Correlates of Organizational Commitment among Community Correctional Officers in China

• In Event: Adminstration of Corrections and Correctional Programming

Abstract

High levels of organizational commitment are linked to a wide range of positive organizational outcomes, such as increased prosocial organizational behaviors and higher levels of job performance, and low levels of organizational commitment are associated with increased turnover intent/turnover and absenteeism. Compared to the field of job satisfaction, there has been limited research on the correlates of organizational commitment among community correctional staff, regardless of the nation. Using data from 225 community correctional officers from Hubei, China in 2013, the current study examined community correctional staff’s commitment to their agencies and its predictors. The study found that the majority of Chinese community correctional officers had commitment to their organizations. Organizational structure variables were more powerful than job characteristics and job characteristics were more powerful than demographic characteristics in explaining the variance of the organizational commitment among Chinese community correctional officers. The current study further revealed that job satisfaction was the strongest predictor of affective organizational commitment among Chinese community correctional officers. All relationships between organizational structure variables, job characteristics and organizational commitment were mediated by job satisfaction.

Authors

• Shanhe Jiang, Wayne State University

• Eric Lambert, The University of Mississippi

• Deping Xiang, Wuhan University

• Dawei Zhang, Central China Normal University

• Xiaohong Jin, Central China Normal University

• Mengfei Shi, Wuhan University