Examining the effects of stressors on organizational citizenship behaviors among private correctional staff: A preliminary study

Abstract

Much of the research on correctional officers over the past two decades has focused on job stress, job satisfaction, the job environment and how demographic variables such as gender, race, health and family conflict have influenced stress and job satisfaction. Little attention, however, has been placed on organizational citizenship and its relationship to correctional staff. Using survey data from a private correctional facility in the Midwest, this article examined how the stressors of role conflict, role ambiguity, role overload and perceived dangerousness of the job affected organizational citizenship behaviors. In multivariate analysis, role ambiguity was found to have a significant negative effect on organizational citizenship behaviors, and perceived dangerous of the job had a significant positive effect.