Leave it at the gate: job stress and satisfaction in correctional staff

Abstract

Though academic literature firmly establishes an inverse relationship between job stress and job satisfaction, global correctional studies fail to examine the extent of that affiliation on overall correctional job satisfaction. As such, this study uses a faceted approach to explore underlying relationships between organizational, job, and personal characteristics of correctional staff and causes of job stress and satisfaction. Using the Job Satisfaction Survey, nine aspects of job satisfaction are considered. The Work Stress Scale for Correctional Officers’ analyses of five areas of stress directly related to correctional environments. This study examines both uniform and nonuniform staff assigned to a minimum security prison. On average, staff scored well below the average American worker on the Job Satisfaction Survey. Job satisfaction was predicted exclusively by job characteristics or stressors, including the job itself, role conflict, and ambiguity, and the physical condition of the prison, while employee demographic variables and variables that measure healthy lifestyles (such as sleep and exercise) were not significant predictors. While job stress does predict a substantively significant portion of job satisfaction (21%), there is still room to improve prediction.

Keywords:

• correctional
• prison
• officer
• job
• stress
• satisfaction

Acknowledgement

Sincere appreciation is expressed to Professor Eric Lambert, Wayne State University. Your professionalism, dedication, and compassion for others are greatly admired. Thank you.

Notes

1. Survey instruments and explanatory cover letter are available upon request.

2. Uniform staff were asked to complete their surveys during staff briefing periods. Nonuniform staff were asked to complete their surveys during times of no or minimal offender traffic.

3. While White was not the largest racial category in this sample, it was still used as the reference category because nationwide, in the USA, White is the majority racial group and the group that has often been considered to be the most socially advantaged historically.