<pre class="western"><span style="color: #212121;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">The  research objective was to analyze the relationships between stressors, coping, stress symptoms and leadership style and their implications for managerial activity in prison units in Bahia; describing the correspondence of these relations with the main propositions of the Theory of Cognitive Reinforcement (CRT).The research was correlational and descriptive, within quantitative analyzes.</span></span></span></span><span style="color: #212121;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">The sample consisted of 320 prison officers and 80 prison managers. A high level of stress was found in the population studied, making it evident that the variable Pressure at Work has a significant effect on Coping ETC (B = 0.095; p = 0.003), indicating that the increase in pressure at work increases the use of coping. </span></span></span></span><span style="color: #212121;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">The survey also showed that the more the manager is focused on the tasks, the less he values his relationship with prison officers (r = - 0.186; p &lt;0.05), with a positive correlation of the leadership style focused on the tasks (r = 0.112; p &lt;0.05) with symptoms of stress. The novelty that the study showed was that the effectiveness of the prison manager under a condition of high stress does not consist of his experience, however, in the development of networks of relationships that help him to decide in such circumstances.</span></span></span></span></pre>