Role Conflict

Role conflict occurs when a person must adhere at the same time to two or more conflicting or contradictory sets of expectations. Fulfilling the expectations for one role interferes with or prohibits fulfilling the expectations for the other role(s). Thus, the two roles are incompatible and make it difficult, if not impossible, for the person to be successful in both settings. For example, role conflict frequently occurs in persons who juggle career and family. The roles associated with a successful career may interfere with the [Page 884]roles associated with a quality family life. Long hours at the office result in fewer hours available for family activities, just as staying home with a sick child results in missed meetings or less productivity at the office.

When people are faced with expectations for more than one role, they must choose which expectations to fulfill; thus, one set of expectations is necessarily left unfulfilled, and people often feel stress or anxiety that one of their roles is not being adequately carried out. Or the person may choose to partially fulfill both roles, which yields problems in that neither role is implemented successfully or completely.

Role conflict is typically bidirectional, meaning that both roles interfere with one another. In using the previous example, a successful career can impede family concerns, or family issues can impede the needs of a successful career.

Role conflict can appear in the form of time-based conflict, strain-based conflict, or behavior-based conflict. Time-based conflict takes place when two or more roles compete simultaneously for an individual's time. The family versus work issue mentioned previously demonstrates this type of conflict: a parent who needs to pick up a child from school may be expected to attend a meeting at that same time; the two roles to which the person is obligated require incompatible time constraints. Strain-based conflict is a more relationship-based type of role conflict in which a person's professional role conflicts with the personal role he or she has with others, that is, a person who is elevated to a supervisory position over coworkers who are his or her friends. The roles of supervisor and friend are often incompatible, thereby causing the person to experience role conflict. Behavior-based conflict describes a situation in which the behaviors a person must exhibit in one role are contradictory to the behaviors associated with another role. For example, if a person who is a supervisor at work must be reserved and uncompromising in the job place, these same behaviors in the home environment might cause conflicts with family members.

Role conflict may negatively impact the effectiveness and productivity of workers in a variety of career settings. It also has the potential to be detrimental to a person's home or family life. Because of these serious consequences, reducing role conflict whenever possible or developing coping mechanisms for dealing with role conflict are important considerations for leaders in any field.