Correctional officers as human services workers: The effect on job satisfaction

Here today, gone tomorrow, back again the next day: Antecedents of correctional absenteeism

“…In order to build job satisfaction and organizational commitment and to reduce job stress, effort should be placed in improving the work environment. There was a growing body of correctional literature that suggested that organizational fairness, instrumental communication, job autonomy, participation in decision-making, feedback, supervision, integration, instrumental communication, organizational fairness, role conflict, role ambiguity, and work-family conflict were important in shaping the level of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and/or job stress experienced by correctional employees (Grossi, Keil, & Vito, 1996;Hepburn & Knepper, 1993;Jurik & Winn, 1987;Lambert, Barton, Hogan, & Clarke, 2002;Lambert, Hogan, & Barton, 2002bLindquist & Whitehead, 1986;Liou, 1995;Triplett, Mullings, & Scarborough, 1999;Wright, Saylor, Gilman, & Camp, 1997).…”

Does the job matter? Comparing correlates of stress among treatment and correctional staff in prisons

“…In their examination of job satisfaction although Hepburn and Knepper (1993) found that after controlling for other factors job type did not have a significant main effect, additional analysis demonstrated that job type conditioned work-related outcomes, such that the predictors of job satisfaction differed by job type. While security officers' job satisfaction were influenced by age, role strain, and intrinsic rewards, human service officers were influenced only by intrinsic rewards and perceived level of authority.…”

“…At the same time, however, the limited previous research that did exist suggested in some instances that workrelated outcomes such as job satisfaction and job stress, and the correlates of these variables might differ by occupational group. Hepburn and Knepper (1993) compared correctional security officers with what they termed dhuman serviceT officers on a number of work environment factors and found that human service officers reported less role strain, as well as increased perceptions of job-related extrinsic and intrinsic benefits as compared to security officers. In addition, human service officers enjoyed greater overall satisfaction with their job.…”

“…For these analyses, role problems refer to the extent to which an individual experienced conflict over differing and ambiguous job demands. Items from this scale were previously used by Hepburn (1985), Hepburn and Albonetti (1980), Hepburn and Knepper (1993), and Poole and Regoli (1980). The scale included items such as bOften times, one rule will tell us to do one thing, but another rule tells us to do something elseQ and bOne of the problems here is that it is never very clear as to who is responsible for doing different jobs.Q A three-item scale measured an individual's perception of organizational support (a = .80), and was based on a scale previously used by Eisenberger, Huntington, Hutchinson, and Sowa (1986) (see also Griffin, 1999Griffin, , 2001Griffin, , 2002.…”

“…Based on scales previously used by Motowidlo, Packard, and Manning (1986), and Haines, Hurlbert, and Zimmer (1991), this six-item scale included such statements as bThe people I work with are helpful to me in getting my job doneQ and bCo-workers criticize my work to others.Q A six-item intrinsic rewards scale was used to measure employee perceptions of benefits inherent to the job such as the opportunity for personal growth (a = .84). This scale was based on those previously used by Mottaz (1985Mottaz ( , 1986 and Hepburn and Knepper (1993). They included items such as bI have opportunities to develop new and important skillsQ and bI have the chance to do things that make use of my abilities.Q A four-item scale, environmental safety, assessed staff perceptions of workplace safety (a = .61).…”