Correctional officers in Danger, Holding or Hanging in the Balance: The Effect of Role conflict on Burnout among Korean Correctional Officers

Purpose:

Working in a prison as a correctional officer(CO) is a stressful job. As professionals doing "people work", COs have been burned out by two major stressors. First, the role conflict is the main source of COs' job stress. Because the role of the CO is problematic by its very nature since two conflicting demands have to be met simultaneously-guiding inmates and facilitating their rehabilitation. The first demand implies that rules are applied strictly, whereas the latter one implies that the rules are interpreted rather smoothly. Second, in working environment of COs where the role of the CO("the keeper") fundamentally contradicts the role of the inmates("the kept"), COs are exposed to physical or psychological violence. These potential violence is expected to increase the effect of role conflict on COs on their stress. In previous studies, role conflict has been found as the important factor for COs' burnout. Also, the negative contacts with inmates or the threat of potential violence of inmates predicted burnont. However, only a few research have examined the integrated relationship including these three factors together. Therefore, this study examined the effect of role conflict on burnout, and examined the moderating effect of COs' perceived threat of potential violence. Especially in Korea, very few studies have been conducted regarding COs' stress. Therefore, for the effective rehabilitation, it is meaningful to find stressors of COs and appropriate interventions to reduce stress.

Methods:

Total of 1,000 of correctional officers in Korea were randomly selected from 10 prisons nationwide using stratified random sampling. To measure the role conflict and burnout among correctional officers, the Measurement of Job Stress(by Lee and Park, 1988) and Maslach Burnout Inventory(MBI) translated into Korean(by Kim, 1991) were used respectively. COs' perceived threat of potential violence was measured by the COs' perception on how much powerlessness or anxiety they feel in their job environment. Multiple regression analysis was performed to test the effect of role conflict of COs on their burnout, and to test the moderating effect of COs' perceived threat of potential violence. For the analysis, a computer program SPSS 12.0 was used.

Results:

Our research questions are as follows: First, how does the role conflict of COs influence the burnout of COs? Second, whether COs' perceived threat of potential violence has a moderating effect? and how dose COs' perceived threat of potential violence influence the effect of role conflict on COs' burnout? Results are as follows: Regression analysis controlling age, seniority, and contacts with inmates showed that there was a significant positive influence of role conflict on COs' burnout. Also, the significant moderating effect(+) of COs' perceived threat of potential violence was found.

Implications:

The findings suggest that proper interventions for COs' role conflict such as providing clearer instructions about thier roles are needed to reduce the level of COs' burnout. Moreover, COs' perceived dangerousness should be paid attention through appropriate intervention programs to effectively reduce the effect of COs' role conflict on burnout.