The Influence of Individual, Job, and Organizational Characteristics on Correctional Staff Job Stress, Job Satisfaction, and Organizational Commitment

• DOI: 10.1177/0734016808320694
• Date: 01 December 2008
• Published date: 01 December 2008
• Author: Eugene A. Paoline,Eric G. Lambert
• Subject Matter: Articles

The Influence of Individual, Job,

and Organizational Characteristics

on Correctional Staff Job Stress,

Job Satisfaction, and

Organizational Commitment

Eric G. Lambert

University of Toledo, Ohio

Eugene A. Paoline III

University of Central Florida

As staff performance is vital to the survival of correctional institutions, much empirical atten-

tion has been paid to studying the causes and consequences of their attitudes and behaviors.

The current study adds to this body of knowledge by examining the factors that explain three

central occupational attitudes—job stress, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment.

More specifically, using survey data collected from a large county correctional system in

Orlando, Florida, this research assesses the impact of key demographic, job, and organiza-

tional characteristics within and across jail staff attitudes toward job stress, job satisfaction,

and organizational commitment. This article finds that the more powerful predictors of each

of these attitudes are job and organizational characteristics. Among the dependent variables,

job stress has an inverse relationship with job satisfaction, and job satisfaction had a powerful

positive association with organizational commitment.

Keywords: corrections; jail staff; job stress; job satisfaction; organizational commitment

Corrections is big business in any sense of the word, as over US$35 billion are spent

each year for correctional systems in the United States. Moreover, there are approxi-

mately 1.5 million adults housed in American correctional facilities, employing over

400,000 people (Pastore & Maguire, 2006). Although corrections is big business, it is

unlike most other organizations found in society, as approximately 70% of the costs of

operating prisons is for direct payments of wages and fringe benefits (Camp & Lambert,

2005). Armstrong and Griffin (2004) were correct when they argued “correctional institu-

tions are unique work environments in both context and purpose” (p. 577). Correctional

work is often regarded as a daunting occupation that holds little prestige in our society

(Griffin, 1999). Unlike many other organizations, corrections is not involved in the processing

541

Criminal Justice Review

Volume 33 Number 4

December 2008 541-564

© 2008 Georgia State University

Research Foundation, Inc.

10.1177/0734016808320694

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Authors’ Note: Eric G. Lambert and Eugene A. Paoline equally contributed to the article. The authors thank

Janet Lambert for proofreading and editing the paper. In addition, the authors thank the editor and the anony-

mous reviewers for their comments and suggestions. These comments and suggestions improved the article.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Eugene A. Paoline, University of Central Florida,

Department of Criminal Justice and Legal Studies, Orlando, FL 32816-1600; e-mail: epaoline@mail.ucf.edu.

or production of inanimate objects, or providing services to willing clients or customers.

Correctional organizations deal with inmates, many of whom are violent and being held

against their will (Jayewardene & Jayasuriya, 1981). Because of the complexities of deal-

ing with the unique correctional environment, staff are critical. In fact, correctional organi-

zations usually succeed or fail because of their employees’ performance. Satisfied,

committed staff, who do not suffer from undue job stress, can help a facility become a

model correctional organization. Conversely, overly stressed, unhappy, and uncommitted

staff can lead to failure and disaster for a correctional organization.

As staff are an integral component of the success of correctional organizations, there has

been a demand for more research on how working in corrections affects employees. Part of

this literature has examined the impact of the work environment on correctional workers,

and how it relates to their occupational attitudes. Three prominent occupational attitudes

identified are job stress, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment (Byrd, Cochran,

Silverman, & Blount, 2000; Dowden & Tellier, 2004; Griffin, 2001; Hepburn & Knepper,

1993; Lambert, 2004; Lambert, Hogan, & Barton, 1999; Lambert, Hogan, & Barton,

2002b; Slate & Vogel, 1997; Stohr, Lovrich, Monke, & Zupan, 1994; Triplett, Mullings, &

Scarborough, 1996, 1999). These attitudes have significant effects on the intentions and

behaviors of correctional staff. Most of the research on corrections has focused primarily

on job satisfaction and job stress. Only in the past 10 years has there been an increased

focus on the antecedents of correctional staff organizational commitment. Overall, empiri-

cal research has uncovered many salient causes of job stress, job satisfaction, and organi-

zational commitment.

Unfortunately, there have not been systematic studies examining how different areas of

the work environment impact the attitudes of correctional employees. The current study

examined the impact of demographic (i.e., race, education, age, gender, rank, position, and

tenure), job (i.e., dangerousness of the job, job variety, and role strain), and organizational

characteristics (i.e., instrumental communication, formalization, input into decision mak-

ing, and promotional opportunity) on the job stress, job satisfaction, and organizational

commitment of correctional workers. It is necessary to examine the work environment in a

structured manner to determine whether the major dimensions are equally important in

helping shape correctional staff attitudes or whether one or more dimensions are more

important to one type of occupational attitude but not another. This information is neces-

sary so that scholars and correctional administrators can better understand the work envi-

ronment and how it impacts correctional employees. Finally, we explore potential

relationships between job stress, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment.

Literature Review

Three salient occupational attitudes are job stress, job satisfaction, and organizational

commitment. Job stress is generally defined in the correctional literature as feelings of

work-related hardness, tension, anxiety, frustration, worry, emotional exhaustion, and/or

distress (Cullen, Link, Wolfe, & Frank, 1985; Grossi, Keil, & Vito, 1996; Van Voorhis,

Cullen, Link, & Wolfe, 1991). Job stress occurs as a result of stressors in the work envi-

ronment and has been found to have numerous negative effects on correctional staff. For

542 Criminal Justice Review