La gestion des émotions au travail : le cas des policiers d'élite

Police elite units involve significant emotional labor (Hochschild, 2003). For elite police officers, this emotional labor is necessary to carry out the mission, endangering their physical and/or mental health. Their emotional competencies allow them to do this emotional labor, and regulate their emotions during an intervention. This article put in relation emotional labor, emotional competencies, emotional regulation and social support, taking into account the emotional factor at work in the elite police units. This exploratory study includes three levels of analysis : the individual level, the collective and managerial level, and the level of institutional practices of Human Resources Management (HRM). How do the HRM practices of elite police units take into account the emotional competencies (Salovey and Mayer, 1990) allowing the hard emotional labor of the police officers ? Both the professionals' health and the intervention's quality depend on it. Some police officers in these units, most of them highly recognized and removed from service, were interviewed. All of them streamline the danger, consciously, to control their emotions and to condition themselves to be calm. This cognitive reappraisal (Gross, 1998) permits them to match up the displayed emotion with the really felt emotion : emotional labor appears to be an in-depth action. At the collective level, police officers insist on the beneficial role of various forms of social support. Finally, concerning the institutional practices of HRM, emotions are taken into account especially in recruitment. Managing emotions is developed further during daily training, in conditions close to the reality, then as part of training sessions specifically dedicated to the management of emotions. Managerial recommendations emerge beyond these two HRM practices : taking into account emotions at work in the careers and withdrawals management (absenteeism, job reassignments, job rotations and other withdrawals) and creating favorable conditions for social support. We note a few surprises and new tracks having sprung from this study : beyond the emotional competencies, " faith ", trainings, and the role of humor, will allow the professionals to regulate their emotions ; and an addiction to adrenaline could influence the career management. Key-words : emotions, emotional competencies, emotional labor, emotion regulation, social support, practices of human resources management.