Differences in Job-related Stress between Civil and Criminal Court Clerk

• Main Authors: LIAO, Chun-Yu, 廖純瑜
• Other Authors: 周愫嫻
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2008
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/46812206376664512000

碩士 === 國立臺北大學 === 犯罪學研究所 === 96 === ABSTRACT Differences in Job-related Stress between Civil and Criminal Court Clerk by LIAO, Chun-Yu June 2008 ADVISOR(S): Dr. JOU, Susyan DEPARTMENT: GRADUATE SCHOOL OF CRIMINOLOGY MAJOR: CRIMINOLOGY DEGREE: MASTER OF LAW Those who are not in legal circles know more about jobs such as that of judge and prosecutor than clerk, and most people regard the clerk only as a recorder in the court; nothing can be farther from the truth. Partly as a consequence, there is no research focusing on role of the clerk in Taiwan, however there are researches investigating problems related to work stress in other occupations These researches show that factors related to high work stress are: female, unmarried, family conflict, interpersonal relationship, junior, insufficient professional ability, performance evaluation and work loading etc; work stress will influence the body’s physiology, psychology, behavior and interpersonal relationship. In this study, the subject was clerks in civil and criminal recording sections; the researcher introduced their tasks and compared work stress, in order to further understand the causes of stress and to propose suggestions and solutions. Therefore, there are three purposes of this study: (1) to understand the difference between the origins of clerks’ work stress in civil and criminal recording sections, (2) to understand the difference between reactions on the physiology and psychology of clerks in civil and criminal recording sections, and (3) how to reduce their work stress. This study utilized a “questionnaire survey” to investigate clerks in civil and criminal recording sections in Taiwan Taipei, Shilin, and Banciao district courts. Total valid samples were 164. The researcher used statistics analysis software SPSS to analyze the characteristics of samples, compare the origin of work stress of clerks in civil and criminal recording sections, and find out the factors influencing work stress through regression analysis. According to the results, it was found out that the work stress of clerks in civil and criminal recording sections came from: for clerks in criminal recording section, they felt burned out about their jobs; they were not satisfied with their jobs; they did not communicate well with their supervisors; they often felt burned out and did not want to go to work. The frequency of the above-mentioned of clerks of criminal recording section was higher than the one of civil recording section. They had more work stress than clerks in civil recording section when they held special courts or serious case, supported opening a court session, had loading in opening a court session, when they were on duty and when they detained criminals. The differences between clerks of civil and criminal recording sections were listed above; however, those factors did not all have significant influences on stress. Mostly, higher feeling of burnout and lower job satisfaction had significant influences on work stress. For civil recording section, clerks who had more cases, who were female and unmarried, who did not have good interpersonal relationship, who were worried about typing speed, who had long working hours, who were worried about performance evaluation, who would be influenced by judges’ mood in courts had higher stress; for criminal recording section, clerks who were female, who did not have a good family relationship, who had fewer children and who were worried about typing speed had higher stress. A number of recommendations are made: (1) Overtime policy in the court session should be minimised (2) For clerks who take night shift should take one day off on the next day. (3) A Shift system should be carried out. (4) Salary should be adjusted. (5) Shorthand typist facility should be added (6) They should establish an employee welfare committee and cooperate with hospitals. (7) The system of character identification by voice should be improved. (8) Research and evaluation should be reviewed. (9) Acting employee system should be established. (10) Staff development should be enhanced and include stress reduction material. Key Words: court clerk, work stress