ROLE AMBIGUITY, ROLE CONFLICT, AND

PERFORMANCE: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE OF AN

INVERTED-U RELATIONSHIP
GROUP 4
 ABSTRACT
■ The traditional view of the relationship between role stressors (role ambiguity and
role conflict) and performance is contrasted with a perspective that has received
relatively little attention.
■ Some sales force scholars have suggested that the relationship between role
stressors and job outcomes might mirror the inverted-U relationship between actual
felt stress and performance (e.g., Yerkes–Dodson’s law, activation theory).
■ The empirical evidence they reported is inconclusive: the hypothesis with respect to
performance is not supported.
■ Nevertheless, many sales force management textbooks maintain that an inverted-U
relationship exists.
■ Based on a survey of 1,290 salespeople, the present research demonstrates that an
Inverted-U relationship, similar to that posited by Yerkes–Dodson’s law, is indeed
plausible.
 INTRODUCTION

■ A large body of research has examined how role stressors (role ambiguity and role
conflict) affect salespeople
■ The dominant view is that role ambiguity and role conflict are negatively related to
motivation and job performance
■ Stress is a psychological response. It refers to an emotional experience associated
with nervousness, tension, strain, anxiety, exhaustion, depression, and burnout
■ Do stressors have an inverted-U relationship with job performance?
■ Empirical tests have not yet been supportive
■ This lack of empirical support might be related to collinearity problems: the
estimation of polynomial models is problematic because of the simultaneous
presence of predictors and their squared terms.
 LITERATURE REVIEW

■ Role stressors are often conceptualized as consisting of two related but distinct
constructs—
1. role ambiguity
2. role conflict
ROLE AMBIGUITY & ROLE CONFLICT

■ Role ambiguity is the perception that one lacks information necessary to perform a job
or task, leading the perceiver to feel helpless.
■ It is a salesperson’s uncertainty about the expectations of different members in his or
her role set (e.g., boss, customers).
■ Role conflict is a feeling of being torn in multiple directions, unable to find a way to
make every role partner satisfied.
■ It occurs when, for example, a salesperson believes that the expectations and
demands of his or her boss and customer are incompatible.
 Consequences of Role Stressors on
Performance
■ The impact of role ambiguity and role conflict on job performance is supported
conceptually by the role-episode model
1. Boundary spanners (e.g., Salespeople) interact with different role senders

2. Role sender’s (e.g., Boss, customers) expectations and demands result in stressors
when

3. Perceived role stressors are related to a person’s psychological, dispositional,

4. Prolonged exposure to role stressors is likely to overwhelm the person’s resources

and thereby undermine his or her job outcomes (e.g.,
■ The general consensus is that perceived role ambiguity or role conflict has a
negative effect on job performance.
■ A few inconsistent findings such as the positive relationship between role conflict
and performance has been reported
■ Some findings in the psychology literature strongly suggest the existence of
inverted-U effects of (actual felt) stress on performance
■ No conclusive evidence has been obtained
■ Some scholars have identified sampling as one possible reason for the dearth of
empirical evidence of interaction effects, especially in the domain of role stressors
 THEORY AND HYPOTHESES

Inverted-U Relationship Between Role Stressors and Performance

■ This paper hypothesizes an inverted-U relationship between role stressors and
salesperson performance.
■ Moderate levels of role ambiguity (or conflict) may be associated with superior
performance because they stimulate salespeople to engage themselves and to excel
■ Extreme levels of role stressor have the opposite effect:
1. A low level of role stressor undermines people’s alertness or resource activation
2. A high level of role stressor scares and discourages people
 HYPOTHESIS
■ Hypothesis 1: There is an inverted-U relationship between role ambiguity and
performance.
■ Hypothesis 2: There is an inverted-U relationship between role conflict and
performance.
 MODERATING INFLUENCE OF
INDIVIDUAL CHARACTERISTICS
■ This paper investigates the moderating influence of three factors:
1. Organizational tenure,
2. Tendency to confront situations head-on, and
3. Tendency to transform situations into opportunities.
■ The choice of these variables is guided by (1) relevance to the mechanism underlying
the hypothesized inverted-U relationship, (2) suggestion in the role stressor literature
regarding potential moderators, and (3) novelty.
■ With respect to the influence of role ambiguity
■ Hypothesis 3: For long-tenured salespeople, the apex of the inverted-U (a) is
approached with gentler slopes, (b) occurs at a higher level of role ambiguity, and (c)
occurs at a higher level of performance.

■ With respect to the influence of role conflict:

■ Hypothesis 4: For long-tenured salespeople, the apex of the inverted-U (a) is
approached with gentler slopes, (b) occurs at a higher level of role conflict, and (c)
occurs at a higher level of performance.
 Model Specification

■ Once the hypothesis are generated , respective models are being applied to the
variables(Independent & Dependent).
■ A regression equation model is used to find the relationship of two or more variables.
■ It is a measure of the extent to which researchers can predict one variable from another,
specifically how the dependent variable typically acts when one of the independent
variables is changed.
■ Dependent Variables – Role of Ambiguity(When people are uncertain about their
expectations with the role in the workplace)
■ Role of Conflict – (Occurs When there are incompatible demands placed upon a person ,
i.e. Lack of compatibility between different expectations from a job or position)
■ Independent Variable – Performance
 Survey Description & Data

■ Data was collected from sales person working in different location and from
different industries(food, pharmaceutical, plastic, health care, chemical, financial
and information systems).
■ Before taking the survey from the senior executives , an internal memo was passed
to the senior member of the management.
■ Data on the sales person’s performance was sourced independently to minimize the
biased responses
■ Along with the survey , questionnaire was also developed to get the responses from
the industries , and to ensure the accurate matching of the data with the survey
data each questionnaire was coded.
■ The codes were then subsequently destroyed to protect the privacy of respondents
Analysis