Correctional officers perform a unique job that can lead to various negative outcomes. Understanding factors that can have harmful effects on important organizational attitudes like job stress, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment is imperative for the effective management of correctional institutions. Using survey data from 641 correctional officers employed at two Southwestern state-run prison facilities, the current study examines the influence of two measures of work–family conflict (WFC, strain- and time- based) on job stress, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment while controlling for many known antecedents of these variables. The results suggest that strain-based conflict is a significant predictor of job stress and job satisfaction, while time-based conflict only predicted job satisfaction. Neither measure of WFC had a significant relationship with organizational commitment. These findings are further contextualized in the discussion section with an emphasis on potential policy implications.

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With the increasing number of studies examining work outcomes among prison staff, it is surprising that little attention has been paid to corrections officers who hold supervisory positions. Using multivariate analysis of survey results from 2,302 corrections line officers and 369 supervisors employed in one Western prison system, this study examined the conditioning effect of supervisory status on an officer’s reported commitment to the organization. The results suggest that compared with line officers, supervisory officers experience significantly higher levels of commitment to the prison organization. Less variation was found in the manner and magnitude of the effects of individual-level variables (gender, race, age) and work environment variables (organizational support, hostile work environment, quality of supervision, coworker support) on organizational commitment for both groups. The findings provide insight into the importance of officers’ perceived sources of support and the need to encourage organizational commitment within an arguably difficult work environment.

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