The Concept of

Intrapersonal Conflict
Lecture By;

MUHAMMAD FURQAN SIDDIQUI

BSCS, MBA (2006, im|sciences), MS/M.Phil (2012, IBMS)

Senior Lecturer (Finance & Management)

CECOS University of IT & Emerging Sciences Peshawar

Week # 06
Chapter No. 03

Intrapersonal Conflict

Muhammad Furqan Siddiqui (Lecturer- Management Sciences)

Lecture Outline

(Week - 06)

Introduction to Intrapersonal Conflict

Types of Intrapersonal Conflict

Role, Role Conflict, Role Overload and Underload,
Role Ambiguity
A Model of Role Conflict and Ambiguity
Consequences of Role Conflict
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Muhammad Furqan Siddiqui (Lecturer- Management Sciences)

3.1 Introduction to Intrapersonal Conflict

A situation in which a person is motivated to engage in

two or more mutually exclusive activities.

Incompatibility or Inconsistency among an individuals

cognitive elements [which] implies that a new cognitive

element is at variance with a prior explanation or

expectation.
Difficulty in making a decision because of uncertainty
Pushed or Pulled in opposite directions

Muhammad Furqan Siddiqui (Lecturer- Management Sciences)

3.2

Types of Intrapersonal Conflict

According to Lewin (1948) there are three (03)

types of intrapersonal conflict.
i.

ApproachApproach Conflict: when a person has to

choose between two attractive alternatives.

ii.

ApproachAvoidance Conflict:

iii.

AvoidanceAvoidance Conflict:

when a person feels

similar degrees of attraction and repulsion toward a goal.
when each of the
competing alternatives possesses negative consequences, that is,
they are equally repulsive.

Muhammad Furqan Siddiqui (Lecturer- Management Sciences)

3.3

The Concepts of Role and Role Conflict

Conway and Feigert (1976) suggest at least three

uses of the term.
1.

Role is used to mean a normative status that includes

the behavior, attitudes, and values attributed by society
to a person occupying a given position.

2.

Role is used to mean an individuals conceptualization

of his or her situation with reference to his or her and
others positions in the society.

3.

Role is used to refer to the behavior of a person

occupying a social position.

Muhammad Furqan Siddiqui (Lecturer- Management Sciences)

3.4

Role Conflict

This type of conflict occurs when a role occupant is

required to perform two or more roles that present

unlike, contradictory, or even mutually exclusive
activities.
Four (04) distinct types of role conflict.

i.

Intra-sender Conflict:

ii.

Inter-sender Conflict

iii.

Inter-role Conflict

iv.

Intra-role Conflict

Muhammad Furqan Siddiqui (Lecturer- Management Sciences)

Types Of Role Conflict

Intra-sender Conflict: when a role sender requires a
role receiver (i.e., the focal person) to perform
contradictory or inconsistent roles. For example, a role

i.

sender may request the role receiver to do something that cannot be done
without violating a rule, yet the role sender attempts to enforce the rule.

ii.

Inter-sender Conflict: A role receiver experiences

this type of conflict if the role behavior demanded by
one role sender is unlike with the role behavior
demanded by another role sender(s). A person who
often experiences role conflict,
For example, if a foreman, who receives instruction from a general foreman
that may be inconsistent with the needs and expectations of the workers
under the former.

Muhammad Furqan Siddiqui (Lecturer- Management Sciences)

Types of Role Conflict

iii. Inter-role Conflict: when an individual occupies two or

more roles whose expectations are inconsistent.

A corporation president is expected, in that role, to take part in social
engagements to promote the image of the corporation. This may be in
conflict with his or her role as a parent, in which he or she is expected to
spend more time with his or her children to be an ideal parent.

iv. Intra-role (Person-Role) Conflict: when the role

requirements are unlike with the focal persons attitudes,

values, and professional behavior.
For example, intra-role conflict occurs when an organizational member is
required to enter into price-fixing conspiracies, which are not congruent with
his or her ethical standards.
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Muhammad Furqan Siddiqui (Lecturer- Management Sciences)

3.5
I.

Role Overload and Underload

Role Overload:
when an organizational member is required to
perform a number of appropriate roles sent by
different role senders, which, taken as a set, are too
much to be accomplished by him or her.

II.

Role Underload:
Situation where employees do not have much work
to do, and, as a result, they spend part of their time
doing very little work. or lack of mental stimulation
that accompanies many routine repetitive jobs.

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3.6 Role Ambiguity

It refers to the lack of clarity in understanding what
expectations or prescriptions exist for a given role.
An organizational member requires information
about the expectations from his or her role, the
means of achieving the role, and consequences of
performing the role.
Role ambiguity occurs when the information either
does not exist or is not properly communicated if it does
exist.
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