The congruence of values and occupational stress in prison guards

Congruence of values and occupational stress

Abstract

Assuming that organizations and prison guards possess a set of values about the best way to reduce crime - corresponding to a rehabilitative and/or punitive approach - which can either coincide or not, is intended to exploit, based on the P-E Fit Model, the relationship between congruence of values and occupational stress experienced by Portuguese prison guards. The data were collected through documental analysis and individual semi structured interviews performed to eight prison guards. It is concluded that the values punish and resocialize are independent and interact with each other and that the congruence of values, which manifests itself through three independent concepts (fit, misfit and conflict of values) is a critical element of prisons. In fact, we found two distinct types of conflict and the absence of fit is not an indicator of conflict. These results are interpreted considering the theoretical and practical implications for organizations and prison guards.