Key Competencies of a Unit Officer as Perceived by Cadets and Penal System Employees: Alignment with Professional Development Stages

the study examines professional reflection of cadets at a departmental university
of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia and of current unit officers in correctional institutions.
The professional development of employees takes place under conditions of high emotional and
regulatory pressure. The effectiveness and psychological well‑being of a specialist are based
on self‑regulation, resilience, and reflexive mechanisms. In the early stages of professional
development, external standards predominate; as experience accumulates, the integration of the
professional role grows stronger. At the same time, the risk of emotional exhaustion and a decline
in creativity increases. Although researchers show considerable interest in the psychological
dimensions of penal system employees’ work, the evolution of perceptions regarding a unit
officer’s key competencies during the transition from university training to actual service remains
understudied. Identifying these perceptions is important for timely adjustment of training programs,
prevention of professional deformations, and development of targeted psychological support
measures at different stages of service. Purpose: to describe and compare the perceptions of cadets
and current unit officers regarding key professional competencies of an effective employee in the
department responsible for educational work with convicts, to identify similarities and differences in
the structure of these key competencies, and to outline areas for educational and methodological
support. Methods: an online survey using a custom questionnaire that includes closed‑ended
questions about the importance of certain qualities, self‑assessment of the development level and
development sources, as well as open‑ended questions about gaps; frequency analysis (percentage
distributions). Results: cadets consider psychological flexibility and neuropsychological resilience
to be key qualities (70% each), while active‑duty personnel consider communication and
organizational skills (86.7 %) and resilience (83.3 %) to be key qualities. Creativity is significant only
for 10 % of supervisors. However, supervisors identify creative activity (70 %), initiative (63.3 %),
and the ability to work in a multitasking environment (63.1 %) as priority areas for development,
while cadets identify stability, stress resistance, and confidence. A gap is identified between the
importance of psychological flexibility for cadets and their self‑assessment of it (70 % and 46.7 %).
The focus from personal adaptive resources is shifted to the functional and organizational coreof the activity. The low importance of creativity among practitioners, despite the high demand
for its development, reflects an awareness of its deficit and capacity for preventing professional
deformation. Conclusions: a gradual shift in the perception of key competencies is recorded: from
personality‑adaptive (among cadets) to functional‑organizational (among practitioners). The paper
proposes targeted educational and methodological support for two stages: university‑level training
and further professional development of employees. The proposed modules cover self‑regulation,
communication, and working under multitasking conditions, as well as supervision and training in
guided creativity and empathy for incumbent unit officers.

Keywords: penal system; professional reflection; unit officer; competence profile; self‑regulation; neuro‑psychological stability; psychological flexibility; communicative and organizational skills; emotional burnout.