ABSTRACT

The investigation of an officer subculture was designed to employ three major variables: correctional policy, managerial behavior, and social climate. Research into the officer level was not possible under the training grant, except where Managerial Style was an issue. It is evident that changing officer values about correctional policy involves change in a whole set of organizational variables that at the present time reinforce the Reform preference of Officers. While officers will find rewarding the social consequences of democratic management, they do not find rewarding the social consequences of the correctional policy desired by their superiors. As the project began, the officers were preoccupied with how inmates or superiors impinged upon them, placing them in double-bind situations that could not be resolved. Officers in the discussion group had a commitment to gathering and using information about new correctional policy and opposing points of view in the institution.