Professional Role Complexity and Job Satisfaction of Collegiate Certified Athletic Trainers

Abstract

Context: Whenever professionals have multiple role obligations in the workplace, they face potential professional role complexities. Objective: To examine whether certified athletic trainers (ATs) employed at the collegiate level experienced professional role complexities, and if so, what effect those complexities had upon their job satisfaction and intent to leave a current position or the profession. Design: Survey. Setting: We used Internet survey methods to gather information from 1000 randomly selected collegiate ATs regarding the amount of stress they felt due to role complexities. Patients or Other Participants: We obtained a random sample of e-mail addresses for 1000 collegiate ATs in the United States and contacted these individuals with an invitation to participate. A total of 348 usable responses were received, for a 36% response rate. Main Outcome Measure(s): The role complexity aspect of the survey consisted of 45 questions addressing role ambiguity, role overload, role incongruity, role incompetence, and role conflict. The job satisfaction portion consisted of global questions regarding overall job satisfaction and intent to leave the job or profession. Results: A total of 38% of respondents experienced moderate to high stress levels from role overload, whereas 23% and 22% had moderate to high levels of stress from role ambiguity and role conflict, respectively. Clinicians and joint appointees who reported moderate to high levels of stress from role complexity issues had lower job satisfaction and more frequent thoughts of leaving than did their faculty counterparts. Conclusions: The majority of collegiate ATs experienced low levels of professional role complexities and were relatively satisfied with their jobs. However, collegiate ATs began to experience less job satisfaction and more thoughts of leaving when moderate to high stress levels occurred due to role ambiguity, overload, incongruity, incompetence, and conflict. Lessening the stress due to role complexities is critical to positive employment experiences for ATs employed in higher education.

The Role of Personality in Job Satisfaction Among Collegiate Athletic Trainers

“…Stated simply, we know that ATs who experience greater levels of stress, which could be due to personality type, are more likely to have lower levels of job satisfaction, a precursor to departure from the profession. 15 Despite this anecdotal impression, no investigators have attempted to correlate personality with job satisfaction in the athletic training profession.…”

Examining the Experiences of Athletic Trainers as they transition into their First Full-Time Position

“…The importance is founded on the premise that role ambiguity (uncertainty of role within organization) can mediate job satisfaction (a facilitator for departure). [11][12][13] Socialization is often the platform in which we gain a better understanding of how role inductance takes place 14,15 ; however, the literature often focuses on the development of professional skill sets, such as patient care, administrative tasks and communication between healthcare providers. Little, if any, focus of socialization occurs on the novice athletic trainer gaining awareness of balancing their roles in and out of the workplace.…”

Role Strain, Part 2: Perceptions Among Athletic Trainers Employed in the Professional Practice Setting

“…1 Role strain is a concern for ATs, especially ATs employed in the professional sport setting (ATPSSs), [1][2][3] who are required to meet the expectations, demands, and responsibilities outlined by the organization and the league as well as provide health care to the athletes they serve.…”

“…5 However, stress from the organization, including role ambiguity, role overload, and role conflict, most often precipitates conflict for the ATPSS. 6 Currently, the literature [1][2][3][7][8][9][10][11][12] is rich on the experiences of ATs employed in the collegiate setting regarding role strain, as ATs manage elements within the workplace that can set the platform for role strain. The professional sports setting (PSS), much like the collegiate setting, places the AT in the unique situation of balancing health care responsibilities and obligations with the obligations and expectations of the organization.…”

“…Role strain may manifest as a decrease in job satisfaction and performance, as well as in an increase in burnout and retention concerns. [1][2][3][4] The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions ATPSSs had of the concept of role strain: specifically, their opinions on role strain in ATPSSs and the practices they used to reduce the amount of perceived stress associated with role strain.…”