Exploring Organizational Justice’s Connection to Correctional Staff Emotional Exhaustion Burnout

Authors

• Eric G. Lambert, Indiana University Northwest
• Monica Solinas-Saunders, Indiana University Northwest
• Stacy H. Haynes, Mississippi State University
• Matthew Leone, University of Nevada, Reno
• David C. May, Mississippi State University
• Linda D. Keena, University of Mississippi

ORCID

Haynes: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1408-9291; May: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8275-6773

MSU Affiliation

College of Arts and Sciences; Department of Sociology

Creation Date

2026-06-01

Abstract

Conceptually, organizational justice has four dimensions, and they are informational, interpersonal, procedural, and distributive. The literature, however, is unclear how these dimensions of organizational justice are related to one another and to salient work outcomes, such as emotional exhaustion, which is a key dimension of job burnout. The current study proposed and tested a path model where informational and interpersonal justice were related to procedural and distributive justice, and procedural justice was related to distributive justice; in turn, procedural and distributive justice were associated with emotional exhaustion. This preliminary study relied on data from a survey of 322 correctional staff. Based on multivariate analyses using Ordinary Least Squares regression, the proposed model was largely supported.

Publication Date

9-6-2025

Publication Title

Corrections: Policy Practice and Research

Publisher

Taylor and Francis Group; Routledge

Recommended Citation

Lambert, E. G., Solinas-Saunders, M., Haynes, S. H., Leone, M., May, D. C., & Keena, L. D. (2025). Exploring organizational justice’s connection to correctional staff emotional exhaustion burnout. Corrections, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/23774657.2025.2557028