Chapter 5 Roles & Interaction Flashcards
Role Theory:
- The study of the individual and his roles.
- Framework to understand why the world is not as easy a place to manage as we would like.
- Why individuals suffer stress and strain.
- Why organizations breed misunderstandings and conflict.
- Role Theory links theories about individuals (such as theories on leadership and on motivation) with theories about organizations (design, structure, culture, change, efficiency, effectiveness)
- Roles no longer predefined.
Do you know where your children will live, merry and work? Your grandparents did!
Drivers of Increasing Role Variety and Diversity:
- Improvements in communication.
- Social Mobility.
- Educational Opportunities.
- Increased Affluence.
Certainty no Longer:
- Pre-determined roles are boring and restrictive, but provide for certainty, security, and a consistent self-concept.
- Role Variety and Diversity desirable but also imply complexity, uncertainty, insecurity and strain.
Role Stress:
- The dominance of work organizations has increased in our society.
- Combining the work/career and family/social role is increasingly difficult.
- Individual is the crunch point of the resulting pressures.
Performance in a Given Role:
Will depend on two interactive sets of influences:
1) The forces in herself – her personality, attributes, skills.
2) The forces operating in a given situation.
The Concepts of Role Theory:
Focal Person: The particular individual with whom one is concerned in an analysis.
Focal Role: His role, the role under review.
Role Set: The group of people with whom the individual interacts in a given role.
Role Definition:
- Combination of Role Expectations (often occupationally defined, and sometimes by law.
- Individuals often find it hard to escape role definitions defined by cultural tradition.
Role Signs:
Roles are often deliberately made clear:
- Uniforms, Stripes.
- Dress.
- Place.
- Current trend is to blur role signs is democratic but also makes people insecure.
Role Ambiguity:
Uncertainty about how one’s work is evaluated.
Uncertainty about the scope for advancement.
Uncertainty about scope of responsibility.
Uncertainty about others’ expectations of one’s performance
Role Incompatibility:
Expectations of the members of the role set are incompatible as features of the same role.
Examples:
Disparate expectations regarding leadership and motivation.
Clash between expectations and one’s self-concept. e.g. ethics: company standards not acceptable to individual.
Role Conflict:
Is caused by the inevitability for a person to carry out different roles in the same situation. The expectation for each role may be clear but the roles themselves may be in conflict.
Example: Being a woman and a successful executive (a generally male stereotype).
Role Overload:
People can handle some role conflict (roles that do not precisely fit).
Role overload implies that there are too many (at times conflicting) roles to handle. Role overload is not at all the same as work overload – cannot be solved with overtime!
Role Underload:
The individual feels that the role definition is out of line with his self-concept – he feels himself able of handling bigger roles.
Individuals is “auditing” roles often suffer from role underload.
Recruiters may talk of opportunities. Tedious work reality then may come as a rude shock.
Delegation is at first often perceived as a threat to the self-concept of the delegating manager.
Role Stress:
Stress can be good, stress can be bad:
Most people need some stress to bring out best performance.
Too much, or the wrong form of stress can be damaging. Management in any organization has the task to control the level of stress!
Role Stress and Role Strain:
Beneficial Stress: Role Pressure
Harmful Stress: Role Strain
Exactly distinguishing between them is impossible, except for their effects.
