Transformational Leadership Skills and Correlates of Prison Warden Job Stress

Abstract

Job stress is related to poor job performance, dissatisfaction, and turnover for correctional officers in the workplace. Despite parallel implications for correctional administrators, an extension of the correctional officer job stress literature to prison wardens is virtually absent. Yet the dynamic correctional environment includes many added challenges for prison wardens that could lead to a stressful work experience. Similar to those of officers, coping mechanisms for prison wardens may include peer support, but the extent of a warden’s transformational leadership skills could be related to a more positive work experience. Results indicate that wardens who perceived themselves as having higher levels of transformational leadership capacity also experienced less job stress. Peer support was unrelated to job stress, but employee trust was a robust correlate. In addition, although corrections tenure was unrelated, a wider breadth of corrections experience (holding treatment and custody positions) was related to less stress.