Organizational stressors associated with job stress and burnout in correctional officers: a systematic review

BMC Public Health

Research Article

Caitlin Finney¹  Erene Stergiopoulos¹  Jennifer Hensel²  Carolyn S Dewa³  Sarah Bonato⁴ 

[1] Centre for Research on Employment and Workplace Health, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada;Centre for Research on Employment and Workplace Health, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada;Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada;Centre for Research on Employment and Workplace Health, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada;Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada;Head, Centre for Research on Employment and Workplace Health, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Full Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, 455 Spadina, Suite 300, M5S 2G8, Toronto, Ontario, Canada;Library Services, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada;

关键词: Organizational Commitment;    Role Conflict;    Occupational Stress;    Organizational Justice;    Role Ambiguity;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-13-82

 received in 2012-06-27, accepted in 2013-01-07,  发布年份 2013

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundIn adult correctional facilities, correctional officers (COs) are responsible for the safety and security of the facility in addition to aiding in offender rehabilitation and preventing recidivism. COs experience higher rates of job stress and burnout that stem from organizational stressors, leading to negative outcomes for not only the CO but the organization as well. Effective interventions could aim at targeting organizational stressors in order to reduce these negative outcomes as well as COs’ job stress and burnout. This paper fills a gap in the organizational stress literature among COs by systematically reviewing the relationship between organizational stressors and CO stress and burnout in adult correctional facilities. In doing so, the present review identifies areas that organizational interventions can target in order to reduce CO job stress and burnout.MethodsA systematic search of the literature was conducted using Medline, PsycINFO, Criminal Justice Abstracts, and Sociological Abstracts. All retrieved articles were independently screened based on criteria developed a priori. All included articles underwent quality assessment. Organizational stressors were categorized according to Cooper and Marshall’s (1976) model of job stress.ResultsThe systematic review yielded 8 studies that met all inclusion and quality assessment criteria. The five categories of organizational stressors among correctional officers are: stressors intrinsic to the job, role in the organization, rewards at work, supervisory relationships at work and the organizational structure and climate. The organizational structure and climate was demonstrated to have the most consistent relationship with CO job stress and burnout.ConclusionsThe results of this review indicate that the organizational structure and climate of correctional institutions has the most consistent relationship with COs’ job stress and burnout. Limitations of the studies reviewed include the cross-sectional design and the use of varying measures for organizational stressors. The results of this review indicate that interventions should aim to improve the organizational structure and climate of the correctional facility by improving communication between management and COs.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Finney et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2013. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.