Coping With Role Conflict
"Inter-role conflict results from competing sets of expectations that are aroused by organizational, interpersonal, and personal conflicts" The following strategies assist in modifying and managing these areas.
One response to role conflict is deciding that something has to go. More than one politician, for example, has decided not to run for office because of the conflicting demands of a hectic campaign schedule and family life. In other cases, people put off having children in order to stay on the fast track for career success. Even the roles linked to a single status can make competing demands on us. A plant supervisor may enjoy being friendly with workers. At the same time, distance is necessary to evaluate his staff (Macionis 90).
An individual can alter external, structurally imposed expectations held by others, regarding the appropriate behavior of a person in his or her position. The most effective alteration is change in the workplace. If the job is a "family-friendly" environment, the needs of a parent may be met easier. One of the biggest stress-relievers for working parents is paid time off including family sick days. A parent may feel trapped if he or she needs to stay home with their child but knows that missing a day of work will, in return, dock them a day of pay. If they have a few days of paid leave they will be able to take care of their child and not have to worry about losing money for doing so. Another workplace support of work-family conflict is child-care. Some jobs have a daycare facility on site or nearby, assisting parents in knowing their children are well taken care of while they are working. The latter example distributes role expectations to others in order to alleviate role conflict.
Another way of comping with Role Conflict is something that is common and seems to be simple, but having both personal and situational resources are necessary and can be extreme helpers when dealing with Role Conflict. Having simple aspects such as positive self-esteem, positive career interactions, and both spousal, family and social support symptoms are important helpers. (Elman 84) Relative to this, in another study done on coping behaviors, a role conflict a model was used with three different coping types. Type one being structural role definition, which includes changing structural and external processes expected in ones role, type two being personal role definition, which includes changing your expectations and job in the role you are in, and finally type three, being reactive role behavior includes trying to find little ways to meet all your roles. In this study the conclusion was that not one of these types of coping was more effective than the other, but overall the act of coping and physically and mentally engaging in the process is a great help to working with your role conflict. (Hall 72)
"Another approach involves changing ones attitude toward and perceptions of one's role expectations, as opposed to changing the expectations themselves. An example is setting priorities among and within roles, being sure that certain demands are always met (for example, the needs of sick children), while others have lower priority (such as dusting furniture).".
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