Role conflict

A role conflict is a situation in which one individual encounters the requirements for performing different, conflicting roles or one, but which, when implemented, causes difficulties. Literally perceiving this concept, it is not difficult to determine the phenomenon that it means. And the "conflict" is the key word here: when performing several roles, a person faces a contradiction of interests or requirements to it. For example, there are situations when a student, having married and having acquired offspring, is forced to combine the role of husband, father and student. And if the first two roles combine well with each other, then the third acts as a conflict: as a husband and father, he must earn money, improve living conditions and participate in solving domestic issues, but as a student, he must simultaneously devote all his free time Acquiring new knowledge.

Definition of role conflict

The study of this phenomenon is carried out by the science of conflictology. To begin with, it is necessary to determine the nature of the conflict, which will give a clear idea of the role contradiction.

So, the conflict can be intrapersonal and interpersonal. It is characterized by the existence of opposing positions, motives, judgments, which are always the opposite.

The peculiarity of the intrapersonal contradiction is equal in power, but oppositely directed interests, needs, desires. A person faces a choice between desires and possibilities, the need to follow certain norms and the simultaneous reluctance to do so. A consequence of this is often stress and uncontrolled behavior before a choice.

With interpersonal contradiction there are always several participants whose interests and representations do not coincide.

Role conflict is a kind of intrapersonal, when a person faces the need to perform several of his roles simultaneously, which contradict each other. For example, a family man who is a boss faces a situation of role conflict at a time when he needs to take the sick child to the hospital while doing a lot of work. To go to the hospital means to act unprofessionally, and to stay at work means to show negligence in relation to the health of one's own child.

Classification of role conflicts

We propose to consider several types of this phenomenon:

• Status-role conflict

This is a psychological phenomenon, connected primarily with the social role that a person performs. Conflict arises when an individual can not justify the expectations of society from the role that he must fulfill. In organizations, status-role disagreements give rise to interpersonal differences. For example, a person who does not meet the requirements of the position he holds can not do a good job, and this causes others to consider him incompetent and face professional difficulties if the work is teamwork.

• Role conflict and self-concept

Conflict based on the contradiction of their own ideas and the expectations of society from the role that the individual performs. This often happens when a person chooses a profession to which he has weak abilities. At work in this case, he does not succeed in realizing himself, he looks in the team as a "black sheep", which takes an inappropriate position. The individual understands their shortcomings, but, nevertheless, continues to work in this direction, because For which he is paid that salary, which corresponds to his idea of a normal salary. Here there is a contradiction between abilities and desires.

• Role conflict and ambiguous terms

This type of intrapersonal contradiction arises when different requirements are imposed on a person in the same role: for example, the lack of rules for the technique of performing work in an enterprise, while it is 100% feasible only by following the rules. Ambiguity of tasks plunges a person into a stressful situation, when he faces two different requirements.

• Role conflict based on inadequate resources

In this situation, a person faces the need to accomplish the tasks set, but can not do this because of lack of motivation, time or any other resources that are needed to realize the goal.