Being the good soldier: organizational citizenship behavior and commitment among correctional staff

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