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Fairness is a core concept in U.S. society, including in the workplace. Organizational justice theory holds that workers expect to be treated in a fair and just manner and that higher levels of organizational justice usually result in lower levels of withdrawal work behaviors, such as absenteeism and turnover intent, while lower levels of organizational justice perceptions are associated with higher engagement in withdrawal behaviors. The current study examined the relationship between organizational justice views, specifically distributive and procedural justice, and turnover intent, while controlling for the personal characteristics of age, gender, position, tenure, educational level, and marital status and the work variables of job stress and job involvement. Using the responses from 322 employees from a state prison located in the Southern region of the United States, procedural justice was observed to have a significant negative association with turnover intent, but distributive justice had a nonsignificant relationship. Job stress was associated with a significantly higher level of turnover intent, while job involvement was significantly associated with lower turnover intent. Among the personal characteristics, only age had a significant association, with older workers expressing lower turnover intent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study explored how three key work environment variables – input into decision-making, instrumental communication, and perceived quality of supervision – affected views of distributive and procedural justice among correctional staff (n= 322) at an unusual Southern prison. Results supported the premise that work environment variables influence the organizational justice perceptions of correctional staff; however, the effects of work environment on organizational justice perceptions differed, as only four of the six hypotheses were supported by the multivariate regression results. Specifically, input into decision-making and quality of supervision had positive effects on both distributive and procedural justice, while instrumental communication did not have a statistically significant relationship with either. The findings indicate that correctional administrators should focus on input into decision-making and quality of supervision in order to increase staff perceptions of organizational justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research examining correctional staff indicates that there are far-reaching negative consequences related to job burnout, including, but not limited to, diminished physical and mental health, increased risk of substance use, and decreased job performance. One area that may contribute to correctional staff job burnout is work–family conflict, which occurs when work and home domains spill into one another, causing conflict and problems. Using a sample of Southern correctional staff, this study investigates whether the four major types of work–family conflict—time-based, strain-based, behavior-based, and family-based—influence the three recognized job burnout dimensions: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and feeling ineffective at work. The findings provide partial support for the notion that work–family conflict influences job burnout. These findings are contextualized in previous research with a full discussion of their implications. [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]

Trust is crucial to the proper functioning of organizations. Trust has been examined at many levels, and researchers have recently expanded the study of trust to include areas ranging from the neuroscience of trust to the influence of institutional trust on product sales and marketing. While academic interest in trust has grown, research on trust and job stress among correctional employees is rare. The current study evaluated the relationships between three types of trust (coworker, supervisor, and management trust) and correctional staff job stress. Using staff survey data from a Southern prison, two multivariate OLS regression equations were estimated – one for all surveyed staff and a second for the subgroup of correctional officers – in order to determine how the three types of organizational trust related to job stress. Results indicated that trust in coworkers mattered for correctional officers only and that trust in supervisors and management had a greater influence on job stress both for all correctional staff and for the subgroup of correctional officers. Specifically, those with higher levels of supervisor and management trust reported lower levels of job stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Job stress is a problem in corrections. Although the very nature of correctional work is stressful, workplace variables also contribute to correctional staff job stress. The job demands-resource model holds that job demands increase negative outcomes (e.g., job stress) and decrease positive outcomes (e.g., job satisfaction), whereas job resources help increase positive outcomes and decrease negative outcomes. An ordinary least squares regression analysis of self-reported survey data from 322 staff at a Southern prison indicated that input into decision-making and quality supervision had statistically significant negative effects on job stress, whereas role overload and fear of victimization had significant positive effects. Instrumental communication, views of training, and role clarity all had nonsignificant associations with stress from the job in the multivariate analysis. The results partially supported the job demands-resources model; however, the specific work environment variables varied in terms of their statistical significance. Correctional administrators need to be aware of the contribution that workplace variables have on job stress and make changes to reduce staff job stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing body of research that has explored how workplace factors affect prison staff, although empirical research specifically aimed at how organizational justice affects correctional job involvement is lacking. This study examined how organizational justice's two primary dimensions of distributive justice and procedural justice were associated with job involvement, an important work attitude. Self-reported survey data was collected from 322 staff at a large Southern prison. Ordinary least squares regression analysis indicated that both distributive and procedural justice had significant positive associations with job involvement. The results suggest prison administrators need to be aware that organizational justice is important and that improving either distributive or procedural justice should increase job involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Job stress has many negative effects on correctional staff. We proposed and tested a path model of transactional, procedural, and distributive justice's direct and indirect effects on the job stress of 322 surveyed correctional staff, including 219 correctional officers, at a maximum security Southern prison. Findings indicated that procedural, distributive, and transactional justice affected job stress. Specifically, the proposed path model was supported, such that procedural justice had an indirect effect on job stress through distributive justice, and transactional and distributive justice had direct, negative effects on job stress. Transactional justice also had indirect effects on job stress through procedural and distributive justice. Taken together, the results suggest that organizational justice plays an important role in reducing correctional staff job stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Private security personnel play an important role in protecting society, including personnel who work in private prisons. Staff are critical to ensure the private prison is operated in a safe, secure, and humane manner. This study, a survey of 160 staff members at a private prison located in a Midwestern state, examined the impact that support by management, coworkers, family, and supervisors has on role stress, work–family conflict, and turnover intent. Each of the four support measures was hypothesized to have negative associations on role stress, work–family conflict, and turnover intent. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression analysis revealed that management and supervisor support was associated with reduced role stress, work–family conflict, and turnover intent; coworker support was related to lower role stress and turnover intent; and family support was not found to have a significant association with role stress, work–family conflict, nor turnover intent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]