Another form of organizational stress extensively studied is that of role conflict and ambiguity. Role conflict exists when an individual in a particular work role is torn by conflicting job demands or doing things he/she really does not want to do or does not think are part of the job specification. (Cooper, 1991) There is four types of role conflict have been identified: (Dubrin, 1984). Intrasender conflict occurs when one person asks another one to accomplish two objectives that are in apparent conflict.
For example, a manager asks his subordinate to hurry up and finish the work but also decrease the mistakes; the subordinate will experience this type of conflict. Intersender conflict occurs when two or more senders give an employee incompatible directions. For instance, Mike’s immediate superior may want him to complete a crash project on time, but company policy temporarily prohibits authorizing overtime payments to clerical help. Interrole conflict results when two different roles one play are in conflict.
Joe’s company may expect him to travel 50 percent of the time (to be promoted) while his spouse threatens to divorce if he travels more than 25 percent of the time. Person-role conflict results when the role(s) that one’s organization expects him/her to occupy are in conflict with his/her basic value. Mary’s company asks her to fire substandard performers, but this could be in conflict with her humanistic value. Role ambiguity is closely related to role conflict.
It exists when an individual has inadequate information about his/her work role, that is, where there is lack of clarity about the work objectives associated with the role, about work colleagues’ expectation of the work role and the scope and responsibilities of the job. The third major potential source of occupational stress has to do with the nature of relationships with one’s boss, subordinates, and colleagues. French and Caplan (1973) define poor relationship as “those, which include low trust, low supportiveness, and low interest in listening to and trying to deal with problems that confront the organizational members”.
What is more, behavioral scientists have long suggested that relationships between members of a work group are positively related to job satisfaction and work commitment. They have both psychological and financial roots. Loss of income, unpaid bills, and abandonment of luxury items constitute only part of the problem of a person being unemployed. Embarrassment, shame, guilt and emptiness are intertwined with the financial loss. Self-images in most cultures are in part dependent upon the type of work an individual performs.
The development of one’s career thus affects the self-image of those afflicted. Problem areas, such as little or no participation in the decision-making process, no sense of belonging, lack of effective consultation, poor communications, restrictions on behavior, and office politics, are some of those with the most impact here. It is unrealistic for the employees to leave their troubles at the office gate. Events in one’s private life can also lead to stress which spills into the workplace.
In fact, the division between organizational and non-organizational stress is seldom distinct; each can influence the other. This source of stress is more of a “catch-all” for all those interfaces between life outside and life inside the organization that might put pressure on someone: family problems, life crises (Dohrenwend and Dohrenwend, 1974), financial difficulties, conflict of personal beliefs with those of the company, daily hassles, and the conflict of company with family demands (Cooper, 1981). Generally, people have two main problems vis-i??
-vis his/her family:(Pahl, 1971) The first is that of “time-management” and “commitment-management”. Not only does his busy life leave him/her few resources with which to cope with other people’s needs, but in order to do his/her job well one usually also needs to support from others to cope with the “background” details of house management, etc. , to relieve stress when possible, and to maintain contact with outside world. The second, often a result of the first, is the spillover of crises or stresses in one system, which affects the other. And these two are inseparable.
