It’s not ok to not be ok . . . when you’re a prison governor:The impact of workplace culture on prison governors’ wellbeing in England, Scotland and Wales

Abstract

The wellbeing of prison governors has received little attention in penological research to date. The findings of this research reveal that governors’ wellbeing is negatively impacted by a dominant Masculinity Contest Culture (MCC) permeating through the organisation. While MCC negatively contributes to governors’ wellbeing, they continue to engage in hegemonic masculine performances to show no weakness to cope with the pressures of working life. This has led to the emergence of a ‘hyper-MCC’ which we define as an overperformance of the MCC social script that is seen as a requirement to cope within an increasingly challenging workplace. The implications of hyper-MCC are a perpetuation of a toxic working culture and a reduced likelihood of engaging with wellbeing services. The response needs to be developing the right types of support that can attempt to re-frame dominant masculine working cultures, challenge hyper-MCC performances and remove the individualised responsibility of wellbeing away from the workforce themselves. However, this cultural shift will only be effective if coupled with a meaningful reconsideration of working conditions, which have resulted in the intensification of workloads and practices.