NCJ Number
229895
Journal
Federal Probation Volume: 73 Issue: 3 Dated: December 2009 Pages: 28-39
Date Published
December 2009
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This article reports on a study that examined factors which influence voluntary employee turnover intention in the Texas probation system, with attention to the influence of pay scales on such factors as overall job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intention.
Abstract
The study found that a large proportion of line probation officers and direct-care staff have high levels of inclination to leave their jobs. Among all organizational factors examined, pay and promotion were the work-related areas most negatively perceived by these employees. In addition, the average mean of organizational commitment was lower than that of overall job satisfaction. This suggest that employees have a stronger psychological/emotional commitment to their work than to the organization that employs them. Thus, the way employees are treated and managed by the organization is the primary area of work experience that is motivating probation employees to seek employment elsewhere. Based on these findings, recommendations are offered. Probation administrators must recognize the chronic negative effect of inadequate salaries and should forge a united front in insisting on increased pay for probation employees. This should include a concerted effort to convince legislatures to provide a significant increase for probation funding. Probation administrators must also recognize the low level of employee commitment to their agencies and attempt to raise their level of commitment by emphasizing the importance of their work in contributing to the laudable mission, vision, and values of the agency. This effort is particularly important for younger employees, who were found to be most likely to have low commitment to the organization. In addition, mentoring relationships should be established with new employees. The study used Angelo State University's Web-based survey, which targeted all line probation officers and all direct-care probation staff in all 122 probation departments in Texas. 4 tables, 1 figure, and 62 references