To Be Committed or Not: Examining Effects of Personal and Workplace Variables on the Organizational Commitment of Southern Prison Staff
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
This study examined how personal and workplace variables were related to organizational commitment among staff working at a large Southern prison. The personal variables were gender, age, position, tenure, educational level, and supervisory status. The workplace variables were assessment of training, job variety, role clarity, input into decision-making, and instrumental communication. The results indicate workplace variables play a greater role in shaping affective commitment of surveyed Southern prison staff than do personal variables. The personal variables explained only 10% of the variance in the commitment index, while workplace factors accounted for approximately 59% of the variance and were significant determinants of organizational commitment among the respondents. In the multivariate regression analysis, age, assessment of training, job variety, role clarity, input into decision-making, and instrumental communication all had positive associations with commitment. Educational level had a negative relationship with commitment. Implications of these findings for policy and future research are also discussed.
Publication Date
2-16-2017
Publication Title
Criminal Justice Studies
Publisher
Taylor and Francis Group; Routledge
First Page
223
Last Page
239
Recommended Citation
Lambert, E. G., Keena, L. D., May, D., Haynes, S. H., & Buckner, Z. (2017). To be committed or not: examining effects of personal and workplace variables on the organizational commitment of Southern prison staff. Criminal Justice Studies, 30(3), 223–239. https://doi.org/10.1080/1478601X.2017.1293536
