This thesis is a descriptive theoretical study dealing with the work of the Interpreting Studies scholar, teacher and interpreter Barbara Moser-Mercer. This thesis analyses individual stages of her research and follows the development of her opinions and research interests. It looks into Moser-Mercer's dominant research areas - i.e. interpreting expertise, quality and interpreters' working conditions - and also introduces her model of interpreting and outlines its use in teaching. Furthermore, this thesis explores Moser-Mercer's teaching and interpreting projects and, last but not least, addresses her contribution to interdisciplinary cooperation. Key words: Barbara Moser-Mercer, interdisciplinarity, quality in interpreting, working conditions, adaptive expertise, information processing model

Thesis (M. Tech. Business Administration, Faculty of Management Sciences--(Vaal University of Technology, 2010)). / Organisations are starting to think and operate more strategically and are beginning to realise that their survival depends on information. Information management relates to management activities concerning information. Information and the supporting systems are important business assets for establishing and leveraging information-based resources and competence, which allow organisations to compete and survive in the current competitive economic markets. In order for the information management department to support business optimally, they need to retain existing talented people who have the essential knowledge, expertise and competencies to do the work. Adding to this is the need to make the job environment more attractive to current and future job applicants. In order to do this, the management team of the information management department need to understand why people behave as they do. They must have the ability to control, direct and change behaviour, as well as be able to use the right motivation to make the job environment within the information management department more attractive. The purpose of this study is to examine staff retention in an information management environment. The literature study explores the theoretical framework of staff retention, motivation and job satisfaction. A quantitative research approach was followed and a questionnaire was used to elicit data from 50 employees working in an information management department of a petrochemical organisation. The questionnaire was used to measure employee job satisfaction levels and to identify job satisfaction factors. The findings reveal that communication, good working conditions, job security, opportunities for learning and growth, and recognition are seen in this order as being the most important job satisfaction factors. It is clear that employee expectations for job satisfaction are not met in the areas of recognition and good supervision/leadership. In addition, it is noted that employee expectations for job satisfaction are only partially met in the areas of communication, opportunities for learning and growth, promotional opportunities and compensation/pay. The value of this research is that it makes a useful contribution to the current knowledge of the management team in the information management department. The research information collected through this study can be used to establish the optimal mix of motivating factors in order to ensure that current employees are retained and that a sought-after working environment for new appointments is created.

A partir d’une problématique suscitée par l’élaboration de l’Observatoire des Conditions de Travail de l’Agence Nationale pour l’Emploi (ANPE) auquel nous avons participé en Convention Industrielle de Formation par la Recherche (CIFRE), la thèse retrace les généalogies conceptuelles qui ont amené aux visions actuelles du concept de « conditions de travail », qui s’est institutionnalisé en France vers 1970 en restant sans définition. Marqué au niveau de sa structure par une conception factorielle issue de la division du travail, et par une conception séquentielle issue du taylorisme qui s’y est superposée, il se constitue progressivement au niveau de son sens dans les débats du XIXe siècle dans une dialectique entre droit-liberté et pouvoir-domination qui s’apparente à une conception politique des conditions pour le travail, subsumée à partir du mouvement de rationalisation du début du XXe siècle par une conception organisationnelle de conditions entièrement normées ou normables. Ces conditions tendent alors à être traitées dans des négociations institutionnelles, en désadhérence de la dialectique permanente et sans cesse renouvelée du normatif et du normé dans l’activité. Cette distance entre le concept et la vie est une usurpation épistémologique dont nous proposons le dépassement par une modélisation ergologique du concept mettant en visibilité les multiples entités de débats de normes, et donc de valeurs, du micro au macro dans l’espace social. Ce mode de traitement renouvelé du concept au profit de ceux qui travaillent, favoriserait l’émergence d’alternatives laissées en pénombre dans l’activité, sources potentielles de performance pour les entités productives. / Stemming from an issue concerning the creation of the observatory of the working conditions within the French National Employment Agency (ANPE) that we participated in as beneficiary of an industrial research grant (CIFRE), the thesis retraces the conceptual genealogies that led to the current views on the concept of « working conditions », which was institutionalized in France around 1970 but remain undefined. Initially structured according to a factorial understanding based on the division of labour, then extended using sequential design derived from taylorism, its meaning is progressively built during the nineteenth century through dialectics between rights-freedom and authority-domination which refers to a political understanding of the working conditions, subsumed from the early twentieth century’s rationalization movement by an organizational design of fully standardized or standardizable conditions. These conditions then tend to be exploited within institutional negotiations, being disconnected from continuously renewed dialectics between normative and normed in activity. This gap between the concept and real life is an epistemological usurpation which we propose to surpass using an ergological way of modeling the concept that brings visibility to multiple groups of debates regarding standards, and therefore values, from micro to macro in the social space. This renewed way of addressing the concept which benefits to those who work, could promote the emergence of alternatives left in the semi-darkness of the activity, potential sources of performance for productive groups.

In view of levelling the playing field between foreign and local employers in the host country, the European Commission proposed in March 2016 to revise the Posting of Workers Directive (PWD) 96/71/EC. The amended PWD (EU) 2018/957, that was adopted mid-2018, introduces some significant changes in order to combat the shortcomings resulting from the original PWD, strengthening the importance of ensuring fair competition (between local and foreign employers) and improving the protection of workers. In a nutshell, the PWD aims at promoting the principle of equal pay for equal work in the same place, especially by extending the so-called hard nucleus of working conditions and introducing a provision for long-term postings. This new legislation will be implemented throughout the EU as of mid-2020. The following article aims to investigate the extent to which the changes demand national implementation from an Austrian point-of-view; the latter could serve as a guidance.

Qui sont les vendeurs des magasins du grand commerce et quel est leur quotidien ? A partird’une enquête ethnographique réalisée, par observation participante et par entretiens dans ungrand magasin parisien, cette thèse répond à ces questions et apporte deux contributionsprincipales. La thèse contribue d’abord à la sociologie du travail de la vente en magasin. Ens’intéressant aux conditions de travail des vendeurs, à leurs modes d’emploi, à leurs pratiquesde travail, à leur rapport au travail, et notamment à l’ambivalence que nourrit la relation avecun client, elle réalise une sociologie du travail d’une activité professionnelle peu étudiéejusqu’ici. Elle en montre le caractère bigarré. Par certains aspects, ce travail est profondémentenraciné dans le salariat d’exécution, proche notamment d’une figure professionnelle àlaquelle les employés de commerce sont couramment identifiés, la « caissière ». Mais, dans lemême temps, ce travail s’en arrache en raison de l’autonomie et de la richesse que disentéprouver les vendeurs devant certaines tâches, comme la mise en valeur de la marchandise oula relation avec les clients. La thèse contribue aussi à la sociologie des employés decommerce. Armée d’une analyse du travail et des trajectoires de ceux qui l’effectuent, la thèsemontre que les vendeurs des grands magasins composent un fragment singulier parmi les« employés de commerce ». Ils composent une « petite aristocratie ». Mais la thèse rappellequ’il s’agit d’une « petite aristocratie » sous tension. En effet, celle-ci voit ses attributsglorieux malmenés par des rationalisations du travail et des transformations dans lesconditions d’emploi. / Who are the sales assistants and what does their day at work look like? Based on anethnographic survey (participant observation in a parisian department store and interviews),this thesis answers these questions and contributes to the sociology of work and the sociologyof the clerks. Firstly, by exploring the working and employment conditions of the salesmen,their technics and savoir-faire, the way they see their work, it sheds light on a work rarelyobserved by the sociology of work. Secondly, the thesis contributes to the sociology of clerks.It analyses a part of this group that can be seen as belonging to an “in-between” area: betweenthe most insecure job and the steady and qualified work.

Le statut du personnel de la SNCF est régulièrement remis en cause depuis les années 1980. De nombreuses idées reçues, parfois très caricaturales, sont véhiculées à son sujet. Cette thèse de doctorat propose de déconstruire la mythologie qui entoure le statut du personnel des cheminots français des grands réseaux, puis de la SNCF, à travers l’étude de sa genèse, de son histoire, de la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle à la veille de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, ainsi que de sa mémoire. Cette thèse entend saisir la réalité mouvante des règles déterminant les conditions d’emploi, de travail et de retraite des cheminots, mettre en lumière les logiques processuelles et contextuelles qui caractérisent leur évolution sur le long terme, et interroger, au prisme de l’identité de la corporation, les discours et représentations qui leur sont attachés. Ce travail de thèse a été réalisé à partir des archives des compagnies et de la SNCF, des archives des administrations publiques et policières, des archives syndicales et parlementaires, de la presse, de traités techniques et juridiques, d’œuvres littéraires et de témoignages personnels (mémoires, discours, journaux politiques). / The SNCF Staff Regulations was questioned since the 1980’s. Popular misconceptions, sometimes grotesques, are still widespread. Through the study of its history, from the second half of the 19th century to the eve of the World War II, and its remembrance, this PhD thesis proposes to deconstruct the railway workers Staff Regulations mythology. This study aims at understanding the moving reality of the rules concerning employment, working conditions and retirement, and highlighting the processual and contextual logics that define its long-term evolution. Discourses about and representations of these rules must be revisited through the prism of the railway workers’ identity too. This PhD thesis is based on historical records from railway companies and SNCF, public authorities, unions, legal and technical manuals, literature, press and personal testimonies.

Under år 2015 genomförde en forskargrupp vid Luleå tekniska universitet en landsomfattande undersökning av gymnasielärares arbetsvillkor. Undersökningen bestod av 57 kvantitativa- och två kvalitativa delfrågor (Parding, m. fl., 2018). Den här undersökningen baseras på kvalitativ tolkning av 1.443 gymnasielärares öppna svar på de två öppna kvalitativa del-frågorna. Studien avser att identifiera faktorer som de offentlig- och aktiebolagsanställda gymnasielärarna anser utgör såväl möjligheter som hinder och utmaningar i deras yrke avseende arbetsmiljö och arbetsvillkor. Studien avser även att studera huruvida det föreligger skillnader och/eller likheter mellan gymnasielärares uppfattningar utifrån huvudmannaskap och vilka faktorer som påverkar gymnasielärarnas beslut att stanna respektive lämna yrket. För att bättre förstå och förklara studiens resultat nyttjas Robert Karasek och Töres Theorells (1990) två- och tredimensionella modeller avseende psykosocial arbetsmiljö. Resultatet tyder på att det råder en utbredd samstämmighet kring flertalet uppfattningar om yrket bland såväl offentlig- som aktiebolagsanställda gymnasielärare. Av resultatet framgår att majoriteten av gymnasielärarna, oavsett huvuvdman, upplever kommunaliseringen, friskole-reformen, de högt ställda kraven, de administrativa arbetsuppgifterna och bristen på kring-personal i skolan som yrkets största hinder. Vidare framgår det att de flesta gymnasielärare anser att lönenivån, yrkets status och bristande socialt stöd från skolledare utgör hinder i deras arbete. De anser därtill att det är inom dessa områden som de viktigaste förbättringsmöjlig-heterna finns och faktorerna anges samtidigt som skäl till att lämna yrket. Gymnasielärarna efterfrågar dessutom mer kompetensutveckling och samverkan i allmänhet och inom det egna undervisningsämnet i synnerhet. Merparten av gymnasielärarna anser att undervisningen är det bästa med yrket och är anledningen till att de stannar kvar i yrket. Av resultatet kan inte tydliga skillnader skönjas mellan offentlig- och aktiebolagsanställda gymnasielärares upp-fattningar kring yrket. De skillnader som kan skönjas i resultatet kan snarare tolkas bero på den enskilde gymnasielärarens specifika arbetssituation än på huvudmannaskap. Resultatet stödjer Karasek och Theorells (1990) teorier om att den psykosociala arbetsmiljön påverkas av gymnasielärarnas upplevelse av krav och kontroll i det egna arbetet och socialt stöd från ledare och kollegor. / During the year of 2015, a research group at Luleå University of Technology conducted a nationwide survey of upper secondary school teachers' working conditions. The study consisted of 57 quantitative- and two qualitative sub-questions (Parding, et al., 2018). This study is based on qualitative interpretation of 1,443 upper secondary school teachers' open answers to the two open qualitative sub-questions. The study intends to identify factors that public- and private sector employed upper secondary school teachers consider to be opportunities, obstacles and challenges in their profession, in regards of work environment and working conditions. The study also intends to study whether there are differences and/or similarities between public- and private sector employed upper secondary school teachers' perceptions about their work situation. Moreover the study intends to study what factors affect the upper secondary school teachers' decision to stay or leave the profession. In order to better understand and explain the study's results, Robert Karasek and Töres Theorells (1990) two- and three dimensional models regarding psychosocial work environment are used. The result suggests that there is widespread consensus among the public- and the private sector employed upper secondary school teachers’ perceptions of the profession. The result shows that the majority of upper secondary school teachers experience the municipalization, the free-school reform, the high demands, the administrative tasks and the lack of staff in the school as the greatest obstacle to the profession. Furthermore, most of the upper secondary school teachers in this study consider that the salary level, the profession's status and lack of support from school leaders constitute obstacles in their work. They also consider that it is in these areas that the most important improvement opportunities exist, but also constitute reasons for leaving the profession. The upper secondary school teachers also demand more skill development and collaboration in general and within their own teaching subject in particular. Most of the upper secondary school teachers indicate that teaching is the part of the profession that is the profession's main merit and is the reason why they stay in the profession. In the result, no clear differences can be discerned between public and private sector upper secondary school teachers' perceptions of the profession. The differences that can be discerned in the result can rather be interpreted due to the specific work situation of the individual upper secondary school teacher than to the management. The result supports Karasek and Theorells (1990) theories that the psychosocial work environment is influenced by the upper secondary school teachers' experience of demand and control at work and social support from leaders and colleagues. During the year of 2015, a research group at Luleå University of Technology conducted a nationwide survey of upper secondary school teachers' working conditions. The study consisted of 57 quantitative- and two qualitative sub-questions (Parding, et al., 2018). This study is based on qualitative interpretation of 1,443 upper secondary school teachers' open answers to the two open qualitative sub-questions. The study intends to identify factors that public- and private sector employed upper secondary school teachers consider to be opportunities, obstacles and challenges in their profession, in regards of work environment and working conditions. The study also intends to study whether there are differences and/or similarities between public- and private sector employed upper secondary school teachers' perceptions about their work situation. Moreover the study intends to study what factors affect the upper secondary school teachers' decision to stay or leave the profession. In order to better understand and explain the study's results, Robert Karasek and Töres Theorells (1990) two- and three dimensional models regarding psychosocial work environment are used. The result suggests that there is widespread consensus among the public- and the private sector employed upper secondary school teachers’ perceptions of the profession. The result shows that the majority of upper secondary school teachers experience the municipalization, the free-school reform, the high demands, the administrative tasks and the lack of staff in the school as the greatest obstacle to the profession. Furthermore, most of the upper secondary school teachers in this study consider that the salary level, the profession's status and lack of support from school leaders constitute obstacles in their work. They also consider that it is in these areas that the most important improvement opportunities exist, but also constitute reasons for leaving the profession. The upper secondary school teachers also demand more skill development and collaboration in general and within their own teaching subject in particular. Most of the upper secondary school teachers indicate that teaching is the part of the profession that is the profession's main merit and is the reason why they stay in the profession. In the result, no clear differences can be discerned between public and private sector upper secondary school teachers' perceptions of the profession. The differences that can be discerned in the result can rather be interpreted due to the specific work situation of the individual upper secondary school teacher than to the management. The result supports Karasek and Theorells (1990) theories that the psychosocial work environment is influenced by the upper secondary school teachers' experience of demand and control at work and social support from leaders and colleagues.

O objeto deste estudo é o trabalho das categorias da enfermagem sob a organização pós-fordista no capitalismo financeirizado. Associamos a mundialização do capital e a predominância financeira à expansão dos serviços de saúde no Brasil. Nesse sentido, discutimos as características do trabalho coletivo em saúde e das categorias de enfermagem. Abordamos a relação geral e particular do trabalho em saúde e problematizamos a leitura do trabalho em enfermagem nos moldes tayloristas. Os estudos de caso concentram-se em três hospitais localizados Região Metropolitana de São Paulo com gestões distintas: administração pública; administração terceirizada para Organização Social de Saúde (OSS); e administração privada. Nessas unidades, através de etnografia e da realização de entrevistas com os profissionais, caracterizamos o tipo de regime de trabalho pela abordagem do tipo de vínculo empregatício; da remuneração; sobre transferências, promoções e demissões; das características do absenteísmo; da relação com a chefia e da ação coletiva. Estritamente, sobre o processo de trabalho, abordamos o predomínio relacional do ato do cuidado, a influência da tecnologia, os erros procedimentais e a saúde dos trabalhadores. Em nossa visão, a conversão dos serviços de saúde em áreas de valorização do capital e o subfinanciamento do Estado configuram a relação desproporcional entre a demanda de usuários e a quantidade incipiente de trabalhadores que seria o modus operandis do trabalho em enfermagem. Desse modo, o processo de trabalho fundamenta-se no fluxo tensionado, gerando sobrecarga e intensificação, consequentemente, a incidência de erros, o desgaste físico-psicológico e a frustração para os trabalhadores. / The object of this study is the work of the nursing practice\'s categories under the post-fordism organization into the financial-funding capitalism. We associated the globalization of capital and the financial dominance to the expansion of the field of health services in Brazil. Under this view, we discuss the characteristics of team work and the categories in nursing practice, the general and private relationship into the field and problematize the reading of the nursing practice under the light of the taylorism. The case studies concentrate in three hospitals of different administrative methods: public; through Social Health Organization (OSS); and private administration in the metropolitan region of Sao Paulo. In these units, through ethnography and interviews with professionals, we characterize the type of work regimen by analyzing the employment network; the remuneration; the transfers, promotions and dismissals; the characteristics of the absentees; the relation with the superiors and the team action. Strictly, about our process of work, we address the predominance of the act of caring, the influence of the technology, the procedure errors and the healthcare of the workers. In our point of view, the conversion of the health services into fields of capital appreciation and the sub-financing of the State configure an imbalanced relationship between the demand of users and the incipient amount of workers that would be the modus operandis of the nursing practice. Thus, the process of work lays the foundations of the tensioned flux flux tendu of the reactivity to the context, generating overcharge and intensification, therefore the incidence of mistakes, physical-psychological distress and frustration to the workers.

O objeto deste estudo são as práticas de Atenção Básica (AB) desenvolvidas nos serviços de saúde voltadas para pessoas e grupos sociais que consomem drogas de forma prejudicial. Este objeto foi recortado a partir do referencial teórico da Saúde Coletiva e se conforma na interface entre as políticas públicas voltadas para a população que faz uso prejudicial de drogas e a realidade concreta dos serviços de saúde. O estudo tem por objetivo geral analisar as práticas voltadas para consumidores problemáticos de drogas na AB, a partir do levantamento dessas práticas junto a trabalhadores de uma UBS da região periférica do município de São Paulo. Trata-se de estudo qualitativo, de natureza descritiva e analítica, que se desenvolveu na perspectiva dialético-crítica. A coleta de dados foi realizada a partir de entrevistas semiestruturadas e individuais com 10 trabalhadores de uma UBS mista, ou seja, que atua com a Estratégia de Saúde da Família (ESF) e com o modelo tradicional de produção dos serviços de saúde. As práticas desenvolvidas pelos trabalhadores e direcionadas aos usuários de drogas são analisadas a partir da categoria analítica processo de trabalho, que permite analisar os modos e as dificuldades de operacionalização das políticas públicas nos espaços concretos de produção dos serviços de saúde. Os resultados mostram que: 1) os trabalhadores desenvolvem o processo de trabalho, na perspectiva funcionalista da moderna saúde pública, que compreende o consumo de drogas como doença e considera usuários de drogas como desviantes; 2) as práticas existentes são consideradas frágeis e os trabalhadores valorizam muito a formação técnico-clínica, que em suas opiniões proporcionaria melhores respostas para as demandas relacionadas ao uso de drogas; 3) reproduz-se um ciclo infértil de explicação sobre a incapacidade e as sensações de fracasso que tomam conta do discurso de muitos trabalhadores que lidam com demandas relacionadas ao consumo prejudicial de drogas; 4) todo o processo de trabalho parece ficar centrado num único elemento, o trabalhador em si, já que os demais elementos não se encontram estruturados para atender a demanda. Pode-se concluir que as formas como se organizam os processos de trabalho na AB e como se estrutura o processo de produção dos serviços de saúde brasileiro dificulta e/ou impede o acesso da população usuária de drogas à rede de atenção à saúde. A AB carece de elementos estruturais inerentes ao processo de produção em saúde, e da dinamicidade interna aos processos de trabalho, que favoreçam a implementação de práticas voltadas aos indivíduos e grupos sociais que usam drogas de forma prejudicial. Este trabalho contribui com a finalidade do estudo de promover denúncia em relação à fragilidade das práticas desenvolvidas na AB frente às desafiadoras e crescentes demandas relacionadas ao consumo de drogas pela população. / The object of this study was the practices developed at Primary Health Care services focused on individuals and social groups who use drugs in a harmful way. The study object derived from the theoretical framework of collective health and was constructed at the interface between public policies focused on the population that uses harmful drugs and the reality of health services. The aim of the study was to analyze the practices towards drug users at Primary Health Care based on a survey of these practices with workers of a Primary Health Center (PHC) in the outskirts of São Paulo. It is a qualitative, descriptive and analytical research developed within a critical-dialectical approach. Data were collected from semi structured interviews with 10 workers of a PHC, which has two different health care models, namely: the Family Health Strategy and the traditional model of primary health services. The practices developed by workers and directed towards drug users were analyzed from the analytical category of the work process, which allows the analysis of the modes and difficulties to operationalizing public policies as practices that take place in the real spaces of the health production process. Results show that: 1) workers develop the work process within the functionalist perspective of the modern public health, which understands drug consumption as a disease and considers users as deviants; 2) the existing practices are actually considered fragile and the workers greatly value technical and clinical training that in their opinions would provide better responses to the demands related to drug use; 3) a cycle of infertile explanation about the incapacity and the feeling of failure of the workers who deal with demands related to drug use is reproduced; 4) the entire work process seems to be focused on a single element, the workers itself since the other elements seem not to be structured. It may be concluded that the ways the work process is organized in the PHC and how the process of the Brazilian primary health services is structured makes it difficult or constitute a barrier for drug users to access the health care network. The PHC lacks structural elements inherent to the health care process and internal dynamics of the work processes that favor the implementation of practices directed towards individuals and social groups who use drugs in a harmful way. The purpose of the study is to report the fragility of the practices developed at the PHC due to the challenging and increasing demands of drug consumption.

O objetivo da pesquisa foi estudar a psicologia dos Agentes de Segurança Penitenciária (ASPs), como integrantes de um grupo profissional no exercício de sua função no interior do cárcere. O referencial teórico foi a Teoria de Campo de Kurt LEWIN, com destaque para os conceitos de espaço de vida, pessoa e ambiente, regiões, barreiras, locomoção e tempo. O objeto de estudo foi 27 ASPs de duas Penitenciárias masculinas do Estado de São Paulo. Esses agentes foram observados em três situações de trabalho, especialmente nas portarias e nas gaiolas das penitenciárias, durante 120 horas, ou dez plantões. As observações, de matiz etnográfico, que incluíram ações, gestos, palavras e ambiente físico, foram registradas em cadernos de campo. A análise das observações foi realizada mediante a leitura dos conceitos lewinianos, subsidiada por outros estudos das prisões e das relações grupais no interior do cárcere. A sistematização das análises permitiu inferir que: i) o ambiente das prisões não é apenas perigoso e insalubre, como também lugar de trabalho precarizado e pauperizado; ii) as pessoas dos ASPs ressentem-se da condição inadequada de trabalho, mas poucos conseguem, no sentido da transformação do ambiente; iii) as más condições de trabalho levam à precarização da própria existência pessoal dos ASPs; iv) o ambiente da prisão leva à vitimização das pessoas, sejam funcionários ou presos. Os resultados foram discutidos à luz dos conceitos enunciados, que permitiram esclarecer, do ponto de vista psicossocial, o exercício da função do ASP como identidade profissional paradoxal: ora agente repressor, ora agente ressocializador. Essa ambiguidade característica resulta de uma situação de equilíbrio precário entre regiões de valências opostas e entre forças de natureza diversa, além de ser resultante da interação com o ambiente, que inclui o grupo dos ASPs e o grupo dos presos / The aim of this research was analyzing the psychology of correctional officers as members of a professional group carrying out their duty inside the prison. The theoretical reference was Kurt Lewins field theory, highlighting the concepts of life space, individual and environment, regions, barriers, locomotion and time. The purpose of the investigation was 27 correctional officers from two male correction facilities in Sao Paulo State. These officers were observed in three working situations, mainly in the gatehouses and in the prison cages, for 120 hours, or ten shifts. The observations, with ethnographic tone, which included actions, gestures, words and physical environment, were recorded in field notebooks. The analysis of the observations was accomplished through the reading of Lewinian concepts, helped by other studies on prisons and group relations inside the correction facilities. The systematization of the analyses helped inferring that: i) the environment of the correctional facilities is not only dangerous and unhealthy, but also fragile and meager; ii) the correctional officers, as human beings, are resentful of the inadequate working conditions, but few succeed, in the sense of environment transformation; iii) the bad working conditions lead to an impoverishment of the correctional officers personal existence itself; iv) the prison environment induces the victim hood of the individuals, officers and prisoners alike. The results were discussed in the light of the declared concepts, which allowed explain, in the psychosocial point of view, the correctional officers duty role as a paradoxical professional identity: sometimes a repressor agent, sometimes a resocializer agent. This distinctive ambiguity results from a precariously balanced situation among areas with opposed validity and among several different forces, and it is also a result of the interaction with the environment, which includes the group of correctional officers and the group of prisoners