Do the effects of organizational trust on correctional staff job attitudes vary by culture: A preliminary test with Nigerian prison staff

Abstract

The current study explored the effects of coworker, supervisor, and management trust on the job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment of Nigerian prison staff working in a prison in southeast Nigeria. In multivariate regression, only management trust was a significant positive predictor of job involvement. Supervisor and management trust, but not coworker trust, had significant positive associations with organizational commitment. All three dimensions of organizational trust had significant positive relationships with job satisfaction. These results suggest that both supervisory and management trust are important to correctional officers in Nigeria, which are similar to empirical research studies in the United States. The effects of trust may be universal among correctional staff across different cultures.

Keywords:

• Nigeria
• correctional staff
• organizational trust
• job involvement
• job satisfaction
• organizational commitment

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the reviewers, editor, and editorial staff for their review of the article. Their suggestions and ideas improved the quality of the article.

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.

O. Oko Elechi

O. Oko Elechi is a Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Mississippi Valley State University. He received his Ph.D. from Simon Fraser University, Canada. He also holds two degrees from the University of Oslo, Norway. His writings on Restorative Justice, Community Policing and the African Indigenous Justice Systems have been extensively published in International Journals, Book chapters and Anthologies. He is also the author of the book Doing Justice Without the State: The Afikpo (Ehugbo) Nigeria Model, published by Routledge, New York.

David Baker

David Baker is Chair and a faculty member in the Administration of Justice Department at Texas Southern University. He received his Ph.D. from York University, Canada. His research interests include crime and the media, human trafficking, race, social control, social justice, terrorism, and white-collar crime. He has published widely in the area of criminal justice and is currently researching other projects in the area of social justice, fairness, and justice.

Morris Jenkins

Morris Jenkins is faculty member in the Justice, Law, and Public Safety Studies Department at Lewis University. He received a JD from Stetson University College of Law, and a Ph.D. from Northeastern University. He is a trained mediator (Consumer, Family and Victim/Offender) and served as a Restorative Justice Facilitator and Law-Related Education Trainer. His research interests include restorative justice, jury nullification, and gangs.

Smart Otu

Smart Otu graduated from University of Port Harcourt (B.Sc),University of Ibadan (M.Sc), D.Litt.Phil (Criminology), University of South Africa, D.Phil (Sociology) The University of the Western Cape, Cape Town. He is a fellow of West Africa Research Association (WARA); former intern of Drug Policy Research Centre, RAND Corporation Santa Monica, Ca. Dr. Otu had taught at the University of Western Cape, Ebonyi State University Abakaliki, Nigeria and is currently with The Federal University, Ndufu-Alike, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State. His specialty is in the areas of Illegal drugs trafficking and use, armed robbery, corruption, Nigerian corrections, theory deconstruction and reconstruction among other things.

Jennifer L. Lanterman

Jennifer L. Lanterman, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Nevada, Reno. Her research interests include the institutional and community-based management and treatment of high-risk and high-need offenders, and restorative justice training and quality assurance processes. Her recent work has been published in British Journal of Community Justice, Contemporary Justice Review, Corrections: Policy, Practice and Research, Criminal Justice and Behavior, Criminal Justice Studies, Ethics & Behavior, Feminist Criminology, Journal of Qualitative Criminal Justice and Criminology, and The Prison Journal.