Elsevier

Journal of Criminal Justice

Volume 35, Issue 6, December 2007, Pages 644-656
Journal of Criminal Justice

The impact of distributive and procedural justice on correctional staff job stress, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2007.09.001Get rights and content

Abstract

Correctional staff are the heart and soul of any correctional facility. While there was a significant body of research on the impact of the work environment on correctional staff, this study sought to expand that knowledge by examining the effects of distributive and procedural justice on correctional staff job stress, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Multivariate models were estimated. Both forms of organizational justice had negative effects on job stress and organizational commitment; however, only procedural justice, but not distributive justice, had a significant impact on job satisfaction.

Introduction

Correctional facilities are part of a multifaceted industry that significantly influences society today. Over thirty billion dollars are spent annually on correctional organizations that employ over four hundred thousand correctional staff (Pastore & Maguire, 2006). Camp and Gaes (2002) estimated that about 70 to 80 percent of the correctional budget was for staff-related expenditures. Correctional officers currently are responsible for the supervision and safety of more than 1.5 million adult inmates (Pastore & Maguire, 2006), and clearly staff are the lifeblood of correctional organizations. As a result, a significant body of research examined how the work environment impacts correctional workers.

The role of correctional officer is tough, demanding, and highly stressful (Auerbach, Quick, & Pegg, 2003). Officers “are charged with the central task of supervising and securing unwilling and potentially violent populations” (Armstrong & Griffin, 2004, p. 577). Most of the empirical research had focused on identifying and understanding the antecedents of the three major job attitudes of correctional employees: job stress, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Correctional research had focused on these three job attitudes because they have critical outcomes for most correctional agencies. Studies on job stress found high levels of stress linked to serious negative outcomes, such as death, health problems, illness, mental health problems, social problems, and decreased job performance (Cheek and Miller, 1983, Woodruff, 1993). Cheek and Miller (1983) reported that correctional officers have a higher than expected likelihood of hypertension, heart attacks, and other stress-related illnesses, and Woodruff (1993) reported correctional officers die far sooner than average, and that stress was the leading reason for this shortened life expectancy. In the correctional literature, higher levels of job satisfaction were linked to positive work outcomes, such as greater support for rehabilitation, satisfaction with life, and compliance with organizational rules and goals (Fox, 1982, Kerce et al., 1994, Lambert et al., 2005). Moreover, low levels of job satisfaction were linked to negative work behaviors and intentions among correctional staff, such as burnout, absenteeism, turnover intent, and turnover (Byrd et al., 2000, Dennis, 1998, Jurik and Winn, 1987, Lambert et al., 2005, Whitehead and Lindquist, 1986, Wright, 1993). Likewise, high levels of organizational commitment among correctional workers were linked to positive organizational outcomes, such as pro-social organizational behaviors and higher levels of job performance (Culliver, Sigler, & McNeely, 1991), and low levels of commitment have been associated with correctional staff absenteeism, turnover intent, and actual turnover (Camp, 1994, Lambert, 2001, Stohr et al., 1992).

Correctional organizations rely so heavily on employees, thus, negative staff work behaviors are not only problematic, but potentially devastating for these facilities. Therefore, it is critical to explore, confirm, and understand the salient antecedents of correctional staff job attitudes. While there exists a considerable body of research on the impact of the work environment on correctional staff, not all areas have been fully studied. One area that has received little, if any, attention is the impact of organizational justice on correctional staff job stress, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Relatively unstressed, satisfied, and committed correctional staff are the foundation of any successful correctional facility. The knowledge of, and ability to understand the antecedents of correctional employee attitudes and behaviors is critical for all parties involved, including correctional administrators, correctional employees, academicians, and other criminal justice practitioners. Therefore, this study examined the impact of distributive and procedural justice, two forms of organizational justice, on correctional staff at a midwestern private prison.

Section snippets

Organizational justice

The concept of fairness is an integral part of society. It is found throughout most aspects of life and is a common theme in movies, television shows, books, magazine articles, and other forms of mass media. Arguably, there is a generally held belief in this culture that decisions and outcomes should be associated with personal merit, or acquired characteristics, rather than personal relationships or ascribed characteristics, and equal opportunity laws and guidelines have been developed as a

Research questions

This study sought to replicate and expand on prior research regarding the influence of organizational justice on several critical work outcomes in the correctional environment. This study advanced the extant research on correctional officer perceptions of organizational justice in several ways. First, many previous studies failed to incorporate measures of both components of organizational justice (e.g., Griffin & Hepburn, 2005), this study utilized measures of both distributive and procedural

Respondents

In late 2002, all staff at a midwestern maximum security private correctional facility housing approximately 450 adjudicated young adult inmates whose ages ranged from fourteen to nineteen years of age were provided a survey. A cover letter and the front page of the survey explained that participation was voluntary and the results would be anonymous. Two hundred surveys were distributed, and 160 usable surveys were returned (a response rate of 73 percent). To encourage employees to participate,

Results

Five separate multivariate analyses were conducted using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression. The results are reported in Table 2. The first two OLS regression equations were with distributive justice and procedural justice as the dependent variables and the personal characteristics and work environment measures as the independent variables. Supervisory status and all three work environment variables had statistically significant associations with distributive justice. Supervisors were more

Discussion and conclusion

This study examined the impact of perceptions of organizational justice on correctional staff job attitudes. In general, these findings supported the contention that organizational justice remains a salient dimension of the correctional work environment, shaping staff perceptions of job stress, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. At the same time, the influence of organizational justice was not entirely consistent across the three work outcome variables. Distributive, but not

Acknowledgements

All the authors contributed equally to the article. The authors thank Janet Lambert for editing and proofreading the article. The authors also thank the editor and the anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions which improved the article.

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