Abstract

Private security staff play an important role in protecting society, including those who work in private prisons. Working in a private prison is a demanding job. Staff are responsible to ensure that the correctional facility is safe, secure, and humane. Past research has found that organizational trust, in terms of supervisor and management trust, influences private prison staff in many outcome areas, such as job involvement, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, job stress, feeling at risk at work, and job burnout; however, there is a dearth of research on how workplace variables may contribute to organizational trust. The current study examined how the major forms of social support (family, coworkers, supervisor, and management) were related to supervisor trust and management trust among 160 staff at a private U.S. prison. Based on ordinary least squares (OLS) multivariate regression, the results indicated coworker, supervisor, and management support each had significant positive effects on supervisor trust, with supervisor support having the largest effect. In another OLS multivariate regression analysis, family, supervisor, and management support had significant positive effects on management trust, with management support having the largest effect. The findings suggest that private prison administrators should consider increasing all four forms of social support in order to raise both supervisor and management trust. It would be a valuable investment in staff.

摘要

私人保安人员在保护社会方面，包括在私人监狱工作的人员，起着重要的作用。在私人监狱里工作是一项艰巨的工作。工作人员有责任确保惩教设施安全，有保障且人道。过去的研究发现，就上级和管理人员的信任而言，组织信任会在许多结果领域影响私人监狱工作人员，例如工作参与，工作满意度，组织承诺，工作压力，工作中的风险感和工作倦怠；然而，鲜有研究对工作场所的变量可以如何帮助一个缺乏对组织信任。本研究调查了美国一所私人监狱中160名工作人员的主要社会支持形式（家庭，同事，主管和管理层）与主管信任和管理信任之间的关系。基于普通最小二乘（OLS）多元回归，结果表明，同事，主管和管理层的支持均对主管信任产生显着的积极影响，而主管支持的影响最大。在另一项OLS多变量回归分析中，家庭，上级和管理支持对管理信任具有显着的积极影响，其中管理支持的影响最大。调查结果表明，私人监狱管理者应考虑增加所有四种形式的社会支持，以提高监督者和管理者的信任。