational support, promotional opportunities, instrumental communication, and input into decision-making had positive associations with job satisfaction; and perceptions of organizational support, formalization, promotional opportunities, instrumental communication, and input into decision-making had positive relationships with organizational commitment. [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]

This study examined how personal and workplace variables were related to organizational commitment among staff working at a large Southern prison. The personal variables were gender, age, position, tenure, educational level, and supervisory status. The workplace variables were assessment of training, job variety, role clarity, input into decision-making, and instrumental communication. The results indicate workplace variables play a greater role in shaping affective commitment of surveyed Southern prison staff than do personal variables. The personal variables explained only 10% of the variance in the commitment index, while workplace factors accounted for approximately 59% of the variance and were significant determinants of organizational commitment among the respondents. In the multivariate regression analysis, age, assessment of training, job variety, role clarity, input into decision-making, and instrumental communication all had positive associations with commitment. Educational level had a negative relationship with commitment. Implications of these findings for policy and future research are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study extended prior research on staff turnover in adult corrections to juvenile corrections by analyzing direct and indirect interrelationships among personal, work environment, job attitude, and turnover variables. Data came from a mail survey of youth worker staff as well as from agency archives. Race, age, tenure, input into decisions, and job stress had significant direct effects on job satisfaction, while organizational commitment was directly affected by gender, stress, and satisfaction. Tenure, satisfaction, and commitment directly affected intent, while only race and age directly affected actual turnover. Satisfaction and commitment performed significant mediating functions. Results suggest that staff turnover intent can be reduced by promoting job satisfaction and organizational commitment and, further, that these attitudes can be improved by providing staff greater input into decisions and reducing job stress. Future research must specify conditions under which intent predicts behavior, as the two were not significantly related in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

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]

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]

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]