Satisfied and Committed Prison Officers? A Qualitative Exploration of Job Satisfaction and Organisational Commitment among Prison Officers in Ghana

Abstract

This chapter aims to contribute to the limited literature on prison officer job satisfaction and organisational commitment in Sub-saharan Africa - predominantly collectivist societies. Drawing on interviews with 78 frontline prison officers in Ghana, this study documents the sources of job satisfaction and organisational commitment and their impact on prison officers. While intrinsic aspects of prison work involving opportunities for inmate rehabilitation, benefit-finding, recognition and praise for work conduced towards job satisfaction, extrinsic motivators such as salaries and environmental working conditions engendered job dissatisfaction. On organisational commitment, it emerged that all three dimensions of commitment – affective, normative and continuance were important components of organisational commitment. However, while affective commitment engendered high commitment, normative and continuance dimensions of prison work contributed to low organisational commitment