Gender, job satisfaction, and correctional officers: A comparative analysis

Satisfied Correctional Staff

“…Blau et al (1986) found a negative relationship between work-related emotional stress (i.e., self-reported tension and anxiety from work) and job satisfaction among New York correctional employees. Walters (1993) found among correctional officers at four Midwestern prisons that job stress was negatively related to job satisfaction for male officers but not for female officers. However, in looking at Alabama correctional officers, Whitehead and Lindquist (1986) and Whitehead (1989) found no significant correlation between job stress and job satisfaction.…”

“…Researchers have further postulated that race shapes an individual's job satisfaction in the field of corrections. Overall, research suggests no significant relationships between job satisfaction and race of correctional staff in Western (Hepburn & Knepper, 1993;Jurik & Halemba, 1984;Jurik & Musheno, 1986;Jurik & Winn, 1987; and Midwestern (Jacobs & Kraft, 1978;Walters, 1993) correctional facilities. In addition, in a national survey of prison wardens, neither Cullen et al (1993) nor Flanagan et al (1996) found a relationship between race and job satisfaction.…”

“…In reviewing the research, a positive association between age and job satisfaction was observed among New York correctional staff (Blau et al, 1986) and federal correctional officers (Camp & Steiger, 1995;Rogers, 1991). However, no relationship between age and job satisfaction was found for Midwestern male and female correctional officers (Walters, 1993), Alabama correctional officers , Southern correctional officers (Cullen et al, 1989;Van Voorhis et al, 1991), correctional officers at a Western correctional complex (Jurik & Musheno, 1986;Jurik & Winn, 1987;, Canadian correctional officers (Robinson et al, 1997), and wardens (Flanagan et al, 1996). Finally, Hepburn and Knepper (1993) detected no relationship between age and job satisfaction in their study of Arizona correctional staff.…”

Expanding the Literature on Job Satisfaction in Corrections

“…Since prisons and jails represent a distinctly unique work environment, considerable research has been conducted in pursuit of the correlates of job satisfaction in the correctional workplace (e.g., Blau, Light, & Chamlin, 1986;Cullen, Latessa, Kopache, Lombardo, & Burton, 1993;Dennis, 1998;Garland et al, 2009;Griffin et al, 2010;Grossi & Berg, 1991;Hepburn & Knepper, 1993;Jurik & Halemba, 1984;Lambert et al, 2002;Lambert & Hogan, 2009;Rogers, 1991;Walters, 1993;and Whiteacre, 2006). In the search for explanatory independent variables, most of these studies tend to incorporate various aspects of traditional motivational research theories established by contemporary management literature highlighting the importance of such job-related features as autonomy, self-fulfillment, recognition, decision-making input, personal involvement, and similar intrinsic dimensions.…”

“…Some studies have found significant differences between racial groups in terms of job satisfaction, with higher levels generally reported for White correctional officers (e.g., Blau et al, 1986;Britton, 1997;Cullen et al, 1989;Van Voorhis et al, 1991). Yet, much of the research on this topic indicates no relationship between job satisfaction and race (e.g., Camp & Steiger, 1995;Grossi & Berg, 1991;Hepburn & Knepper, 1993, Jurik & Halemba, 1984Jurik & Musheno, 1986;Jurik & Winn, 1987;Walters, 1993. gender Several studies have reported higher job satisfaction among female correctional officers (Britton, 1997;Camp & Steiger, 1995), and there is some indication that corrections may be a more gender-neutral work environment than law enforcement .…”