NCJ Number
85358
Date Published
1982
Length
6 pages
Annotation
Building motivators into jobs, evaluating line staff, and improving working conditions can contribute to higher quality performance and lower absenteeism and turnover in the corrections field.
Abstract
Staff are motivated to better performance and greater job satisfaction primarily by giving them increased responsibility and the opportunity for gaining minimum supervisory experience. This can be done by removing some controls, increasing each person's accountability for his/her own work, giving each employee a complete unit of work which is his/hers alone, granting the freedom inherent in additional authority, and increasing the availability of periodic reports on organizational activity to line staff. Further, new and more demanding tasks should be assigned to give employees the opportunity to be experts through the performance of specialized tasks. Job meaningfulness can be increased by altering the variety of skills necessary to do the job as well as the significance of the tasks. Staff members should have the opportunity to set their own job goals and specific actions for their realization, to be discussed with their supervisors. Each staff member should understand how his/her work fits into the total operation, so that the value and meaning of daily work is appreciated. After instructing employees in the quality requirements of their work and the reasons for these standards, autonomy should be granted and staff encouraged to evaluate and modify their work on their own initiative. Line staff members who have a sense of working for themselves, who share information with their supervisors or colleagues, and whose organizational goals are readily visible to their having a sense of being an important resource in the organization. Ten references are provided.