NCJ Number
80973
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 9 Issue: 6 Dated: (1981) Pages: 441-450
Date Published
1981
Length
10 pages
Annotation
An intensive field study of 17 correctional personnel training programs was conducted to assess the organization-environment context in which these programs emerged and operated.
Abstract
Content analysis of site visit data revealed that correctional training programs less often served specific organization goal achievement purposes, and more often served as general strategies for coping with external environmental demands and pressures. A theoretical framework for examining organization-environment relations is described, and then used to analyze correctional training programs as a boundary-spanning activity that relates correctional organizations to environmental conditions. Organizational responses to environmental demands are placed along a continuum of adjustment ranging from survival, to adaptation, and innovation. Organizational responses to environmental demands, in turn, are related to training patterns that dovetail with the major needs of organizations and their personnel in efforts to adjust to the environment. (Author abstract)