Job satisfaction and organizational commitment within Davidson County Community Corrections and Davidson County Drug Court Residential Programs

Alarick Pruitt, Tennessee State University

Abstract

The purpose of this research study was to examine both the job satisfaction and the organizational commitment among the staff of Davidson County Community Corrections Program and Davidson County Drug Court Residential Program. This was done by means of a questionnaire of the staff working with the offenders within these programs. The staff consists of probation officers, drug and alcohol counselors, psychiatrists and psychologists, along with other support staff to enable these programs to be effective. The questionnaire was distributed at Davidson County Community Corrections and Davidson County Drug Court located in Nashville, Tennessee. The questionnaire consisted of the Job Descriptive Index (JDI), the Job-in-General Scale (JIG), the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ), and various attitudinal and demographic questions. Staff members at Davidson County Community Corrections and Davidson County Drug Court were informed about the nature of the study and were asked to participate in it. There were 102 employees in the two programs during the data-gathering period. All were given an opportunity to participate in the questionnaire survey. Of those 102 employees, 77 completed questionnaires and returned them to the researcher. The response rate was 75 percent. A major finding of this study was that the employees’ global job satisfaction, as measured by the Job-In-General scale, was below average especially for probation officers and assessors, compared to other workers in general. The Job Descriptive Index was the faceted measure of job satisfaction used in this research project. The Job Descriptive Index was basically average on the work subscale but below average on the pay and promotional opportunities subscales. The total (JDI) score, or the sum of the five subscale scores, was below average. Organizational commitment was below average, as measured by the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire.

Subject Area

Occupational psychology|Criminology

Recommended Citation

Alarick Pruitt, "Job satisfaction and organizational commitment within Davidson County Community Corrections and Davidson County Drug Court Residential Programs" (2008). ETD Collection for Tennessee State University. Paper AAI1461289.
https://digitalscholarship.tnstate.edu/dissertations/AAI1461289

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