Work Engagement among Prison Officers. The Role of Individual and Organizational Factors in the Polish and Indonesian Penitentiary Systems

Andrzej Piotrowski, Ewa Sygit-Kowalkowska and Imaduddin Hamzah
Additional contact information
Andrzej Piotrowski: Institute of Psychology, University of Gdańsk, Jana Bażyńskiego 4 St., 80-309 Gdańsk, Poland
Ewa Sygit-Kowalkowska: Department of Psychology, Kazimierz Wielki University, Leopolda Staffa 1 St., 85-867 Bydgoszcz, Poland
Imaduddin Hamzah: Community Guidance, Politeknik Ilmu Pemasyarakatan, Jl. Raya Gandul Cinere4, 16514 Depok, Indonesia

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 21, 1-15

Abstract: The literature on work engagement among prison officers (POs) remains rather scarce, and there are no analyses on the factors determining this phenomenon. The current study aimed to examine the relationships between work engagement, subjective well-being, coping strategies, and organizational factors utilizing the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-9), the Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced (COPE), and Cantril’s Ladder of Health Scale (CLHS), and involving 312 POs from Poland and 467 POs from Indonesia. Results showed a statistically significant relationship between active coping and work engagement in both groups. Subjective well-being was moderately related to work engagement among Polish POs. Mean work engagement and subjective well-being scores were higher among Indonesian POs. The analyses showed a significant indirect effect of subjective well-being for the relationship between penitentiary unit type, active coping, as well as avoidant behaviors and work engagement in the Polish group. Closed prison officers more often declared higher subjective well-being. Work engagement is a complex psychological phenomenon. There exists a justified need for the analyses to consider personal determinants (e.g., coping strategies) as well as organizational factors related to the POs’ work environment. The literature presents a broad picture of the benefits of studying this phenomenon.

Keywords: prison officers; work engagement; workplace well-being; coping strategies; health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/21/8206/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/21/8206/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:21:p:8206-:d:441029

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().