Shared Perceptions of Fatigue Management in Workgroups: A Cross-Level Moderator of the Negative Impact of Work Spillover on Custodial Officer Outcomes

• Author: Kïrsten A. Way,Nerina L. Jimmieson,Asmita Manchha,Louise D’allura
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00938548221143532
• Published date: 01 April 2023
• Date: 01 April 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR, 2023, Vol. 50, No. 4, April 2023, 559 –577.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00938548221143532

Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions

© 2023 International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology

559

SHARED PERCEPTIONS OF FATIGUE

MANAGEMENT IN WORKGROUPS

A Cross-Level Moderator of the Negative Impact of

Work Spillover on Custodial Officer Outcomes

KÏRSTEN A. WAY

The University of Queensland

NERINA L. JIMMIESON

Queensland University of Technology

ASMITA MANCHHA

The University of Queensland

LOUISE D’ALLURA

Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital

Custodial officers perform unique and challenging work tasks making it a profession with predictable work-to-home spill-

over. Drawing on Spillover and Safety Climate theories, we hypothesized that work-to-home spillover would be associated

with higher psychological distress, sleep disturbance, binge drinking, and commuting incidents, and that these individual-

level effects would be buffered in workgroups with a shared perception that fatigue was managed well. Using a mixed-

methods design, multilevel quantitative data (498 employees nested in 72 workgroups across 12 Australian prisons) and

qualitative data (from 63 structured interviews) were collected. Results supported predicted main effects for psychological

distress, sleep disturbance, and commuting incidents, and a cross-level buffering effect on the positive relationship between

custodial work spillover and psychological distress that occurs when workgroups perceive their organization is managing

fatigue well. We found qualitative support for relationships via the emergence of six themes including how custodial officers

experience a collective sense of fatigue management.

Keywords: spillover; fatigue; climate; distress; drinking; commuting; custodial

It is well-established that the nature of work in prison environments can have negative

implications for the physical and psychological well-being of custodial officers (Dowden

& Tellier, 2004; Lerman et al., 2021). Characterized by the unpredictable and sometimes

AUTHORS’ NOTE: The authors would like to acknowledge the assistance provided by Queensland Corrective

Services. The views expressed herein are solely those of the authors, and in no way reflect the views or policies

of Queensland Corrective Services. There are no conflicts of interests to declare. Correspondence concerning

this article should be addressed to Kïrsten A. Way, School of Psychology, The University of Queensland,

Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia; e-mail: k.way@psy.uq.edu.au.

1143532CJBXXX10.1177/00938548221143532Criminal Justice and BehaviorWay et al. / Collective Perceptions of Fatigue

research-article2023

560 CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR

violent behavior of people in custody, and interspersed with periods of monotony, custodial

work exposes officers to increased risk of negative health outcomes (Kinman et al., 2016;

Ricciardelli et al., 2022). These inherent job characteristics occur in the context of shift

work—an additional known risk factor for poor well-being outcomes (Wagstaff & Lie,

2011). Furthermore, the nature and intensity of the work in custodial environments is chang-

ing (S. King, 2012). Custodial officer roles have a long history as warden or guard

(Lombardo, 1981), with primary tasks such as locking and unlocking gates and doors, mon-

itoring people in custody, and conducting headcounts. Increasingly though, officers must

reconcile the traditional warden role with an emerging human services role in which offi-

cers talk with people in custody, and provide a support or helping function (S. King, 2012).

These roles are often conducted in increasingly overcrowded prisons with growing numbers

of people in custody having mental health and substance use disorders (Commonwealth of

Australia, 2013).

Within these environments, fatigue management systems implemented by prison man-

agement are of critical importance. Fatigue management systems (which can include the

way rostering and overtime is operationalized, fatigue-related training, and fatigue-related

support), are one of the key mechanisms used by organizations to reduce the risk associated

with high work demands (Levenson, 2017; Swenson et al., 2008). These systems can be a

visible sign of organizational support for employee well-being. In custodial work, fatigue

management systems may take on even greater significance as known shiftwork hazards,

such as long, 12 hour, and overnight shifts (Wagstaff & Lie, 2011), are followed by long

commutes from prisons often situated in non-built-up or regional areas. However, worker

perceptions of how the organization is managing fatigue, particularly at the group level,

have not been studied to date. Given the powerful and potentially protective nature of group

dynamics in prisons and the known buffering effect of perceived organizational support

(Lerman et al., 2021), the group’s shared perceptions of visible support structures, such as

fatigue management, are important to explore.

Our study first considers perceptions of custodial work-to-home spillover and investi-

gates possible associations with four well-being outcomes: psychological distress, sleep

disturbance, binge drinking, and incidents commuting to and from work. We then go on to

investigate a possible group-level moderator, proposing that the groups’ shared perception

of how fatigue is being managed moderates well-being outcomes, as represented in Figure 1.

Our methodology uses a convergent parallel mixed-method approach (Creswell & Plano

Clark, 2017) in which the quantitative analysis sits alongside a qualitative component,

allowing us to collect rich descriptions of the Australian custodial work environment to

verify quantitative findings.

CUSTODIAL WORK AND SPILLOVER THEORY

Custodial officers are exposed to higher psychological demands and lower decision lati-

tude than workers in the general population (Bourbonnais et al., 2007; Goldberg et al.,

1996). Their occupational stressors include work overload, overcrowding, perceptions of

fear/danger, dual purposes of punishment/rehabilitation, monotony, noise, interpersonal

violence and intimidation, emotional suppression, and challenging work hours (Bourbonnais

et al., 2007; Brough & Williams, 2007; Ricciardelli et al., 2022; Viotti, 2016), as well as

group-level factors such as line manager relationships and poor organizational climates