NCJ Number
83174
Journal
Federal Probation Volume: 46 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1982) Pages: 35-44
Date Published
1982
Length
10 pages
Annotation
Findings are presented from a survey that examined corrections officers' sense of alientation in their jobs and their desire for job enrichment.
Abstract
The goals of the survey, which was conducted in an eastern State in 1980, were (1) to determine whether corrections officers (C0's) demonstrate alienation of the sort described elsewhere for blue-collar workers; (2) to explore CO interest in job enrichment, particularly in the area of inmate rehabilitation; and (3) to map modulators of the aforementioned items. Findings show that the majority of city-based CO's, who are also minority officers, feel circumscribed, poorly supervised, unappreciated, arbitrarily managed, and haphazardly informed, while white farm-based officers are relatively accepting of organizational constraints and are generally nonalienated. The preferred intervention to help reduce alienation in urban CO's is to increase to vertical loading of the alienated worker's job through participatory involvement. The urban-rural job enrichment need differences are undramatic, but the direction of the difference is important, because it supports the notion that black officers must be hired for reasons other than their presumed propensity to relate more closely to black inmates. Relevant items reveal a reluctance by officers to reduce inmate-officer social distance. Results confirm the conclusions of prior research which suggests that officers over time arrive at a comfortable definition of appropriate inmate-officer social distance and constructive levels of relatedness. There is no evidence of role conflict, of unendurable strain, cognitive dissonance, or the pressure of conflicting goals. Tabular and graphic data and 17 footnotes are provided.