Opening the Manager's Door: State Probation Officer Stress and Perceptions of Participation in Workplace Decision Making

• NCJ Number: 202330
• Journal: Crime & Delinquency Volume: 49 Issue: 4 Dated: October 2003 Pages: 519-541
• Author(s): Risdon N. Slate; Terry L. Wells; W. Wesley Johnson
• Date Published: October 2003
• Length: 23 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article examined the contributors to stress for probation officers.

Abstract

In comparison to studies on police and correctional officer stress, there is scant research on probation officer stress. Given the fact that probation officers have a great deal of unsupervised contact with offenders and growing caseloads, it is important to understand how stress affects their job performance. The authors conducted a self-report survey with 417 probation officers. The survey, which utilized a Likert-type format, focused on measuring the level of external, internal, job or task, personal, and physical stress experienced by the respondents and on identifying the contributors to that stress. Results of structural equation modeling revealed that officers’ perceptions of participation in the workplace, especially in terms of participation in decisionmaking, was a significant variable affecting job satisfaction and its influence on reported organizational and physical symptoms of stress. The results lend support for the development and use of participatory management schemas within probation work. References