Testing the job demands-resources model for organizational commitment among Indian correctional officers

ABSTRACT

Correctional institutions are manpower-intensive organizations, and organizational commitment is important for their successful functioning. This study uses the job demands model to examine effect of workplace variables on organizational commitment. Using a sample of 163 correctional officers from a prison in Haryana State, India, we find that job demands (fear of being hurt and work and role overload) have no significant effect of organizational commitment. All four components of job resources (instrumental communication, job autonomy, quality of supervision, and job variety) were found to be positively and significantly associated with organizational commitment. The study highlights the importance of adequate knowledge of job resources in trying to raise the affective commitment of correctional officers.

KEYWORDS:

• Job demands-resources model
• correctional staff
• organizational commitment
• India
• prison staff

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Eric G. Lambert

Eric G. Lambert is a faculty member in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs in the College of Health and Human Services at Indiana University Northwest. He received his Ph.D. from the School of Criminal Justice at the State University of New York at Albany. His research interests include organizational issues, job and organizational effects on the attitudes, intentions, and behaviors of criminal justice employees, and the international perceptions, attitudes, and views on criminal justice issues.

Hanif Qureshi

Hanif Qureshi is an Indian police official who earned a Ph.D. from the School of Criminal Justice at the University of Cincinnati. His research interests are policing, organizational issues, community-police relations, and the effects of workplace factors on criminal justice employees.

Mia Abboud Holbrook

Mia Abboud Holbrook is a faculty member in the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Nevada, Reno. She earned her Ph.D. in Criminal Justice and Criminology from Washington State University. Her research interests include offender risk-needs assessments and model fidelity, assessing implementation challenges in the use of evidence-based practices, intersection of criminal justice and public health, offender programming, treatment courts and criminal justice reform.

James Frank

James Frank is a faculty member in the School of Criminal Justice at the University of Cincinnati. He received his Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from the School of Criminal Justice at the Michigan State University. His primary research interests include understanding police behavior at the street level, the formation of citizen attitudes toward the police, and the use of evolving technology by patrol officers.

Chelsea Hines

Chelsea Hines is a graduate student in the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Nevada, Reno.