Organizational Culture in Probation: Perceptions by Staff Role

• In Event: The role of preception in community corrections settings

Abstract

Research studies of organizational factors that affect receptivity, adoption, feasibility, and utilization of innovations in justice settings are limited. While organizational commitment recently emerged as an important factor, others need to be explored, such as organizational culture, type and complexity of the innovations, leadership, resource allocation, cynicism to change, and other organizational attributes. This study expands upon prior work by utilizing survey data from 349 employees in one western region probation agency to assess organizational factors including perceptions of agency culture and type of evidence based supervision. The study will focus on how one’s role affects organizational factors by examining four different staff types, line staff (n=161), mid-level managers (n=40), executive managers (n=25), and administrative/clerical staff (n=123). The role affects perceptions of agency culture, where management and administrative staff are more likely to have positive views of the agency culture than line staff. There is support that executive managers have the most negative opinions about evidence based practices, more specifically, being open about using these practices. Whereas, mid-level managers have the most positive views on these factors. This study will contribute to an emerging body of literature about the impact of various organizational factors on support for evidence-based practices.

Authors

• Alex J. Breno, George Mason University

• Sara Debus-Sherrill, George Mason University

• Faye Taxman, George Mason University