Won-Jae Lee, Ph.D., Angelo State University
Hee-Jong Joo, Ph.D., Sam Houston State University
W. Wesley Johnson, Ph.D., University of Southern Mississippi
Shift from Individual to
Organizational Change
Participatory Management
Link between Participatory
Management, Job-related Stress,
Job Satisfaction, and Turnover
Intention
Data and Methods
Results
Discussion and Conclusion
HIGH EMPLOYEE TURNOVER rates continue to confront many executives of correctional agencies, contributing to low morale and poor job-related productivity (Mitchell, Mackenzie, Styve, & Gover, 2000; Slate & Vogel, 1997; Slate, Vogel, & Johnson, 2001). In particular, high voluntary turnover in a probation setting may result in increased caseloads for the remaining staff. This can lead to low morale, deterioration in supervision, increases in unnoticed violations and recidivism, and increases in expenditures related to the recruitment and training of replacements (Simmons, Cochran, & Blount, 1997). These negative consequences potentially diminish the promotion of public safety, which is the ultimate mission of the American probation system.
Despite the absence of national reports addressing turnover rates of state probation officers, members of the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) have agreed that the loss of qualified officers was a major concern (Community Corrections Division of NIC, 1994). In Florida, probation agencies, for example, reported a turnover rate of approximately 30 percent in 1995 (Simmons et al., 1997). Also, Lee and Beto (2008), in their study of voluntary turnover rate among four adult probation departments in Texas, found that average voluntary turnover rates increased steadily during the study period: 17 percent for FY2004, 20 percent for FY2005, and 24 percent for FY2006. One department in particular experienced an unusually high voluntary turnover rate (nearly 40 percent in FY2006). Overall, the voluntary turnover rate of probation agencies was much higher than that of all Texas state agencies, 10.8 percent (State Auditor’s Office, 2007). These findings imply that state probation agencies have not only experienced high turnover rates, but have failed to resolve the problem.
Accordingly, remediating extensive staff turnover should be a top priority for state probation administrators, especially in an era of tightening administrative budgets and expanding public expectations. Although there are a variety of explanations for employee turnover, participatory management within community and institutional correctional settings has consistently been discussed as a critical mechanism to mitigate job stress and improve officers’ job satisfaction, significantly reducing an officer’s inclinations to quit (Byrd, Cochran, Silverman, & Blount, 2000; Simmons et al., 1997; Slate et al, 2001; Slate & Vogel, 1997).
Despite the important role of participatory management, however, little or no scholarly research has been conducted in the area of probation to empirically determine the effect of participatory management on an officer’s turnover intention. This study examines the effect of federal probation line officers’ perceived participatory climate on internal stress, overall job satisfaction, and turnover intention. Compared to state probation, federal probation is believed to have much lower turnover rates due to its quality selection process and role diversity (Thomas, 1987). However, findings from the present study could provide useful managerial information to help both state and federal probation administrators address high turnover rates and thereby improve their promotion of public safety.
Shift from Individual to Organizational Change
A number of organizational studies have examined the relationship between individual characteristics and turnover intentions. For example, Griffeth, Hom, and Gaertner (2000) found that age, gender, educational level, marital status, and tenure were related to turnover. Similarly, correctional studies also considered individual characteristics such as age, gender, educational level, marital status, race, and tenure as determinants of correctional officers’ stress and/or turnover intention. They found that minority, unmarried, female officers were positively associated with high turnover intentions (Blau, Light, & Chamlin, 1986; Patterson, 1992; Simmons et al., 1997).
Among individual variables, however, only tenure has consistently been found significant. For example, Thomas (1987), in his study of 252 federal probation officers, found a positive relationship between tenure and chronic job stress. He explained that organizational unfairness coupled with promotion selection can substantially escalate chronic job stress of senior officers. In contrast, a curvilinear relationship was found between tenure and job stress (Patterson, 1992); officers in the middle of their careers were more likely to feel stressed than beginning-level and senior officers. Simmons et al. (1997) found a moderately positive relationship between tenure and job stress, but an inverse relationship between tenure and turnover intention.
Overall, these findings seem to be useful in identifying and helping employees with high intentions of leaving their department, but failed to determine the underlying organizational correlates or causes of turnover intention. In addition, theoretical and empirical research has suggested a causal link between organizational factors (e.g., job stress, job satisfaction, participatory management, etc.) and turnover intention (Byrd et al., 2000; Mitchell et al., 2000; Simmons et al., 1997; Slate & Vogel, 1997; Slate et al., 2001 Thomas, 1987; Whitehead, 1987). Of these organizational factors, participatory management in particular has recently been identified as one possible solution to reduce high staff turnover. Despite its potentially important role in turnover intention, little research has been conducted to probe the effect of participatory management on probation officers’ turnover intentions.
Participatory Management
A consequence of bureaucracy is that it can reduce workers’ control over the means of production and alienate line workers from the decision-making process by exerting extreme limitations on individual freedoms and democracy (Kohn, 1976). As noted by Bolman and Deal (1997), employees under the traditional autocratic style of management are dependent on superiors and have little control over their work. They suggested that participatory management is a popular remedy because employees have more opportunities to participate in decision-making about their work and working conditions. Essentially, participatory management theory assumes that employees prefer to have an active role in decision-making that directly affects their work. Also, it seeks to balance the involvement of both superiors and subordinates in information-sharing, decision-making, and problem-solving related to production and quality control (Wagner, 1994).
In an effort to encourage participatory management through policy, former President Clinton created the National Performance Review (NPR) in 1993 (Vernon & Byrd, 1996). Reinventing Government, born out of the NPR, criticized malfunctions of hierarchical, centralized bureaucracies, and envisioned the new roles of government executives. These new roles included developing a clear vision, creating a team environment, empowering employees, putting customers first, communicating with employees, cutting red tape, and creating clear accountability (Gore, 1993). Following the guidelines of Reinventing Government, the American Probation and Parole Association (APPA) became a leading exemplar in reinventing probation (Corbett, 1996). Notably, the Reinventing Probation Council (2000) emphasized the transformation of bureaucratic organizational culture and routine through participatory management in a way that would empower staff. Therefore, participatory management has been suggested as a critical means to transform the culture of a typical governmental bureaucracy.
In line with such policy initiatives, research that focuses on participatory management has emphasized its ability to reduce levels of stress (Slate & Vogel, 1997; Slate, Wells, & Johnson, 2003; Whitehead, 1987), to increase job satisfaction (Slate et al., 2003; Whitehead, 1987), and to reduce turnover intention (Slate & Vogel, 1997; Slate et al., 2001). Furthermore, participatory management has consistently been discussed within correctional literature as a critical mechanism to mitigate officers’ job stress, to improve their job satisfaction, and to decrease their inclinations to quit (Byrd et al., 2000; Mitchell et al., 2000; Simmons et al., 1997).
Link between Participatory Management, Job-related Stress, Job Satisfaction, and Turnover Intention
There is a documented relationship for participatory management, job stress and job satisfaction, respectively; officers’ participation in decision-making significantly attenuates their job-related stress and significantly enhances job satisfaction (Slate & Vogel, 1997; Slate et al., 2001 & 2003; Whitehead, 1987). Empirical evidence also suggests a relationship between participatory management and turnover intention. For example, Slate and Vogel (1997), in their study of 486 employees of seven state correctional institutions, found that increased perceptions of participatory management resulted in decreased turnover intention. Likewise, Slate et al. (2001), in their surveys of private correctional officers conducted in 1990 and 1997, confirmed the direct effect of participatory management on turnover intention.
Previous correctional research related to turnover intention examined the causal link between job stress and job satisfaction, finding an inverse relationship between the two variables (Byrd et al., 2000; Simmons et al., 1997; Slate et al., 2003). Job stress is the psychological discomfort or tension caused by exposure to job stressors, which place unreasonable or distinctive demands on an individual.1 Research has indicated that job stress is positively correlated with turnover intention (Begley & Czajka, 1993; Slate & Vogel, 1997). Job satisfaction is generally defined as an employee’s reactions to his or her job based upon the level of congruence between job expectations and actual situational attributes (Cranny, Smith, & Stone, 1992). In a study conducted with 35 members of an adult probation department, Leonardi and Frew (1991) found a lower level of job satisfaction than the national average among adult probation officers. A substantial body of literature has reported that job satisfaction has a direct negative effect on turnover intention (Byrd et al., 2000; Griffeth et al., 2000; Simmons et al., 1997; Tett & Meyer, 1993). Tett and Meyer (1993), in their path analyses, found that job satisfaction has a stronger effect on turnover intention than organizational commitment.
Two studies of job satisfaction and stress among jailers and probation officers (Byrd et al., 2000; Simmons et al., 1997) found that job satisfaction had the strongest direct effect on officers’ intentions to leave their department, while job stress had only an indirect effect via job satisfaction on turnover intention. In contrast, Slate et al. (2003), in their study of 636 probation officers in a southern state, placed the opposite causal order from job satisfaction to job stress. While both studies provide some empirical evidence that job stress is linked to job satisfaction which, in turn, influenced propensity to leave, the issue of causal order and model specification has yet to be fully resolved.
The nature of the causal relationship between job stress and job satisfaction is certainly a tautological debate. However, the predominant view seems to be that job stress is antecedent to job satisfaction. Theoretically, Locke (1976) argued that employees’ job stress has a more tangible and immediate influence on job dissatisfaction and necessarily precedes job satisfaction. Some empirical studies have generally confirmed the causal precedence of job stress over job satisfaction. For example, Kemery, Mossholder, and Bedeian (1987) tested three different causal models: job stress to job satisfaction; job satisfaction to job stress; and a reciprocal relationship. Their structural equation modeling analyses provided empirical credence to the causal order from job stress to job satisfaction that Locke (1976) assumed. These previous findings suggest that the reduction of job stress may directly result in an increase in job satisfaction, which has a more immediate influence on turnover intention.
Theoretical and empirical research has suggested a causal link between participatory management, job stress, job satisfaction, and turnover intention. Specifically, officers’ turnover intention is assumed to be directly related to job satisfaction, job stress, and participatory management, and is also assumed to be indirectly linked to job stress and participatory management. Given the theoretical explanation and empirical findings, Figure 1 presents a hypothetical model to examine the causal link between demographic variables, participatory management, job stress, job satisfaction, and turnover intention. As found in probation literature (Patterson, 1992; Simmons et al., 1997), minority, unmarried, female officers were hypothesized to be positively associated with turnover intention. Based on the findings of Thomas (1988), tenure was also hypothesized to be positively associated with turnover intention. In addition, the present study adopted a causal order from job stress to job satisfaction and attempted to improve the models used in a previous study (Slate et al., 2003). The following three specific hypotheses were developed to be tested:
- H1: Organizational variables are more important than individual variables in predicting an officer’s turnover intention.
- H2: Among organizational variables, participatory climate, internal stress, and overall job satisfaction, respectively, have a significant direct effect on an officer’s turnover intention.
- H3: Participatory climate and internal stress also have a significant indirect effect on an officer’s turnover intention.
Data and Methods
Sample and Data
This study utilized purposive sampling. The agencies were selected based on geographical proximity to each other and the researcher’s familiarity with their administrators. The self-administered survey instrument was developed using variables replicated from studies by Slate and Vogel (1997) and Slate et al. (2003). A mail survey was administered to federal probation officers in Texas, Kansas, and Missouri to assess their perceptions of participatory climate, three types of job stress (external, internal, and job/task), overall job satisfaction, and turnover intention. Participation was voluntary and respondents were promised confidentiality. Two sets of data, one from Texas and the other from Kansas and Missouri, were collected in 2000 and 2001, respectively.2 Out of the 287 surveys that were mailed, 209 were returned for analysis, yielding a response rate of 72.8 percent.
Of 209 returned responses, this study examined only line officers (N = 191) since they have been found to be less likely than probation supervisors to have opportunities to participate in decision-making (Slate et al., 2003; Slate & Vogel, 1997), more likely to feel stressed (Thomas, 1988; Whitehead, 1987), more likely to have low levels of job satisfaction (Thomas, 1988; Whitehead, 1987), and more likely to report high levels of turnover intention (Slate & Vogel, 1997).
In the survey, line officers were asked to provide individual information concerning three socio-demographic factors (gender, race, and marital status) and one work experience factor (tenure). The selection of these individual variables was guided by the previous research mentioned above.
Measurement
All responses to survey items concerning organizational variables were based on the respondent’s work experience over the past year before the beginning date of the survey. Of four organizational variables, turnover intention was included in the analysis as the dependent variable. On the other hand, participatory climate, internal stress, and overall job satisfaction were predictor variables and each was hypothesized as being correlated with turnover intention. The predictor variables were measured using multi-item scales.
Participatory Climate—Participatory management is viewed as a matter of participatory climate rather than as authoritysharing (Bolman & Deal, 1997). Participatory climate is a non-traditional autocratic style of management which emphasizes employees’ participation in information-sharing, decision- making, and problem-solving (Wagner, 1994). Such work environments facilitate a sense of control and self-efficacy (Spreitzer, 1996). Seven items with a five-point subscale (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree), developed by Slate and Vogel (1997), were employed to assess the respondents’ perception of participatory climate in decisionmaking. 3 However, three items were removed, since their communalities from the principal component analysis were less than .70.4 The remaining four items factored together with an appropriate eigenvalue of 4.40 and all factor loading scores satisfied the .50 cut-off point, suggesting substantial loadings (Comrey & Lee, 1992). The additive scale was well above the minimal level of acceptability (α = .70;see Nunnally, 1978), evidenced by a high Cronbach’s Alpha reliability score (α = .92).
Internal Stress—Fifty-four survey questions were originally developed by Whisler (1994) to investigate three aspects of probation officers’ levels of stress affected by workrelated stressors. They included internal, job/ task (stress-induced job characteristics), and external (stressful conditions outside the organization) stressors. This study, however, used 26 internal stress items with a six-point subscale (1 = not stressful to 6 = very stressful) to examine an officer’s levels of stressful conditions internal to the organization in association with participatory climate. Preliminary Pearson zero-order correlation coefficients indicated that internal stress had a much greater correlation with participatory climate, overall job satisfaction, and turnover intention than the other two types of stress. However, based on the results of the interitem correlation coefficients and the principal components factor analysis, 17 out of the 26 items measuring internal stress were dropped from the instrument. Hence, internal stress was operationalized by the uni-dimensional nine-item scale from the original 26 items (α = .92).
Overall Job Satisfaction—Job satisfaction is a linkage between an employee and his or her job, resulting from the appraisal of his or her job and job experiences (Locke, 1976). There are two measures of job satisfaction: overall job satisfaction and satisfaction with specific aspects of the job such as pay, promotion, supervision, co-workers, and nature of work. According to Griffeth et al. (2000), overall job satisfaction was known to be a better indicator than job-facet satisfaction in predicting turnover, although both are related to turnover. This analysis used six items with a 1-5 Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree) based on the study by Slate et al. (2003) to assess an officer’s appraisal of overall job satisfaction. However, three items were dropped from the instrument, since their communalities were all less than .70. The remaining three items (α = .81) produced one single factor solution (eigenvalue = 3.19) with substantial loadings all over .50.
Turnover Intention—Turnover intention, as a dependent variable, was measured on a five-point Likert scale (1 = rarely or never to 5 = most of the time) by the level of agreement with the statement, “I seriously think about quitting this job.” Understandably, there might be a reasonable suspicion that even if an officer shows an inclination to quit, the intention does not necessarily manifest into the officer’s actual turnover. However, Hom and Griffeth’s (1995) meta-analysis suggested that turnover intentions and turnover are positively correlated, and turnover intentions are better than job satisfaction in predicting turnover. Furthermore, in their examination of the relationship between voluntary turnover and 35 different variables, turnover intention had the strongest relationship to actual voluntary turnover.
Pre-Analysis Data Screening
Descriptive statistics among individual and organizational variables were reported in Table 1. The sample was composed of 60.2 percent men, 75.9 percent married officers, and 54.1 percent white officers. The mean tenure as an officer was 6.5 years, ranging from .17 to 27 years. A comparison of the respondents’ individual characteristics from the three states was fairly identical with the exception of race. That is, Hispanics comprised 71 percent of the Texas sample, which may be related to hiring practices of giving preference to officers with bilingual skills required in the southern districts of Texas, which border Mexico.
Respondents displayed an average of 3.07 for the level of participation in decision-making, which is considered mixed (neither agree nor disagree) and therefore does not support any one particular side. Regarding internal stress, the respondents’ mean score was 2.56, approximately midpoint between subscales 2 (rarely stressful) and 3 (sometimes stressful), which is considered very low. A high level of overall job satisfaction (mean = 3.99) and a low level of turnover intention (mean = 1.57) were found among federal probation officers.5 Approximately 39 percent of respondents had thoughts about quitting their job, while the remaining 61 percent rarely or never thought about quitting. Before conducting further analysis, data were examined to secure the accuracy of the data and to avoid any biased results (Mertler and Vannatta, 2005).6
Results
Zero-Order Correlation Analysis
Table 2 presents the correlation matrix among variables used in the analysis. Officers’ turnover intention showed not only a significant negative relationship with overall job satisfaction and participatory climate, but also showed a significant positive association with internal stress and years of service. Taken together, job satisfaction (r = –.50) was found to have the greatest relationship with turnover intention, followed by internal stress (r = .43), participatory climate (r = –.38), and tenure (r = .23). Of the four individual variables, only tenure had a significant correlation with internal stress and turnover intention, respectively.
Hierarchical Multiple Regression Models
Table 3 presents the results of two multiple regression analyses. Model 1 examined only the impact of individual variables on an officer’s turnover intention. Among the four individual variables, only tenure was found to be a significant predictor of an officer’s turnover intention, indicating that officers with more seniority were more likely to express greater turnover intentions. However, despite the good model fit statistics (χ2 = 10.750, df = 1, p < .001), only 5.4 percent of the variance in turnover intention was accounted for by Model 1 (R2 = .054).
In Model 2, turnover intention was regressed on both individual and organizational variables. Overall job satisfaction (β = –.408, p < .001), internal stress (β = .323, p < .001), and tenure (β =.116, p < .05) were found to be statistically significant predictors of turnover intention. Specifically, job satisfaction was inversely associated with turnover intention. Officers who reported higher levels of overall job satisfaction exhibited lower levels of turnover intention. Internal stress was positively associated with turnover intention; as an officer’s levels of stressful conditions internal to the organization increased, his or her turnover intention also increased. Like Model 1, tenure was consistently included as being statistically significant, while gender, race, and marital status were excluded from Model 2. However, half of the significant direct effect of tenure on turnover intention in Model 1 (β = .233) was reduced after organizational variables were included in Model 2 (β = .116). This finding suggests that the effect of tenure on turnover intention is both direct and indirect, and its indirect effect seems to be mediated through organizational variables such as internal stress. Participatory climate was not included in the equation, indicating that it was an insignificant predictor of turnover intention.
Two additional findings concerning Model 2 were important. First, the proportion of variance explained by Model 2 (R2 = .389) was about 7.2 times higher than that explained by Model 1 (R2 = .054). This finding implies that organizational variables, rather than individual variables, play greater roles in predicting an officer’s turnover intention. Secondly, internal stress and job satisfaction had substantial direct effects on turnover intention. However, participatory climate was found to be insignificant, indicating no significant direct effect on turnover intention. Although participatory climate was not statistically significant in the multiple regression analyses, it had an indirect effect on turnover intention since the correlation coefficient between internal stress and turnover intention in Table 2 was statistically significant (r = 0.38, p < .01). Therefore, examination of the indirect effect of participatory climate on turnover intention and its total effect on turnover intention compared to those of internal stress, overall job satisfaction, and tenure was of particular interest in the following path analysis.
Path Analysis Model
According to the findings of the two hierarchical regression analyses, three individual variables (gender, race, and marital status) and one organizational variable (participatory climate) were found to be insignificant in predicting turnover intention. Hence, their four paths toward turnover intention were eliminated from the hypothesized model. However, tenure was included as a predictor of internal stress because it was found to have a significant correlation with it. With these changes, the hypothesized model was revised and reanalyzed into the final model in Figure 2. In the final model, all three fit indices well satisfied the recommended cut-off values (χ2 = 3.06, df = 3, p = .397; RMSEA value of .01; and CFI value of .99), indicating that the final model, compared to the hypothetical model, provided both an excellent adequate fit to the data and a substantial absolute and incremental fit improvement (see Hair et al., 2006).
Figure 2 presents the significant standardized path coefficients of the final structural model. Tenure was found to have a moderate direct effect on internal stress (.25) and a direct but weak effect on turnover intention (.12). Consistent with the findings from the regression analyses, internal stress was found to have a positive direct effect on turnover intention (.29), and overall job satisfaction was found to have a negative direct effect on turnover intention (–.42). Although participatory climate was hypothesized to have a significant direct effect on turnover intention, it was found to be insignificant. Nonetheless, participatory climate negatively affected internal stress (–.65) and also had a positive direct effect on overall job satisfaction (.24). These findings suggest that officers’ levels of internal stress and overall job satisfaction can directly lead to higher levels of turnover intention while their perceived climate for participatory management could indirectly influence turnover intention.
Table 4 summarizes estimates of path analyses in terms of indirect, direct, and spurious effects of exogenous variables on endogenous variables. The total effect of tenure (.21) on turnover intention was almost equally divided between direct (.12) and indirect (.09). This result confirms the findings of the regression analyses that tenure has both direct and indirect effects on turnover intention, and its indirect effect is mediated through organizational variables. However, the total effect of tenure on turnover intention (.21) was much lower than those of overall job satisfaction (–.42), internal stress (.39), and participatory climate (–.33). Among the organizational variables, overall job satisfaction had the largest total effect (only direct) on turnover intention (-.42). Internal stress had the second largest total effect (indirect and direct) on turnover intention (.39), most of which stemmed from a direct effect (.31). All of the indirect effect of internal stress (19.5 percent of the total effect) on turnover intention was mediated by overall job satisfaction. Participatory climate also had a total effect (only indirect) on turnover intention (–.33).
Although no direct effect of participatory climate on turnover intention was found, participatory climate indirectly but significantly affected turnover intention through internal stress and overall job satisfaction. In addition, despite the relatively weak association of participatory climate, compared to job satisfaction and internal stress, with turnover intention, participatory climate was found to be a key correlate of overall job satisfaction and internal stress. In comparing the total effects of participatory climate (.22) and internal stress (–.19) on overall job satisfaction, participatory climate had a larger total effect than that of internal stress. Likewise, participatory climate had a larger total effect on internal stress than that of tenure. These findings indicate that participatory climate is the most important factor in reducing stressful conditions internal to the organization and enhancing officers’ levels of overall job satisfaction.
Discussion and Conclusion
As mentioned above, participatory management has recently been hailed as one possible solution to reduce high staff turnover. Despite its potentially important role, little or no empirical research has been conducted to probe the effect of participatory management on probation officers’ turnover intentions. In response, this study attempted to determine the effect of perceived participatory climate for decision-making of federal probation officers on internal stress, overall job satisfaction, and turnover intention. To do so, three hypotheses were tested: Organizational variables are more important than individual variables in predicting an officer’s turnover intention (H1); Among organizational variables, participatory climate, internal stress, and overall job satisfaction, respectively, have a significant direct effect on an officer’s turnover intention (H2); Participatory climate and/or internal stress also have a significant indirect effect on an officer’s turnover intention (H3).
Overall, findings from this study provided strong evidence in support of accepting the three hypotheses. Results from hierarchical regression analyses supported the first hypothesis that organizational variables, rather than individual variables, have substantially greater contributions in predicting an officer’s turnover intention. Among four individual variables, only tenure was found to exercise statistically significant direct influence on officers’ internal stress. This finding is consistent with Thomas’ findings (1988) that “the longer you are in Federal service, the greater your potential for rustout and burnout” (p. 56). Furthermore, tenure was also found to have indirect effects on turnover intention. Among the organizational variables, overall job satisfaction had the highest influence on turnover intention, followed by internal stress. Overall, these findings imply that organizational factors, compared to individual variables, exercise greater influence on turnover intention.
As hypothesized in H2, internal stress had a substantial positive direct relationship with turnover intention, while job satisfaction had a negative relationship. However, unlike the finding of Slate and Vogel (1997) and Slate et al. (2001), participatory climate was not found to be significant in predicting an officer’s turnover intention in regression analyses, indicating no direct effect of participatory climate on turnover intention. Therefore, the second hypothesis is only partially supported. On the other hand, as hypothesized in H3, path analyses confirmed the link between participatory climate, internal stress, overall job satisfaction, and turnover intention. This finding suggested the causal precedence of overall job satisfaction over internal stress, implying that overall job satisfaction may be a more immediate correlate of an officer’s turnover intention than internal stress. Furthermore, both participatory climate and internal stress were found to have indirect effects on an officer’s turnover intention, indicating that officers’ turnover intention is influenced both directly and indirectly by a variety of variables. Examination of the link between participatory climate and turnover intention indicates that internal stress and overall job satisfaction had direct effects on turnover intention. Although there was no significant direct effect of participatory climate on turnover intention, participatory climate was also found to play a significant role in reducing internal stress and enhancing overall job satisfaction, which, in turn, reduced turnover intention. This finding indicates the important role of participatory climates in reducing high turnover rates of probation officers.
Based on these findings, probation administrators should be aware of the significance of organizational factors, participatory climate in particular, as a pivotal cause leading to voluntary turnover intention. As shown by the findings of this study, participation in the decision-making process appears to play an important role in reducing internal stress and in enhancing employees’ job satisfaction, eventually leading to lower turnover intentions. Therefore, more attention needs to be paid to the development and implementation of participatory management strategies in an effort to reduce high turnover rates of probation officers. In pursuit of the first strategy, a shift in supervisory and managerial roles and styles should be made from directing and controlling line officers in a traditional, autocratic organizational climate to facilitating, coaching, and consulting with them. To fulfill these important managerial roles, administrators should devote considerable attention and resources to the selection, development, and training of managers. Also, as recommended by Eccles (1993), enhancing communication should be the first step to overcome insufficient feedback and minimal knowledge of job-related results in a traditional, autocratic bureaucracy.
In addition, given the fact that overall job satisfaction was the most important variable in predicting line officers’ turnover intention, administrators need to recognize the limited opportunities for extrinsic rewards (e.g., high competition for advancement and the associated lack of promotional opportunities), which operated as internal stressors in this analysis. To offset the lack of extrinsic rewards, developing internal rewards for recognition and support for good work is critical to making officers internally motivated (Byrd et al., 2000). To develop internal rewards, an increase in participatory management would be crucial, which in turn would promote their intrinsic motivation and job satisfaction.
Probation officers hold a unique position within the criminal justice system, which requires officers to offer a “helping hand” while controlling offenders. To be truly effective, probation involves the development of a degree of trust between officers and offenders. However, such development is more difficult in organizations where employee turnover is high. The results from this analysis indicate that probation executives should integrate participatory management practices into their daily operations and strategic plans in order to reduce staff turnover and increase public safety.
The present study has three limitations which should be addressed in future studies. First, this study used a purposive sample because the sampling frame of all federal probation officers in the United States was not available. Therefore, the findings from this study should be interpreted with some caution, since the absence of data from a national sample precludes an assessment of sample representativeness. A future study utilizing EPSEM (randomized selection) techniques would enhance the generalizability of the results. Second, all studies related to probation turnover intention thus far have been crosssectional, not guaranteeing a true causal model of complex voluntary turnover processes. Therefore, future research using long-term longitudinal data could determine reciprocal and spurious effects of variables and also supplement findings from cross-section data. Finally, the results from regression and path analyses indicated that nearly 60 percent of the variance in each analysis was unexplained, reflecting a need for additional individual and organizational variables. A growing body of recent theoretical and empirical research supports the notion that organizational commitment is a better predictor of turnover intention than job satisfaction, and that organizational commitment mediates a causal link between job satisfaction and employee turnover (Griffeth et al., 2000). Hence, future research should include organizational commitment in its causal modeling approach to better explain the relationship between work environment factors and employee turnover.