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Article Link 13.1: Garland, Brett E., William P. McCarty, and Ruohui Zaho (2009). Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment in Prisons: An Examination of Psychological Staff, Teachers, and Unit Management Staff. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 36(2): 163-183.

Staff are the most valuable and expensive resources in prisons. Although correctional officers have received considerable academic attention, we know very little about their noncustody counterparts. This study examines and compares the predictors of job satisfaction, institutional commitment, and commitment to a prison system among three noncustody groups: psychological staff, teachers, and unit management personnel. Data are taken from the 2005 Prison Social Climate Survey, a questionnaire sent annually to a stratified random sample of federal prison staff. Results of Hierarchical Linear Modeling analyses indicate that supervision and perceived effectiveness with inmates had a significant and positive impact on all dependent variables for each noncustody group. The amount of time spent working in a prison was also a common predictor of institutional commitment for all groups. Some differences in significant predictors were found across noncustody groups for several independent variables including security level, amount of inmate contact, and months in current institution. 

1. What factors influence commitment to jobs?
2. How can managers help to cultivate employees’ commitments to their jobs?

Article Link 13.2: Atkin-Plunk, Cassandra A. and Gaylene S. Armstrong (2013). Transformational Leadership Skills and Correlates of Prison Warden Job Stress. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 40(5): 551-568.

Job stress is related to poor job performance, dissatisfaction, and turnover for correctional officers in the workplace. Despite parallel implications for correctional administrators, an extension of the correctional officer job stress literature to prison wardens is virtually absent. Yet the dynamic correctional environment includes many added challenges for prison wardens that could lead to a stressful work experience. Similar to those of officers, coping mechanisms for prison wardens may include peer support, but the extent of a warden’s transformational leadership skills could be related to a more positive work experience. Results indicate that wardens who perceived themselves as having higher levels of transformational leadership capacity also experienced less job stress. Peer support was unrelated to job stress, but employee trust was a robust correlate. In addition, although corrections tenure was unrelated, a wider breadth of corrections experience (holding treatment and custody positions) was related to less stress.

1. How did perceived leadership of one’s self impact wardens’ stress levels?