Revisiting the role stress‐commitment relationship

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the moderating influences of empowerment and professional development on role stress‐commitment relationships, while examining and confirming the effects of role stress on organisational commitment.Design/methodology/approachThe results are drawn from a cross‐sectional survey of 184 front‐line employees (FLEs) from a travel service organization. Multiple and moderated regression analyses were employed to test the hypothesised direct and interaction effects.FindingsThe results show that role stressors influence affective organizational commitment in FLEs negatively. Role ambiguity did not, unexpectedly, influence continuance commitment positively, but role conflict did. Professional development and empowerment are important management tools that can be used to combat the detrimental effect of role stress on organizational commitment. The paper finds empowerment to be particularly useful in combating the dysfunctional effects of role ambiguity on affective commitment, while professional development is a key tool that helps to combat the dysfunctional effects of role conflict on affective and continuance commitment. However, there are caveats associated with the implementation of these management tools.Practical implicationsIt is important for management to understand role stress from the FLE perspective, and strategically use intervention tools to help moderate the effects of role stress on organizational commitment components.Originality/valueThis study adds further support to the literature that role ambiguity and role conflict should be studied as distinct components of role stress because treating role stress as a single construct may result in suboptimal outcomes for managers, and misleading findings for researchers. In this context, the paper contributes to literature by investigating the moderating impact of empowerment and professional development on the role stress‐affective commitment/continuance commitment relationships. The findings suggest that different managerial strategies are required to combat the effect of each of these role stressors on the affective and continuance components of commitment respectively.

The impact of service worker personal resources on relationship quality in business solutions

“…Several studies conceptualize job demands in terms of role ambiguity and role conflict (Miao & Evans, 2012;Varca, 2009;Zablah, Chonko, et al, 2012). However, job demands also relate to task requirements as well as managing social and political dynamics that relate to the service worker's role (Ackfeldt & Malhotra, 2013;Michaels & Dixon, 1994;Whiting, Donthu, & Baker, 2011). To manage job demands, service workers draw on their personal resources (Zablah, Chonko, et al, 2012).…”

Service employee adaptiveness

“…However, Dean and Rainnie's (2009) conceptualisation has not been empirically tested and several authors in subsequent studies have looked at role stress in terms of role-conflict and role-ambiguity (e.g., Ashill et al, 2009). Role-ambiguity refers to employees' perceptions of lack of clear and salient information that may be needed to perform their job adequately; role-conflict, alternatively, occurs when an employee perceives that the demands and expectations of two or more members of their role-set are incompatible or incongruent (Ackfeldt and Malhotra, 2013). According to Chung and Schneider (2002), role-conflict is an important variable of study with regard to service employees because of the complex environment in which they work.…”

Boundary Spanning Elements and the Marketing Function in Organizations

“…However, it is reasonable to expect that internal communication also has the potential to diminish role conflict and overload by clearly communicating what is expected of FLEs, and keeping them informed. Effective internal communication would keep FLEs equipped with plenty of knowledge and information that would help them to handle the challenges of role stress inherent in boundary spanning positions (Ackfeldt and Malhotra 2013).…”

“…The virtues of empowerment have been extensively discussed in the literature. Ackfeldt and Malhotra (2013) found that empowerment was particularly useful in combating the dysfunctional effects of role ambiguity on organizational commitment. But it is also recognized that empowerment may have undesirable implications for FLEs.…”

“…Training and development is another key managerial intervention that may help battle the dysfunctional effects of role stress on organizational commitment (Ackfeldt and Malhotra 2013). FLEs who perceive high training and development activities, rate their affective commitment levels to be higher than those who do not, regardless of the level of role conflict they experience.…”