The Impact of Job Characteristics on Correctional Staff Members

• Author: Eric G. Lambert
• Published date: 01 June 2004
• DOI: 10.1177/0032885504265078
• Date: 01 June 2004
• Subject Matter: Journal Article

10.1177/0032885504265078
THE PRISON JOURN
Lambert / IMPA
AL / June 2004
CT OF JOB CHARACTERISTICS
THE IMPACT OF JOB CHARACTERISTICS
ON CORRECTIONAL STAFF MEMBERS
ERIC G. LAMBERT
University of Toledo
The job characteristics of job stress, supervision, job variety, and job autonomy have
been theorized to affect the job satisfaction and organizational commitment of correc-
tional 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 com-
mitment. 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 sig-
nificant effects on organizational commitment. Moreover, job satisfaction had the
greatest effect on correctional staff members’organizational commitment. Addition-
ally, the effects of the job characteristics differed among various groups of correc-
tional staff members.
Keywords: correctional staff; job satisfaction; organizational commit-
ment; job stress; supervision; job variety; job autonomy
In many fields, including corrections, there is a tendency to try to find the
right person for the job instead of trying to make the job right for the person.
For example, in a national survey, most top correctional administrators
I thank Alan Clarke and Janet Lambert, Ferris State University, for their help in editing and
proofreadingthis article. Shannon Barton and Nancy Hogan, criminal justice faculty members at
Ferris State University, are acknowledged for helping in the survey instrument construction, the
administration of the survey, and the collection of data. I also acknowledge Kasey Tucker, Col-
leen Bast, and Michael Catinella, criminal justice graduate students at Ferris State University, for
entering the survey data. I also thank the anonymous reviewers for their comments and sugges-
tions and the Ferris State University interlibrary loan staff members for their efforts. This
research was supported by the U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice (NIJ),
Grant 1999-CE-VX-0006.The NIJ, however, bears no responsibility for the analyses or interpre-
tations presented in this article.
THE PRISON JOURNAL, Vol. 84 No. 2, June 2004 208-227
DOI: 10.1177/0032885504265078
© 2004 Sage Publications
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Lambert / IMPACT OF JOB CHARACTERISTICS
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explained staff turnover in terms of the individual characteristics and person-
alities of employees rather than organizational factors (Jurik & Winn, 1987).
Additionally, some correctional administrators appear to be more concerned
with the impact that correctional staff members have on their facilities than
the opposite. According to Poole and Pogrebin (1991), “We should be asking
what the organization means to the worker instead of what the worker means
to the organization” (p. 170). Although it is true that correctional staff mem-
bers have significant effects on correctional institutions, it is also true that
correctional organizations have meaningful effects on staff members. There-
fore, it is crucial to understand how correctional work environments affect
staff members.
It is generally theorized that the work environment influences employees
mainly through their attitudinal states. These attitudinal states in turn shape
the intentions and behaviors of staff members. Two of the most important
attitudinal states for correctional employees are job satisfaction and organi-
zational commitment. Although job satisfaction has received considerable
attention in the correctional literature, there has been little research on orga-
nizational commitment. Therefore, this study examined the effects of job
characteristics on the job satisfaction and organizational commitment of cor-
rectional staff members. Specifically, the job characteristics of job stress,
supervision, job variety, and job autonomy were examined.
LITERATURE REVIEW
JOB CHARACTERISTICS
Work environments are not just tangible, physical structures but are com-
posed of social and psychological factors as well. Although correctional
work environments are complex, they can be divided into the fundamental
dimensions of organizational structure and job characteristics. How an orga-
nization arranges, manages, guides, and operates itself is referred to in the lit-
erature as its organizational structure (Oldham & Hackman, 1981). Areas of
organizational structure include centralization, formalization, organizational
justice, integration, and instrumental communication (Lincoln & Kalleberg,
1990). Job characteristics relate to a particular job that is being done by a per-
son (Hackman & Lawler, 1971). Job variety, skill variety, job stress, task sig-
nificance, task identity, and supervision are all types of job characteristics
(Hackman & Lawler, 1971). The focus of this study was on job characteris-
tics and how they affect the job satisfaction and organizational commitment
of correctional staff members.

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THE PRISON JOURNAL / June 2004
JOB CHARACTERISTICS AND CORRECTIONAL
STAFF MEMBERS’ JOB SATISFACTION
Job satisfaction is generally viewed as the degree to which a person likes
his or her job and is frequently studied across a wide array of disciplines
(Spector, 1996), including corrections. Several different job characteristics
have been found to have significant relationships with correctional staff
members’ job satisfaction. A number of correctional studies have examined
job stress and job satisfaction across a variety of correctional agencies and
facilities. Job stress is generally defined in the correctional literature as an
employee’s feelings of job-related hardness, tension, anxiety, frustration,
worry, emotional exhaustion, and distress (Cullen, Link, Wolfe, & Frank,
1985; Grossi, Keil, & Vito, 1996; Van Voorhis, Cullen, Link, & Wolfe,
1991). A negative relationship has been found between job stress and job sat-
isfaction among southern correctional officers (Grossi et al., 1996; Van
Voorhis et al., 1991), Canadian correctional officers (Robinson, Porporino,
& Simourd, 1997), Kentucky correctional staff members (Dennis, 1998),
midwestern correctional staff members (Walters, 1993), New York State cor-
rectional officers (Blau, Light, & Chamlin, 1986), and Florida jail officers
(Byrd, Cochran, Silverman, & Blount, 2000). On the other hand, Whitehead
and Lindquist (1986) and Whitehead (1989) found no significant association
between job stress and job satisfaction in their study of Alabama correctional
officers. Overall, the majority of empirical results support the premise that
there is a negative relationship between job stress and job satisfaction among
correctional staff members, particularly with correctional officers.
Another dimension of job characteristics that has been studied in the cor-
rectional job satisfaction literature is supervision. Quality, open, supportive
supervision has been associated with higher levels of job satisfaction among
staff members across a wide range of correctional settings. A positive atti-
tude toward supervisors was positively correlated with job satisfaction
among correctional staff members at a western correctional complex (Jurik
& Winn, 1987), and perceived supervisory support has been positively asso-
ciated with job satisfaction among southern correctional officers (Cullen
et al., 1985; Grossi et al., 1996; Van Voorhis et al., 1991). Furthermore,
inconsistency and poor communication in terms of supervision were identi-
fied as sources of job dissatisfaction for correctional officers at a New York
prison (Lombardo, 1981). In sum, supervision is another important aspect of
the work environment that helps shape correctional staff members’ job
satisfaction.
Finally, the job characteristics of job autonomy and job variety have been
studied to a lesser degree in the correctional job satisfaction literature. Job

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211
autonomy is defined as the degree of freedom that employees have in making
job-related decisions (Agho, Mueller, & Price, 1993). Job autonomy is dif-
ferent from centralization and input into decision making. Centralization is
generally defined as the extent to which formal power and authority are con-
centrated in an organization and is a type of organizational structure (Hall,
1982). Input into decision making is a subdimension of centralization
because it involves participation in organizational matters, not specific job
tasks issues (Lincoln & Kalleberg, 1990). Job variety is simply the degree of
variation in a job (Price & Mueller, 1986). Some jobs require role perfor-
mance that is highly repetitive, whereas other jobs have significant degrees
of variety in the required tasks and how they are performed (Mueller, Boyer,
Price, & Iverson, 1994).
A positive association has been found between job variety and job auton-
omy and job satisfaction among midwestern correctional staff members
(Brief, Munro, & Aldag, 1976), correctional staff members at a western
prison complex (Jurik & Halemba, 1984; Jurik & Winn, 1987), and across
federal correctional facilities (Wright, Saylor, Gilman, & Camp, 1997). In
general, the empirical evidence supports the premise...