NCJ Number
199666
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 31 Issue: 2 Dated: March/April 2003 Pages: 155-168
Date Published
March 2003
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This article discusses whether organizational justice affects the attitudes of correctional staff.
Abstract
Little research has been done on whether organizational justice affects the attitudes of correctional staff. It is important to identify and understand the organizational forces that shape the attitudes of correctional staff, since these attitudes will ultimately affect their work behaviors. Two of the most important employee attitudes are job satisfaction and organizational commitment. High levels of job satisfaction and organization commitment are linked to positive work attitudes and behaviors. There is even a stronger link between low levels of job satisfaction and organizational commitment and negative work behaviors. The theory of organizational justice incorporates the idea that employees want fair and just organizational outcomes compared to their inputs into the employing organization. Both fairness in how organizational employee outcomes are determined (procedural justice) and what is provided to employees (distributive justice) should impact the organizational commitment of workers. Organizational justice should have a significant impact on the job satisfaction of workers. In 2000, a survey was administered to the staff of a Midwestern State correctional institution measuring perceptions of work environment, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and personal characteristics. The results suggested that both distributive and procedural justice were important factors in shaping job satisfaction for correctional staff in general, non-supervisory staff across a wide array of positions, and non-supervisory correctional officers. The results also suggested that procedural justice, and not distributive justice, was important in influencing the degree of organizational commitment among correctional staff. This finding was somewhat consistent with the organizational justice literature. 2 tables, 7 notes, 1 appendix, 133 references