ORGANIZATIONAL ROLES ROLES: A set of expected behaviour patterns attributed to someone occupying a given position in a social unit.

Role is the position one occupies in the system, and is defined by the functions one performs in response to the expectations of the significant members of a social system, and ones own expectations from that position or office. Organizational roles are a method of providing service entitlements to person within the system. If person are assigned to an organizational role, managed resources available to the role then become available to the person in that role. Organizational roles are primarily based on the tasks to be performed at various levels and functions within the organization and form the formal organisational structure. To name a few roles, there could be top management (Director), Middle management (Managers) and lower level management roles (Supervisor). There are different roles in any organization that a person has to perform using the given available resources for those roles. Role Expectations- How others believe a person should act in a given situation. ROLE CONFLICTS CONFLICT: Conflict means disagreement, clash, difference of opinion and variance. Conflict can occur at the individual, interpersonal, group and organizational levels. Conflicts create difficulties in management and the working of organizations and groups. Some kinds of conflicts are discussed briefly below. When an individual is confronted by divergent role expectations, the results is role conflict, it exist when an individual finds that compliance with one role requirement may make it difficult to comply with another, at the extreme it would include situations in which two or more role expectations are mutually contradictory. Another facet of personal conflict has to do with the multiple roles people play in organizations. Behavioral scientists sometimes describe an organization as a system of position roles. Each member of the organization belongs to a role set, which is an association of individuals who share interdependent tasks and thus perform formally defined roles, which are further influenced both by the expectations of others in the role set and by one's own personality and expectations. For Example- diagram As a consequence, there exist opportunities for role conflict as the various roles interact with one another. Other types of role conflict occur when an individual receives inconsistent demands from another person; for example, they are asked' to serve on several time-consuming committees at the same time that they are urged to get out more production in their work unit. Another kind of role strain takes place when the

individual finds that they are expected to meet the opposing demands of two or more separate members of the organization. Such a case would be that of a worker who finds himself pressured by their boss to improve the quality of their work while their work group wants more production in order to receive a higher bonus share. These and other varieties of role conflict tend to increase an individual's anxiety and frustration. Sometimes they motivate him to do more and better work. Other times they can lead to frustration and reduced efficiency.

Role Conflicts and Personality

Family roles can often come into conflict with professional of social roles

Overall, role conflicts tend to cause friction and frustration, but the effects can vary with personality. Certain people are simply more able to assume different roles and avoid friction when the roles overlap. Others find the conflict extremely stressful and are unable to maneuver their multiple responsibilities without causing more tension or resentment. The ability to be more flexible with conflicting tasks and better negotiate roles with other members can be a very useful skill in dealing with role conflicts, but that does not necessarily mean individuals with these skills will also be as competent in their individual areas of work as individuals with less role negotiating ability.

ROLE STREESOR A role is not defined without the expectations of the role senders, including the role occupant. The position of a Human Resource Manager may be created in an organization, but his role will be defined by the expectations (stated or unstated) that different persons have from the Human resource manager, and the expectations that he, in turn, has from the role. In this sense, the role gets defined in each system by the role senders, including the role occupant. The concept of role and the two role systems (Role Space and Role set) have built-in potential for conflict and stress (Pareek, 2002). Role space is a system of various roles that each individual perform and role set is a system of roles that each role is a part. Role stress components include: a) Stressors that exist outside the organization (Extraorganizational Stressor: eg. Traffic to and from work); b) Stressor that come from within the organization(Organizational Stressors: eg.Job Security); c) Stressors that relate to duties and responsibilities of work (Task related stressors: eg.travelling for work);

d) Stressors that relate to various work roles (Individual Role stressors ). The two major Life Domains are Non-Work and Work. Non-Work Domain includes:- Daughter/Son, Brother/Sister, Mother/Father ,Uncle/Aunt , Spouse ,Friend ,etc. Work domain includes :- Employee ,Subordinate, Supervisors ,Co-Worker or sometimes the Customer.

1.1.1. Role Space Conflicts Role space is the dynamic relationship between the various roles and individual occupies and his self. It has three main variables; self, the role under question and the other roles he occupies. Any conflict among these is referred to as role space conflict or stress. These conflicts may take several forms. 1. Self Role distance: This stress arises out of the conflict between the self concept and the expectations from the role, as perceived by the role occupant. If a person occupies a role that he may subsequently find to be conflicting with the self concept, he feels stressed. 2. Intra-role Conflict: Since an individual learns to develop expectations as a result of his socializing and identification with significant others, it is quite likely that he sees a certain incompatibility between the different expectations (functions) of his role. For example, a professor may see incompatibility between the expectations of teaching students and of doing research. These may not be inherently conflicting, but the individual may perceive these as incompatible. 3. Role Stagnation: As an individual grows older, he also grows in the role that he occupies in an organization. With the individuals advancement, the role changes; and with his change in role, the need for taking on a new role becomes crucial. This problem of role growth becomes acute especially when an individual who has occupied a role for a long time enters another role in which he feel less secure. The new role demands that an individual outgrows the previous one and takes charge of newthe role effectively. This is bound to produce some stress. In organizations that are fast expanding, and which do not have any systematic strategy of human resource development, managers are likely to experience this stress of role stagnation when they are promoted. 4. Inter-role distance: When an individual occupies more than one role there are bound to be conflicts between them. For example, a lady executive often faces a conflict between her European Journal of Social Sciences Volume 9, Number 3 (2009)358 organizational role as an executive and her familial role as a wife and mother. The demands on her time by husband and children may be incompatible with Organizational demands. Such inter-role conflicts are quite frequent in a modern society, where an individual is increasingly occupying multiple roles in various organizations and groups.

1.1.2. Role Set Conflicts The role set consists of important persons who have varying expectations from the role that an individual occupies. The conflicts which arise as a result of incompatibility among these expectations by the significant others (and by the individual himself) are referred to as role sets. 1. Role Ambiguity: When an individual is not clear about the various expectations that people have from his role he faces role ambiguity. Role ambiguity may be due to lack of information available to a role occupant, or his lack of understanding of the cues available to him. Role ambiguity may be in relation to activities, responsibilities, priorities, norms or general expectations. Generally, role ambiguity is experienced by persons occupying roles that are newly created in organizations, roles that are undergoing change, or process roles (with less clear and less concrete activities). 2. Role expectation Conflict: When there are conflicting expectations or demands by different roles senders (persons having expectations from the role), the role occupant experiences this type of stress. The conflicting expectations may be from the boss, subordinates, peers or clients. 3. Role Overload: When a role occupant feels that there are too many expectations from the significant others in his role set, he experiences role overload. Role overload has been measured by asking questions about peoples feelings on whether they can finish work given to them during a modified work day and whether the amount of work they do interfere with how well it is done. Most executive role occupants experience role overload. Role overload is more likely to occur where role occupants lack power, where there are large variations in the expected output, and when delegation or assistance cannot procure more time. 4. Role Erosion: A role occupant may feel that the functions he would like to perform are beingdone by some other role. Role erosion is the individuals subjective feeling that some importantexpectations that he has from a role are shared by other roles within the role set. Role erosion is likely to be experienced in an organization that is redefining its role and creating new roles. Studies indicate that in several such organizations the stress of role erosion was inevitably felt. In one organization, a particular role was abolished and in its place two were created to cater to executive and planning needs. This led to great erosion, and a feeling that the new roles were less important than the previous role. 5. Resource Inadequacy: Resource inadequacy stress is experienced when the resources required by a role occupant for performing his role is effectively are not available. Resources may include information, people, material, finance or facilities. 6. Personal Inadequacy: When a role occupant feels that he does not have enough knowledge, skills or training to undertake a role effectively, or that he has not had time to prepare for the assigned role he may experience stress. Persons who are assigned new roles without adequate preparation or orientation are likely to experience feelings of personal inadequacy. 7. Role Isolation: In a role set, the role occupant may feel that certain roles are psychologically closer to him, while others are at a much greater distance. The main

criterion of distance is the frequency and ease of interaction. When linkages are strong, the isolation will be low and vice versa. Role isolation can therefore be measured in terms of existing and the desired linkages. The gap between them indicates the amount of role isolation

Stress Management strategies StressA dynamic condition in which an individual is confronted with an opportunity, a demand or a resource related to what the individual desire for which the outcome is perceived to be both uncertain and important.
What is Employee Stress ?

Employees stress is a growing concern for organizations today. Stress can be defined as a lively circumstance in which people face constraints, opportunities, or loss of something they desire and for which the consequence is both unpredictable as well as crucial. Stress is the response of people to the unreasonable/excessive pressure or demands placed on them.
Symptoms of Stress

Some of the symptoms of stress at workplace are as follows

Absenteeism, escaping from work responsibilities, arriving late, leaving early, etc. Deterioration in work performance, more of error prone work, memory loss, etc. Cribbing, over-reacting, arguing, getting irritated, anxiety, etc. Deteriorating health, more of accidents, etc. Improper eating habits (over-eating or under-eating), excessive smoking and drinking, sleeplessness, etc.

It is thus very essential to have effective stress management strategies in an organization so that the detrimental repercussions of stress on the employees as well as their performance can be reduced and controlled.
Sources/Causes of Stress

The factors leading to stress among individual are called as stressors. Some of the factors/stressors acting on employees are1. Organizational factors- With the growth in organizational stress and complexity, there is increase in organizational factors also which cause stress among employees. Some of such factors area. Discrimination in pay/salary structure b. Strict rules and regulations

c. Ineffective communication d. Peer pressure e. Goals conflicts/goals ambiguity f. More of centralized and formal organization structure g. Less promotional opportunities h. Lack of employees participation in decision-making i. Excessive control over the employees by the managers 2. Individual factors- There are various expectations which the family members, peer, superior and subordinates have from the employee. Failure to understand such expectations or to convey such expectations lead to role ambiguity/role conflict which in turn causes employee stress. Other individual factors causing stress among employees are inherent personality traits such as being impatient, aggressive, rigid, feeling time pressure always, etc. Similarly, the family issues, personal financial problems, sudden career changes all lead to stress. 3. Job concerning factors- Certain factors related to job which cause stress among employees are as followsa. Monotonous nature of job b. Unsafe and unhealthy working conditions c. Lack of confidentiality d. Crowding 4. Extra-organizational factors- There are certain issues outside the organization which lead to stress among employees. In todays modern and technology savvy world, stress has increased. Inflation, technological change, social responsibilities and rapid social changes are other extra-organizational factors causing stress.