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Employee turnover can have devastating effects on correctional facilities. Excessive turnover wastes recruiting and training dollars. In addition, high turnover rates may also directly affect the security of the institution as well as the safety of both staff and inmates. Thus this study surveyed correctional staff at a maximum security private prison to examine the impact of the work environment, personal characteristics, external employment opportunities, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment on turnover intent. The results of the multivariate ordinary least squares regression equations generally supported the proposed path model, and indicated age, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment directly influence turnover intent, whereas gender, job satisfaction, role conflict, role ambiguity, role overload, input into decision making, and organizational fairness indirectly affected employees' decisions to leave the job.

The job characteristics of job stress, supervision, job variety, and job autonomy have been theorized to affect the job satisfaction and organizational commitment of correctional staff members. Most of the research to date has focused on the impact of these variables on job satisfaction, with little attention being paid to organizational commitment. To determine the effects of these job characteristics on correctional staff members’ job satisfaction and organizational commitment, data from a survey of 272 employees at a midwestern correctional facility were examined using ordinary least squares regression. All four job characteristics had significant effects on correctional staff members’ job satisfaction. Only job stress and supervision had statistically significant effects on organizational commitment. Moreover, job satisfaction had the greatest effect on correctional staff members’ organizational commitment. Additionally, the effects of the job characteristics differed among various groups of correctional staff members.

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.

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