Intrinsic versus Extrinsic Factors: An Exploration of Canadian Federal Correctional Officer Recruits Motivations toward a Correctional Career

ABSTRACT Correctional services are plagued by poor staff retention, shortages, and high rates of turnover, which represent costly challenges for recruitment, training, and administration. Central to addressing challenges of correctional officer retention and staffing shortages is insight into what motivates individuals to pursue a career in correctional services. Although researchers have looked at the motivations of correctional officers entering the Canadian provincial system, researchers have yet to study the motivations of individuals’ entering the field of correctional services in the Canadian federal correctional system. In the current exploratory study, we apply Herzberg’s theory to investigate federal correctional officer recruits’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivations toward becoming correctional officers with the Correctional Service of Canada. By drawing on the voices of recruits (N = 70) interviewed prior to the start of their employment, we thematically examined their rationales for seeking employment as federal correctional officers, their career aspirations, and their expectations about the correctional officer job. Our examination identified three overarching themes: the first tied more purely to extrinsic motivations, the second purely intrinsic, and the third more closely resembled a “drifting” phenomenon. We discuss the results in the context of officer recruitment and retention.