The Psychological Aspect of the Formation of Professionalism in the

Employees of the Operational Service

Yuri Evgenievich Suslov

1,2 a

and Alexander Fedorovich Fedorov

1,3 b

Research Institute of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia, Moscow, Russian Federation

RSSU, Moscow, Russian Federation

Vladimir State University, Vladimir, Russian Federation

Keywords: Operational-search activity, operational officer, correctional institution, productivity, professionalism, penal

system.

Abstract: Introduction: in the work, the main attention is focused on the problem of the formation and development of

professionalism among employees carrying out operational-search activities. The authors analyze the

available scientific approaches and ideas about professionalism in operational investigative work, taking into

account its specifics. The article identifies the factors that promote or hinder the formation of operational

employees as professionals. Purpose: to identify the psychological factors of optimization of the process of

development and self-development of professionalism among employees carrying out operational-search

activities. Methods: general scientific research methods were used (analysis, synthesis, comparison,

generalization). The basis of the work was formed by the data of the survey, in which the employees of the

operational services of correctional institutions of various territorial bodies of the Federal Penitentiary Service

of Russia took part. Results: the study made it possible to identify a number of factors that negatively affect

the productivity of operational employees (psychological; organizational; professional; social). The analysis

of the results showed that the satisfaction index is high among operational employees with a high level of

productivity in their professional activities. Conclusions: the productivity of the activities of the employees

carrying out operational-search activities will contribute to the achievement of a high professional level in

their work. The results of the study will improve the level of professional training of employees of correctional

institutions, carrying out operational-search activities. The practical significance of this study lies in the fact

that the results obtained can be used to improve the quality of training of operative correctional officers. Also,

the data obtained can be used in the work of specialists of the penitentiary orientation, heads of penitentiary

institutions in methodological developments.

1 INTRODUCTION

The problem of studying the formation and

development of professionalism has always been in

the scientific and practical focus of attention, which

is due to the high importance of the work tasks being

solved. In the conditions of the modern world, when

changes in the surrounding space occur very

intensively, it becomes quite difficult to achieve and

maintain a professional level of performance of their

official duties. In addition, in addition to the

conditionally "external" changes, the achievement of

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9824-748X

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2261-6511

professionalism in the activities of operational

employees is hampered by its specifics.

The complexity and ambiguity of the nature of

this type of professional activity is reflected in the

expressed interest in it on the part of many scientific

disciplines, primarily, of course, legal. At the same

time, the psychological component is of no less

importance in operational activities. The validity of

this statement is confirmed by the ideas of specialists

who assert already at the beginning of the twentieth

century about the need for operational employees to

use psychological methods in their professional

Suslov, Y. and Fedorov, A.

The Psychological Aspect of the Formation of Professionalism in the Employees of the Operational Service.

DOI: 10.5220/0010633400003152

In Proceedings of the VII International Scientiﬁc-Practical Conference “Criminal Law and Operative Search Activities: Problems of Legislation, Science and Practice” (CLOSA 2021), pages

189-194

ISBN: 978-989-758-532-6; ISSN: 2184-9854

189

activities (Gugunsky A.N., 2008). This statement is

still valid today.

In this work, we would like to refer to the specifics

of professional activity and the peculiarities of the

formation and achievement of professionalism

among operational employees of correctional

institutions of the penal system of the Russian

Federation (hereinafter - UIS). The operational-

search activities carried out in the penal system are

aimed at ensuring the safety of convicts, staff of the

correctional institution and other persons. This is

expressed in the prevention and suppression of

criminal intentions and actions, as well as in the

identification and prosecution of persons who have

committed criminal acts in places of deprivation of

liberty (Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

Those. operational-search activity in the penal system

is a part of the general state system of law

enforcement, which also affects the effectiveness of

the influence of this single mechanism (Skuratov

Yu.I., 2019). Achievement of these goals is currently

difficult due to the changing conditions of the

surrounding reality, in particular, due to technical

progress. In addition to improving living conditions,

technical innovations, unfortunately, are actively

used to carry out illegal actions. So, for example, for

UIS, an urgent problem is the active use of

quadrocopters and drones for the transfer of

prohibited items (cell phones, SIM cards, chargers,

etc.) (Antipov A.N., 2018). You should also take into

account the objective need for the implementation of

digitalization processes in the UIS (Kaluzhina M.A.,

Makarenko T.D., Spasennikova M.G., Vedernikova

T.I., 2019). In order to adequately respond to modern

criminal challenges, employees need to achieve and

maintain an appropriate professional level, to become

professionals. But before proceeding to consider the

problem of professionalism of operational

employees, one should consider this phenomenon in

general terms, study the existing scientific ideas about

it.

Recently, many works have been completed that

have been devoted to the study of professionalism.

The problem of the formation of professionalism in

activity has found its reflection in a number of studies

of Russian psychologists (V.A. Bodrov, A.N. Rean,

E.A. Klimov, V.G. Zazykin, N.V. Kuzmina, A.A.

Derkach, A.K. Markova, V.D.Shadrikov). As it

becomes clear from the available works, in the

scientific space, discussions about what should be

understood by professionalism, how to objectively

assess the presence or absence of a specialist's

achievement of a similar level, as well as what

qualities a person must have in order to achieve

professionalism in the chosen activity, are still

underway. since. Various studies allow us to conclude

that, firstly, a person has general abilities that allow

him to be productive and successful in professional

activity, and secondly, each professional activity has

its own specific abilities and qualities, the presence

and development of which will allow a person to

achieve a level of professionalism in the chosen field

(Volkova T.I., 2019; Petrova E.A., Sokolovskaya

I.E., Akimova N.N., Romanova A.V., 2020).

Creativity is noted as one of the qualities of a

personality that contributes to the formation of a

professional (Ivanchenko G.V., 2005).

Also, many researchers note that professionalism

is not limited exclusively to a set of special

knowledge, skills and abilities. And that

professionalism is, first of all, a complex internal

system that includes a formed professional

consciousness, which in turn also consists of a

number of components. For example, professional

consciousness includes the knowledge of a

professional specialist about the goals, means, plans

of professional activity, parameters and norms for

assessing its results as a whole. Researchers point to

the conditionality of professional consciousness, and,

consequently, of the profession itself, by its content

(Tsvyk V.A., 2009).

Separately, I would like to draw attention to the

opinions of some authors dealing with the problems

of professionalism, claim that it lies at the basis of

civilizational development, i.e. they attach

fundamental importance to professionalism on a

human scale. The development of the state, the

effectiveness of the functioning of its main structures

directly depends on the level of professional

competence of their employees (Lebedev N.Yu.,

Lebedeva Yu.V., 2019). They also believe that a

professional person is an effective, self-organizing

system (Belov V., 2002). He is able to independently

set himself a task, the solution of which is necessary

in the context of the development of all professional

activities. For him, the actions performed are

inseparable from the result obtained, and the result

obtained is marked by an understanding of the social

importance of the work performed (Ivanova N.L.,

Petko B.B., 2020).

At the same time, it should be understood that the

development of professionalism is in a complex

ambiguous relationship with the general vector of the

orientation of the individual, and, in addition to

achieving high results in professional activity, the

reverse side of this process is the development of

various destructive consequences for the individual

(Sadovnikova N.O., Mirzaakhmedov A.M., 2019).

CLOSA 2021 - VII INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC-PRACTICAL CONFERENCE “CRIMINAL LAW AND OPERATIVE SEARCH

ACTIVITIES: PROBLEMS OF LEGISLATION, SCIENCE AND PRACTICE”

190

Even Pitirim Sorokin noted the presence in

professional development not only of development

itself, but also a component that deforms the

personality. He noted the presence of professional

deformation in almost all types of activity, especially

if they are associated with increased risk,

responsibility, psycho-emotional overload (Temnova

L.V., Fayman N.S., 2019; Sorokin Π.Α., 1994).

A.K. Markov, F.S. Ismagilova, Yu.P.

Povarenkov, L.M. Mitina, A.R. Fonarev, E.A.

Klimov, E.F. Zeer note that the psychological

phenomenon of "professionalism" can be revealed in

the analysis of professional activity. The leading

factor in its achievement lies in the creative

orientation of the professional activity of the

operational officer of the penal system. Increasing the

professionalism of operational staff requires the use

of innovative technologies, new forms and types of

approaches to working with convicts, which can

provide an opportunity for each operational officer to

achieve professional success. The development of

self-realization and successful adaptation depend on

the quality of the professional activity of the

operational officer, the degree of his training, which

should be carried out taking into account the

requirements of the present. The psychological

direction of studying the formation of a professional

can make it possible to create new algorithms, models

and technologies for personality development

(Fedorov A.F., Suslov Yu.E., 2017).

In general, we can note the idea, common for most

authors, about the dependence of the essential content

of professionalism on the actual conditions of the

surrounding reality, which, in turn, necessitates

scientific theoretical and practical research, which

makes it possible to determine not only the semantic

content of the concept of "professionalism" at a

particular time stage, but and understand the vector of

development of ideas about it.

2 MATERIALS AND METHODS

The study was based on the use of general scientific

methods (analysis, synthesis, comparison,

generalization), the results of a theoretical analysis of

scientific literature on the research problem.

Additionally, the results of an empirical study

carried out in the period from 2016 to 2017 were

analyzed. The study involved employees of the

operational service of correctional institutions of the

Voronezh, Vladimir and Ivanovo regions.

The total number of employees who took part in

the survey was 60 people.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

A survey of the personal position of employees

regarding productive professional activity showed

that the majority of respondents (40%) believe that

mutual understanding is necessary in communication

and an element of trust should be present. 8% showed

that in order to develop professionalism, an employee

needs to strive for self-education, that is, an employee

must independently improve his professional level.

The success of professional activity depends on the

ability to interact with the relatives of the convicts and

with those around them.

A survey of operational staff in order to identify

the difficulties of their official activities made it

possible to identify a number of factors that

negatively affect their productivity. They referred to

them: psychological (attitudes of thinking);

organizational (a large amount of functional work,

poor communication with other services);

professional (lack of experience, knowledge, skills);

social (negative impact on the maintenance and

creation of significant social ties). Also, according to

the respondents, the factors influencing the

productivity of professional activity are influenced by

the motives for choosing a profession and

professional orientation. The attitude towards the

chosen profession has a great influence on their

professional development. The study included the

determination of the awareness of the choice of

profession, the significance of negative and positive

factors. The analysis of the results showed that the

satisfaction index is high among operational

employees with a high level of productivity in their

professional activities. In the group of subjects with a

low level of productivity in service activity, the index

of awareness is two times less.

Based on the comparison of the results on the

basis of satisfaction, awareness and sustainability of

the choice of profession, a conclusion can be drawn.

In the group of operative workers with a high level of

productivity, awareness and satisfaction were

observed with a rather low stability of this choice.

Most of the operative employees of correctional

institutions admitted that they liked the profession,

but when asked about a job change, they answered

“yes”. The empirical data obtained confirm the thesis

made by us and indicated above about the dependence

of the achievement of professionalism and the

conditions surrounding the subject of activity. In the

realities of modern society, there is an increase in the

requirements for vocational training. The determining

factor is the ability to self-education and self-

development, to actively participate in the use of

The Psychological Aspect of the Formation of Professionalism in the Employees of the Operational Service

191

innovative technologies. A new quality of

operational-search work is possible with the

participation of the professional competencies of an

operational officer of the penal system. The

employee, with his competence and professionalism,

is a key figure in the operational-search work. Moral

self-improvement contributes to the development of

professionalism (Management Psychology: textbook,

2020). In this regard, the question of the terms of

work with personnel is becoming topical. A

competent UIS employee can talk about significant

progress towards understanding the essence of

professionalism as a psychological phenomenon. The

activities of the operational officer are characterized

by high dynamism, emotional tension, intensity,

stressfulness (Polyakova Ya.N., 2017). In

professional activity, the formation of the psyche as a

whole takes place (Psychology of Management:

textbook, 2020).

Criteria of interaction were identified as a quality

that should be used in professional activities.

Motivational is the key structural criterion.

Awareness of the goal through innovation can be seen

as the employee's desire for professionalism. The

development of innovative activity depends on the

intellectual resource. The innovative activity of

operational employees should be understood as

service professional activity, which is aimed at

finding innovations in order to improve the quality

and expand the range of approaches to organizing the

training of specialists. A number of criteria for

professionalism were identified. Motivational and

communicative criterion, which is concretized using

the following indicators: the presence of a successful

orientation, the presence of tolerance. A cognitive

criterion that has the ability to develop versatile

creative activities of the employee himself, the

presence of skills, abilities and knowledge. The

indicator of the cognitive criterion is knowledge of

their professional duties and rights. The behavioral

criterion played the role of expressing the formation

of cognitive and motivational-communicative

criteria. An indicator of the behavioral criterion is the

presence of individual experience in the activity. The

criterion of professional identity was a means of

meeting his needs. The criterion of the professional

maturity of the employee showed the ability to

correlate professional requirements with the

opportunity, that is, to have the ability to self-

regulation. A high level of self-esteem, professional

skill and communicative competence reflects self-

confidence. Communicative competences can be

divided into mental, emotional and logical-

informational. These skills are useful for employees

when interacting with others.

Creative abilities, or creativity, constitute the

basis of giftedness, according to P. Torrens theory,

while in addition to internal factors (intelligence,

creativity and motivational and personal

characteristics), most psychologists include factors of

the social environment (family climate, relationships,

cultural environment) in the giftedness model (

Monks FJ 1992; Subotnik RF, Arnold KD, 1994;

Torrance EP, 1980). Willingness to innovate should

be understood as the basis of a professional position

and professionalism. The core of his self-

development and self-development in the creative,

personal and professional plan is the semantic field.

Education as a social function of the reproduction of

human quality can be understood only in the context

of culture as a socio-cultural phenomenon (Borytko

N.M., 2001).

The managerial culture of a specialist in the field

of operational-search work in institutions is a

significant indicator of the effectiveness of official

activities. The legitimacy of the interpretation of the

content of operational-search work in institutions is

determined by the understanding of its subject, that is,

what the work is aimed at, its professional activity

(Borytko N.M., 2000). The development of a person's

professional abilities is influenced by the experience

of previous generations of professionals (Artemieva

T.I., 1977). The development of professionalism

should be considered as a process of transformation

of personal resources (professional knowledge,

individual properties and abilities in this area). In

terms of professional training of specialists at the

present stage, there is a contradiction between service

practice and new requirements. Improving

knowledge about the main directions, methods, forms

and means of operational-search work in the

institutions and bodies of the penal system has a

professional orientation. Replenishment and renewal

of knowledge, development of professionally

important qualities gives a positive result. An

effective assessment system is designed for a

comprehensive analysis (Nosyreva I.G., Balashova

N.V., 2019). The leader should always be ready to

reassess judgments (Yezhova ON, 2006). It is

necessary to proceed from the importance of taking

into account the methodological impact of

approaches (Kondratyev E.V., 2012).

The choice of techniques and methods of behavior

correction provide an opportunity and help in the

process of exposure. The essence of the concept

"form of operational-search work of employees",

which consists in the use of means of influence, has

CLOSA 2021 - VII INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC-PRACTICAL CONFERENCE “CRIMINAL LAW AND OPERATIVE SEARCH

ACTIVITIES: PROBLEMS OF LEGISLATION, SCIENCE AND PRACTICE”

192

its own specifics. The types of operational-search

work of employees (collective conversations, various

types of information) may be different. Individual

operational search work has its own direction in an

individual approach.

The subject of the research was the psychological

factors of optimization of the process of development

and self-development in the activities of employees

carrying out operational-search activities. The

indicators for assessing the productivity of the

operational officers of the penal system were:

operational-search work and individual work with

convicts.

4 CONCLUSIONS

Professional development of employees engaged in

operational-search activities can have at least two

directions: towards self-improvement and

achievement of professionalism, or towards

regression and professional degradation. In the

situation of modern intensification of social and

technical processes, the personal professional

potential of the operative employee, which

determines the success of his professional activity, is

of decisive importance in operational-search work in

correctional institutions.

The professional potential of an operational

employee is a complex that consists of objective

professional capabilities, the ability to carry out

effective activities. In the system of professional

skills, the main place is occupied by the ability to

design plans for the future, to “build” work correctly,

taking into account the perspective (Lomov B.F.,

1984). The conducted theoretical and empirical

research made it possible to identify the factors that

influence the productivity of the operational

employee, and, consequently, determine the presence

of his professionalism.

For employees carrying out operational-search

activities with a high level of productivity, the choice

of a profession is determined by an internal need,

prestige relative to other positions in correctional

institutions. Employees carrying out operational

investigative activities with a low level of

productivity had a factor of randomness in the process

of choosing a profession.

The productivity of the development of the

professional potential of an operational employee

depends on who is communicating with

(communication with experienced and gifted

colleagues), such communication will help to

introduce into practice the results of the activities of

experienced workers.

The practical significance of this study lies in the

fact that the results obtained can be used to improve

the quality of training of operative correctional

officers. Also, the data obtained can be used in the

work of specialists of the penitentiary orientation,

heads of penitentiary institutions in methodological

developments.

REFERENCES

Antipov, A.N., 2018. On the problems of ensuring the

safety of institutions of the penal system in the context

of the spread of the use of unmanned aerial vehicles. In

Bulletin of the penitentiary system. 1(188). pp. 2-6.

Artemieva, T.I., 1977. Methodological aspect of the

problem of abilities. Nauka. p. 184.

Belov, V., 2002. On professionalism and the appointment

of an intellectual. In Higher education in Russia. 5. pp.

65-71.

Borytko, N.M., 2001. In the space of educational activity.

Change. p. 181.

Borytko, N.M., 2000. The space of education: the way of

being. Change. p. 225.

Volkova, T.I., 2019. Realization of the potential of

commercialization of intellectual products in the

international trade system. In Economy of the region. 1.

pp. 242-255.

Gugunsky, A.N., Fomin, F.F., 2008. Psychological aspects

of surveillance in operational-search activities. In

Bulletin of the Moscow University of the Ministry of

Internal Affairs of Russia. 10. pp. 18-20.

Yezhova, O.N., 2006. The problem of psychological

competence of employees of the penal system. Moscow:

Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia. pp.10-12.

Ivanova, N.L., Petko, B.B., 2020. Self-image of state civil

servants: problems and factors of formation. In

Questions of state and municipal administration. 4. pp.

141-166.

Ivanchenko, G.V., 2005. Strategies for professional self-

determination and representation of professionalism.

Psychology. In Journal of the Higher School of

Economics. 2. pp. 24-51.

Kaluzhina, M.A., Makarenko, T.D., Spasennikova, M.G.,

Vedernikova, T.I., 2019. Methods of digital forecasting

of illegal behavior of persons held in prisons. In All-

Russian criminological journal. 5. pp. 747-756.

Kondratyev, E.V., 2012. System-institutional development

of the management personnel of the enterprise: theory

and efficiency. Penza: PGUAS. p. 316.

Lebedev, N.Yu., Lebedeva, Yu.V., 2019. The managerial

competence of the investigator and the peculiarities of

their implementation in the investigation of crimes. In

All-Russian criminological journal. 6. pp. 1017-1024.

Lomov, B.F., 1984. Methodological and theoretical

problems of psychology. p. 444.

The Psychological Aspect of the Formation of Professionalism in the Employees of the Operational Service

193

Nosyreva, I.G., Balashova, N.V., 2019. Analysis of the

effectiveness of the personnel assessment system. In

Labor economics. 6(1). pp. 439-452.

Petrova, E.A., Sokolovskaya, I.E., Akimova, N.N.,

Romanova, A.V., 2020. The image of a modern teacher

as seen by high school students. In Education and

Science. 22(2). pp. 97-119.

Polyakova, Ya.N., 2017. The content and specifics of the

psychological readiness of employees for official

activities: based on the study of the units of the regime

and supervision of correctional institutions. Publisher:

M. p. 260.

Psychology of management. 2020. Publisher: Moscow:

Academy of Management of the Ministry of Internal

Affairs of Russia. p. 284.

Sadovnikova, N.O., Mirzaakhmedov, A.M., 2019. Actual

semantic states of teachers experiencing a professional

personality crisis. In Education and Science. 2. pp. 113-

131.

Skuratov, Yu.I., 2019. Modern problems of reforming the

preliminary investigation in the Russian Federation. In

All-Russian criminological journal. 3. pp. 477-488.

Sorokin, P.Α., 1994. Publicly available textbook of

sociology. Articles from different years, Publisher:

Institute of Sociology. Science. p. 560.

Temnova, L.V., Fayman, N.S., 2019. Professional

deformations in socionomic professions. In Bulletin of

the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia. Series:

Sociology. 19(1). pp. 7-19.

The Criminal Executive Code of the Russian Federation of

01/08/1997 N 1-FZ (as amended on 03/09/2021)

Fedorov, A.F., Suslov, Yu.E., 2017. Psychological and

acmeological readiness of employees of the penal

system to reform innovations. Publisher: Kovrov.

p.152.

Tsvyk, V.A., 2009. "Professionalism" and its

methodological significance. In Bulletin of the Peoples'

Friendship University of Russia. Series: Sociology. 3.

pp. 69-77.

Monks, F.J., 1992. Development of gifted children: The

issue of identification and programming. Talent for the

future. Assen; Van Gorcum. pp. 191-202.

Subotnik, R.F., Arnold, K.D., 1994. Beyond Terman:

Contemporary longitudinal studies of giftedness and

talent. Norwood: Ablex Publ. Co.

Torrance, E.P., 1980. Growing up creatively gifted: A 22-

year longitudinal study. In Creative Child and Adult

Quaterly. 5. pp. 148-170.

CLOSA 2021 - VII INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC-PRACTICAL CONFERENCE “CRIMINAL LAW AND OPERATIVE SEARCH

ACTIVITIES: PROBLEMS OF LEGISLATION, SCIENCE AND PRACTICE”

194