Role conflicts among middle managers

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Role conflicts among middle managers

A research of prevalence and related factors

Master Thesis, MscBA, specialisation Change Management

University of Groningen, Faculty of Management and Organization

October, 2007

Annemarie Jorna

Student number: 1552899

Voetiusstraat 22

9746 CB Groningen

Tel.: 06-14448055

E-mail: annemariejorna@planet.nl

Supervisors University

Prof. Dr. J.I. Stoker

Dr. B.J.M. Emans

Supervisor field of study

Drs. I.J.A. de Jong

Management Training Center de Baak, Driebergen

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Role conflicts among middle managers

A research of prevalence and related characteristics

ABSTRACT

This study examines the prevalence of role conflicts among middle managers. The distinguished role conflicts for this study are the work-family role conflict and the middle managers role conflict. There is not that much literature to be found on this subject yet. It appears that role conflicts are prevalent for middle manager; however this is not significantly higher than in other studies about role conflicts. Several factors have been assessed through linear regression concerning two types of role conflict; work-family and middle managers role conflicts. The multiple linear regressions showed that the biographical variables are not significantly related to the role conflicts. The work-family role conflicts did not show any significant relations whatsoever. The LMX is related to the middle managers role conflict but does not influence the prevalence in a significant way. Also role clarity is related to the middle managers role conflict and influences the perceived role conflict significantly on a moderate level. Career salience does not show any significant relations with the role conflicts. The LLX however is highly significantly related to the middle managers role conflict. Therefore it can be seen that a good relationship with a superior influences the perceived middle managers role conflict. This is a surprising outcome of the study and can be seen as a basis for the future. The theory on LLX has only been presented in one study yet and already appears to show some interesting properties for further research.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 INTRODUCTION 4 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 8 MIDDLE MANAGEMENT 8 ROLE THEORY 8

LEADER-MEMBER EXCHANGE 10

LEADER-LEADER EXCHANGE 11

CAREER SALIENCE 11

ROLE CLARITY 12

METHOD 14

SAMPLE AND RESPONDENTS 14

QUESTIONNAIRE 14

EXPLORATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS AND INTERNAL RELIABILITY 17

RESULTS 19

PREVALENCE 19

CORRELATION 19

HYPOTHESES 20

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION 22

LIMITATIONS AND FURTHER RESEARCH 24

CONCLUSION 24

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INTRODUCTION

The position of middle managers in organisations has been widely discussed in literature over time (e.g. Balogun, 2003; Currie, 1999 and Dopson & Stewart, 1990). The majority of the textbooks and articles on this subject seem to be mainly written from the point of view of the higher management. The middle managers are being discussed, reviewed and written about as in terms of how to deal with them when you are an executive manager. Unfortunately this gives a rather one-sided view on the middle managers which is highly awkward when you realise that there are twenty times more middle managers in an average organisation than there are executive managers (Wellins & Weaver, 2003).

Although the view on middle managers is mainly based on the assumption that they are in the way [of organisational change] and obstructing effective change (Balogun, 2003); they are however fulfilling important and many roles in the organisation. Floyd and Lane (2000) mention in a study about strategic roles that the middle manager plays multiple roles (championing, synthesizing, facilitating and implementing) that focus on communicating information between the operating and top levels of management (p. 158).

Looking at the subject matter from the point of view of the middle manager, instead of the executive managers, brings us at looking at the consequences of being a middle manager and dealing with those consequences. One of those consequences of being a middle manager is that they are stuck in the middle , coming from the fact that they are daily facing conflicting expectations and demands (Keys and Bell, 1982). The problem that middle managers have is that they have short and many organisational lines with superior members, peers and subordinates, creating a tension field with these different kinds of members in an organisation (Floyd and Lane, 2000). These different organisational lines can lead to conflict situations when the middle managers are receiving different demands from the other members. As Hallier and James (1997) mention in their article; middle managers lately have to deal with conflicting objectives and demands, since they are facing responsibilities up and downward the organisational hierarchy.

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conflicts creates feelings of stress, lower job satisfaction and lower effectiveness (Rizzo, House & Lirtzman, 1970).

Lately there are more and more signals coming from the practical field of middle managers, expressing that they are experiencing these conflicting demands and so-called role conflicts. As a program manager at De Baak, a management training centre in the Netherlands, Annemarie de Jong comes across many middle managers, expressing their frustrating feelings about their situation and asking for guidance in discovering ways of dealing with issues that can be described as role conflicts in an effective way. These former members of leadership programs at De Baak mention that they experience many difficulties in dealing with all the different members that are involved in their daily business activities. An example from one middle manager is that she receives directions from her executive manager, which her subordinates do not want to follow op. Because of this opposition between executive management and subordinates, she is being pressured from both sides and she is forced to choose either one of the two teams . The problem is, that there is no right choice for her to make. I ssues like this middle manager experienced and more stories similar to this have motivated Annemarie de Jong to work on a doctoral dissertation on this subject.

The present study is part of the doctoral dissertation of Annemarie de Jong and provides an argument on the usefulness of her new to develop theories and ideas on middle managers and leadership. Due to the being in the middle of everything -position of middle managers it seems that role conflicts are inevitable for them, however the literature on role conflicts experienced by middle managers falls short when it comes to how prevalent the existence of role conflicts really is. Besides that the focus in most studies about role conflicts has mainly been at the effects of the role conflicts. There is not that many research performed on the moderating effect of for example demographic variables on role conflicts, let alone in combination with the job of middle managers. Therefore and in order to come to a more thorough and clear picture of role conflicts at the level of middle managers, the following research question will be examined:

How prevalent are role conflicts at the level of middle management; and what are the factors that relate to prevalence?

Prevalence deals with the occurrence of certain problems or conditions and looks at the number or proportion of individuals in a population with that given problem or condition at a certain time (Medical Dictionary). The factors mentioned in the research question are based on the distinction of three kinds of characteristics; relational, personal and task characteristics.

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relationship can be described and assessed by the theory of leader-member exchange (LMX). The LMX deals with the quality that this relationship has and shows that high quality leads to fewer conflicts (Cogliser & Schriesheim, 2000). I n relation to role conflicts, this could perhaps also lead to fewer role conflicts. Another relationship on the work floor is the one between middle manager and executive manager. This relationship has recently been analysed and put into a theory by the means of the LMX, and is named the leader-leader exchange (LLX) (Tangirala, Green and Ramanujam, 2007). Also this relationship has its effect on experiencing conflicts and is therefore brought into relation to role conflicts for this present study.

Several personal characteristics have been studied in combination with role conflicts and also in this study a personal characteristic is being assessed. A middle managers position seems to be for many something in between, a step on the ladder towards executive management. However, this is of course not for every middle manager the case. The expectations are that when a middle manager has a high career salience (ambition/ focus on career), he or she will experience less role conflicts. For this present study it will be discussed whether or not career salience is related to experiencing role conflicts.

Lastly there are the task characteristics, which are factors that are related to a job or task one has to fulfil. I n this present study the subject of interest is the role clarity of ones task. Whether a middle manager has a clear picture of what his or her tasks, responsibilities and competences are. I t is assumed that when a middle manager has no clear view on his or her role, he or she will feel distressed about the job and therefore experience more role conflicts.

I t seems that role conflicts are inevitable in all kinds of organisations and it carries some negative effects with it. Considering the person that experience role conflicts; it leads to lower job satisfaction with regards to work, pay, supervision and co-workers (Igbaria & Guimaraes, 1993). Experiencing role conflicts also increases the job tension, voluntary turnover and propensity to leave (Lyons, 1971). I ndividuals also suffer physically and mentally in the form of general fatigue, discomfort and stress (Rizzo et al., 1970). When individuals experience role conflicts it also has consequences for the organisation. Jackson and Schuler (1985) showed that the individual productivity was positively related to role conflicts, fewer role conflicts meant higher individual productivity and vice versa.

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THEORETICAL BACKGROUND Middle management

The term middle management seems very simple to understand, they are the managers that are in the middle. But in the middle of what are they really, in the middle of the organisation, or in the middle of all employees? Both these implications would mean that the middle managers are somewhat the spider in the web with a very significant role and high importance in the organisation. This tallies with the definition given in an article by Stoker (2006) that the middle manager has to give but also receives direction.

The opinions about the middle management has somewhat been subject to shifting trends in management theory. I n the 1980 s and 1990 s it seems that in literature the role of the middle managers is somewhat downplayed and that they are not at all that important. In 1960 Simon already mentioned that the job of middle managers could easily be done by computers, this belief being shared by others (e.g. Drucker, 1988). However, recent years numerous authors have attempted and succeeded in turning the thoughts about middle managers around. Hackett (2006) mentioned that to achieve superior performance and higher productivity from employees, one-on-one social exchanges between bosses and workers is essential. He then mentions that since this type of communication is not possible to realise for CEO s, the middle manager is a necessity in nowadays organisations. Baloguns (2003) article mentions that these social exchanges between superior and subordinates are especially important during change activities. Also Currie and Procter (2005) claim that the middle manager is the key strategic player in organisations and that organisational performance is determined by what happens on the middle management level instead of at the top level. Finally, in addition to this more positive view on middle managers Young (2000) mentions that they are also much more powerful as initially assumed. So, the middle manager is currently gaining a more important and appreciated position in organisations again.

Because the middle manager finds him- or herself in the middle of the organisation and all the excitement, it seems obvious that there are moments when the middle managers feels uncomfortable or in conflict with others employees or with a situation. Ritzen (1996) says that due to the fact that middle managers are being swung back and forth in the organisation, tensions are being created. One of those tensions mentioned by Ritzen (1996) is that a middle manager can experience role conflicts. A middle manager can have the feeling that he or she has to choose between executive management and operating personnel (Ritzen, 1996).

Role theory

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understand the definitions used in further explanation of role theory, it is useful to take a look at below presented short overview of the different terms.

Term Definition

Role theory Overall theory concerning role conflicts and role ambiguity Focal person The member of the role set experiencing role conflicts

Role set The different individuals that a focal person has to deal with in a certain environment, e.g. home or work

Role conflict Two or more sets of incompatible demands concerning work issues or social issues Role ambiguity Lack of specificity, clarity, and predictability concerning an employee s job duties

or role functions and responsibilities

Role incompatibility Demands that cannot be combined and causes role conflicts

Role theory describes that when individuals experience role incompatibilities it creates role conflicts, meaning when certain roles within the organisation do not correspond with each other, individuals experience conflicting demands and feelings (Grace, 1972). The extent to which expectations of various members of a role set are divergent causes the prevalence of role conflicts (Johnson & Graen, 1973).

Within the term role conflict there are different categories that can be distinguished. Kahn et al. (1964) created a typology that can be seen below, as derived from King & King (1990):

Intrasender conflict; incongruent expectations from a single member of a role set Intersender conflict; incongruent expectations from two or more members of a role set Interrole conflict; incongruent expectations from members of two or more different role sets Person-role conflict; incongruities between expectations of one or more members of the role set and expectations within the focal person s subjective role

From these mentioned definitions of role conflicts it can be concluded that middle managers have to deal with multiple members in their role set which (could) send incongruent messages and expectations towards the middle manager, causing the so-called intersender conflict. Every individual also has to deal with multiple role sets, such as a role set at work and a role set at home. The members of these different role sets can also create conflicting demands for the focal person. This role conflict coming from two or more role sets is called the interrole conflict and is of course also applicable to the situation of the middle manager. These two role conflicts, intersender and interrole, will be the ones of interest in this study.

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this present study. These terms help to keep a distinct view on what a middle manager deals with. The translation into these terms fit the ideas of several authors on middle managers, when discussing the diverse organisational lines a middle manager has to deal with. Floyd and Lane (2000) mention that the middle managers are operating in three different sub environments; top management, middle management and operating level. Because of these sub environments the middle managers are expected to mediate between two levels (vertical lines); top management and operating management (Floyd & Lane, 2000). A middle manager has to deal, communicate and operate together with (multiple) managers upward and his or her team downwards (Keys & Bell, 1982). This kind of communication entails one role set in a work environment and can be seen as an intersender role conflict, named in this present study as manager-team role conflict. Besides the vertical communication lines there is also a horizontal communication line, looking sideways at his or her peers, for example to gain support from them (Bower, 1970). Also that type of communication can be typified as an intersender role conflict and is translated into the manager-peer role conflict. Also a subject which is often connected with the theory on role conflicts is the work-family relation. This is applicable to everyone that is in a working position, and exists when there is a conflict between the responsibilities at home and at work (Boles, Johnston & Hair, 1997). This work-family role conflict can be seen as an interrole conflict, it entails more than one role set, namely work environment and social environment. So, in short, the mentioned terms used in this present research are as follows:

1. Manager-team role conflict; in the middle of your manager and your team of subordinates, an intersender conflict.

2. Manager-peers role conflict; in the middle of your manager and you peers, an intersender conflict.

3. Work-family role conflict; in the middle of your business activities and your family life, an interrole conflict.

As mentioned earlier, the lack of sufficient research on the position of middle managers and experiencing role conflicts has lead to the following descriptive question for this research:

Do middle managers experience role conflicts; that is manager-team role conflict, manager-peers role conflict and work-family role conflict?

Related factors

The role conflicts is not an isolated subject in an organisation, it is related to different factors. The assumed related factors are discussed in the below formulated hypotheses.

Leader- member exchange

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the superior and his or her subordinate and claims that a superior can influence the role a subordinate takes on in the relationship, due to the legitimate authority one has on his or her subordinates (Deluga, 1998). When the quality of the relationship is high, the subordinate receives a lot of support and more responsibilities (Dansereau, Graen & Haga, 1975). Because of that high quality relationship and its effects, there is a positive working climate with a good collaboration and fewer conflicts (Cogliser & Schriesheim, 2000). When the quality of the relationship is poor, the relationship is being characterised by formal rules and distance between superior and subordinate (Dansereau et al., 1975). Considering this connection between the quality of the relationship and experiencing conflicts, it seems obvious that also the chance on role conflicts is increasing when quality is low. This leads to the following hypothesis.

H1: Low quality on the relationship of superior and subordinate (LMX), leads to more manager-team role conflicts among middle managers.

Leader- leader exchange

Recently a theory has been developed around the subject of the relationship between managers (leaders) and their managers (leaders), so middle managers and their executive management, which is called the leader-leader exchange (LLX) (Tangirala, Green and Ramanujam, 2007). This theory is based on the better known and earlier described LMX, leader-member exchange (Tangirala et al., 2007). I n the article of Tangirala et al. (2007) they study whether LLX has a moderating effect on the outcomes of LMX, so when LMX influences employees organisational identification, they propose that a higher LLX-score influences that variable even more. According to Tangirala et al. (2007) LLX has the same effect on several characteristics as the LMX. Since the theory around LLX is very recently and can only be found in one study yet, the hypothesis and research on this topic is mainly based on the LMX theory and assumptions. Tangirala et al. (2007) state that when a supervisor has a good relationship with its manager (LLX), it influences the relationship between that supervisor and his or her subordinates in a positive way. Having a positive relation with the executive manager would reasonably lead to more positive feelings about the job and position in being the middle manager. Having positive feelings about work would probably also lead to less role conflicts and therefore we could say that the hypothesis can be as follows:

H2: Low quality on the relationship between the middle manager and its superior (LLX), leads to more manager-team role conflicts among middle managers.

Career salience

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persistence in pursuing career goals in spite of obstacles and setbacks that are encountered (p. 159). This could mean that middle managers with a high score on career salience experience less role conflicts, due to the fact that they are likely to deal with the obstacles better. A study of Carlson and Kacmar (2000) on life-role values showed that for individuals with a higher focus on family, the characteristics of the work role had a greater impact on conflicts and satisfaction. This could also be seen the other way around; the lower the focus on family, the less conflict there was reported at the work role (Carlson & Kacmar, 2000). Also empirical information from the work field of middle managers shows that the middle managers that carry high ambition and have a large focus on their career are willing to give in more with regards to their personal life. They take for granted the extra time and effort they have to invest in order to get a better position in the future. The middle managers that are less ambitious have more trouble in combining work with family, since they tend to invest less time and effort in their career. The ambitious group of middle managers are expected to experience less work-family role conflicts than the ones that have fewer ambitions. Therefore the following hypothesis can be formulated.

H3: Higher focus on career salience is positively related to lower perceived work-family role conflicts among middle managers.

Role clarity

Role clarity deals with the amount of information that individuals receive and understand which is needed to perform their job properly (Kelly, Gable & Hise, 1981). Role clarity can also be seen as a synonym for the term role ambiguity, since ambiguity already means the lack of clarity (Martin & Berthiaume, 1993). Role clarity has not yet been brought into relation with role conflicts in those specific used terminology. However, the relation between role ambiguity and role conflict can be found in literature. Martin and Berthiaume (1993) found a low to moderate correlation between role conflict and role ambiguity. O Driscoll and Beehr (2000) found a direct moderating effect of clarity on role conflicts in relation to job satisfaction, indicating that there is a significant relation between role conflicts and role clarity. Based on this assumed relation between the two factors, the following hypothesis has been developed.

H4: High role clarity is negatively related to the manager-team and manager-peer role conflict among middle managers.

Biographical variables

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METHOD

The descriptive question and hypotheses were analysed by results coming from a questionnaire conducted among middle managers.

Sample and respondents

The sample of this research had to consist of respondents who are all currently employed as middle managers. The sample group that has been invited to fill out a questionnaire have been approached through email and are former participants of training sessions on leadership at Management Training Centre de Baak. The respondents received a hyperlink that provided a questionnaire form on the internet. I n the email an introduction has been given about the reason why the research is being done. The reader is being instructed only to fill out this questionnaire when he or she is an actual middle manager and receives and gives direction in their job. To create a valid group of only middle managers, also in the questionnaire two questions are being posed whether they have a manager and how many subordinates they are supervising. I f they do not answer both questions, the questionnaire cannot be processed. After two weeks a reminder email has been send to all the email addresses that had not yet submitted the questionnaire, this to increase response rates. Also to gain a higher response rate, all respondents who filled out the questionnaire, are invited to a workshop under supervision of Annemarie de Jong that will give a clear overview on the results of the research. The workshop will also provide tips for the middle managers on how to deal with the role conflicts.

I n total 570 assumed middle managers received the invitation to fill out the questionnaire. 103 of those people replied to the invitation and filled out the questionnaire, which is a response rate of 18%. The group of middle managers are consisting of 82 men and 21 women, all in the age ranging from 26 to 59, with an average age of 42 (SD= 6,58).

Questionnaire

As mentioned and explained in the introductory section; the focus of this research study is prevalence; the occurrence of certain problems or conditions and looks at the number or proportion of individuals in a population with that given problem or condition at a certain time (Medical Dictionary). Although it is widely used in the medical field, it is also applicable to the field of management and business, as it is for any other field. For this research it is used to map whether middle managers experience role conflicts in their job activities.

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at work? According to the research of Chi-Ju Wu et al. (2007) the indirect questions are preferred over self-reporting, because the former is most reliable, since there are always people that self-report a condition that they [ according to the researchers standards] do not have and vice versa; there is also a group that does not report or think that they have a certain condition, while they actually do have it (Chi-Ju Wu et al., 2007).

After reviewing the theory on role conflicts in combination with the literature on middle managers, a classification of the expected role conflicts to be found in this present research has been made in cooperation with Annemarie de Jong. These categories are as follows:

1. Manager-team role conflict; in the middle of your manager and your team of subordinates 2. Manager-peers role conflict; in the middle of your manager and you peers

3. Work-family role conflict; in the middle of your business activities and your family life

To gather data on these different types of role conflicts, a questionnaire was developed which contains questions that indirectly asks the sample group whether they experience role conflicts. In the questionnaire the word conflict has been avoided as much as possible, in order to avoid that respondents became biased about the subject. I n the introductory section of the questionnaire, the respondent has been informed about the research about leadership; however the main focus on experiencing role conflicts has not been mentioned. For each of the above mentioned categories there are multiple questions posed; three about work-family role conflict and for the manager-team role conflict and manager-peers role conflict four questions each. These questions can be answered through a Likert-scale with seven possible answers, rating from totally disagree to totally agree. Some of these questions come from existing research, such as I receive incompatible requests from two or more people from Rizzo (1970) and some are created specifically for this research in cooperation with Annemarie de Jong. The question from the list of Rizzo (1970) has been slightly adjusted to fit the different categories of role conflicts, such as: I receive incompatible requests from my manager and my team. Also from research from King and King (1990) questionnaire material has been used, such as When I have to work overtime, my spouse gets upset. The other statements, as can be seen in table 1, (e.g. I have the feeling that I have to choose between my manager and my peers) about role conflicts are created, as mentioned earlier, in cooperation with Annemarie de Jong.

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LMX, designed by Graen and Uhl-Bien in 1995, and show an internal reliability of = ,78. Also role clarity has been analysed in the results and these four questions regarding role clarity originate from Bergers, Marcelissen and de Wolff (1986), and is reliable with an of ,82. The table below shows an overall overview of the main items of the questionnaire.

TABLE 1

Main items questionnaire

Items questionnaire Manager- team role conflict

I receive incompatible requests from my manager and my team

The agreements that I have with my team connect to the objectives which I receive from my manager My team expects decisions of me for which I have the authority of management

The performance objectives set by my manager are feasible for my team

Manager- peers role conflict

I have the feeling that I have to choose between (the opinion of) my manager and (the opinion of) my peers My manager asks me to make decisions that can hinder my peers

I receive incompatible requests from my manager and my peers I have the feeling that my peers have more or other authorities than me

Work- family role conflict

When I have to work overtime, my spouse gets upset

My job demands efforts from me that I cannot unite with my private life I have to make offers for my job in my private life

LLX

My supervisor will exert himself to straighten out issues that arise at my activities as a middle manager I have an effective working relation with my supervisor

I trust my supervisor and I will defend his or her decisions when he or she is not there When I have an idea for possible changes in my work, my supervisor listens to me carefully My supervisor and I are a good match with regard to work

My supervisor knows my problems and needs in my work very well My supervisor is confident about my capabilities

LMX

I will exert myself for my subordinates when they run into issues that arise at their activities I have an effective working relation with my subordinates

My subordinates trust me and they will defend my decisions when I am not there

When my subordinates have an idea for possible changes in their work, I listen to them carefully My subordinates and I are a good match with regard to work

I know the problems and needs that my subordinates have with regard to their work very well I have confidence in my subordinates capabilities

Role clarity

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I know exactly what is expected of me

I know what my colleagues in my organisation expect of me It is clear what I have to do in my job

Career salience

The most important things in my life have to do with my career I see myself as ambitious, I am focused in my work to move forwards I find it joyful to think about my future career and to make plans

I find it important to have a career and I am willing to put time and effort into that I want to work, but I do not need to have a demanding career

Exploratory factor analysis and internal reliability

The different items of the questionnaire that concern role conflicts are assessed by an exploratory factor analysis. This is done by a principal component analysis with oblique rotation. The factor analysis distinguishes two different factors, instead of the initial three, as can be seen in table 2.

TABLE 2

Results of Principal Component Analysis of 11 items on role conflicts Items Factors

1 2

Manager- team role conflict

I receive incompatible requests from my manager and my team ,544 ,139 The agreements that I have with my team connect to the objectives which I receive from my

manager

,586 -,103

My team expects decisions of me for which I have the authority of management ,520 ,024 The performance objectives set by my manager are feasible for my team ,436 ,169

Manager- peers role conflict

I have the feeling that I have to choose between (the opinion of) my manager and (the opinion of) my peers

,635 -,042

My manager asks me to make decisions that can hinder my peers ,573 -,044 I receive incompatible requests from my manager and my peers ,780 ,150 I have the feeling that my peers have more or other authorities than me ,525 ,087

Work- family role conflict

When I have to work overtime, my spouse gets upset -,105 ,681

My job demands efforts from me that I cannot unite with my private life ,244 ,863

I have to make offers for my job in my private life ,076 ,837

Percentage of variance explained 25,37 18,18

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combination of manager-team and manager-peers. For the further analysis these latter two factors will be combined in one factor, named the middle managers role conflict, consisting of role conflicts when dealing with the different organisational lines that a middle manager has.

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RESULTS

The means, standard deviations and zero-order Pearson correlation of all items can be found in the following table; table 3.

TABLE 3

Univariate Statistics and Pearson Correlations among the Variables

Variables Mean SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1 Age 42.19 6.58 2 Gender 1.20 .41 -.155

3 Work-family role conflict 3.15 1.17 -.043 .116

4 Mm role conflict 2.58 .70 .011 -.161 .168

5 Leader-member exchange (LMX) 5.70 .56 .270** .074 -.004 -.297**

6 Leader-leader exchange (LLX) 5.17 1.24 -.063 .091 -.136 -.466** .262**

7 Career salience 3.28 .78 -.408** .186 -.043 -.065 -.032 .213* 8 Role clarity 5.68 .81 .069 .154 .019 -.371** .335** .315* .149 * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). Prevalence

I n order to draw conclusions on the prevalence of the role conflicts, the means of all answers have been calculated. For the work-family role conflict the mean of the responses is 3,15 on a scale of seven. The other role conflict, the middle managers role conflict, shows an average of 2,58, also on a scale of seven.

When we look at the descriptive question, about if middle managers do experience role conflicts in their daily job activities the question can be answered positively, however the middle managers role conflict does not show a very high rate of experienced role conflict. In the discussion these means will be compared to other recent studies on general inter-sender role conflicts and the value of these averages will be analysed.

Correlation

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managers role conflict shows a strong negative correlation with the LLX. There is also a negative correlation between the middle managers role conflict and the LMX. The middle managers role conflict is also correlating with the role clarity in a negative way.

Hypotheses

The four hypotheses will be judged in the following section. The four factors concerning those hypotheses have been tested by hierarchical linear regression. The linear regression has been done in three steps. I n the first step, all biographical variables were entered as control variables. Then the four factors from the hypotheses were submitted in a second step to see whether there are significant relationships. The third step contains the cross-product term of the two significant factors LLX and role clarity to see whether or not there is interaction between the two variables. The proportion of variance accounted for by the predictor variables is adjusted R square = .26. The (significant) variables can be seen in table 4.

TABLE 4

Results of linear regression

Variables Perceived middle managers conflict

Beta P R R² R² Change F Step 1 (control variables) .162 .026 .007 .264 Age -.164 .104

Gender -.015 .883

Step 2 (main effects) .548 .301 .257 .000** Leader-member exchange (LMX) -.136 .161

Leader-leader exchange (LLX) -.370 .000** Career salience .081 .407 Role clarity -.210 .029*

Step 3 (two-way interaction) .549 .301 .245 .755 LLX x role clarity -.251 .755

* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level. ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level.

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H1: Low quality on the relationship of superior and subordinate (LMX), leads to more manager-team role conflicts among middle managers.

Although the Pearson correlation shows a significant relationship between LMX and the middle managers role conflict, the linear regression does not show that significance after applying the multiple variables stepwise. I t appears that LMX is not significant related to the middle managers role conflict after accounting for the other variables. H1 has to be rejected.

H2: Low quality on the relationship between the middle manager and its superior (LLX), leads to more manager-team role conflicts among middle managers.

The LLX shows a strong negative correlation with the middle managers role conflict, meaning that when LLX is low, perceived middle managers role conflict is high and when LLX is high, perceived middle managers role conflict is low. The linear regression performed on this hypothesis yielded a b = -.37, p < 0.000, showing that the middle managers role conflict is quite strongly dependent on the quality of the relationship between superior and middle manager (LLX). Therefore H2 can be accepted.

H3: Higher focus on career salience is positively related to lower perceived work-family role conflicts among middle managers.

The zero-order Pearson correlation does not show any significant relationship between career salience and the work-family role conflict. H3 can therefore be rejected; career salience and the work-family role conflict are not related to each other, neither positively or negatively. Also career salience does not show any significant relationship with the middle managers role conflict.

H4: High role clarity is negatively related to the manager-team and manager-peer role conflict among middle managers.

I n the correlation table we see a significant negative relation between the role clarity and the middle managers role conflict. Also the linear regression shows that role clarity has a significant negative correlation with the middle managers role conflict with b = -.21, p < 0.05. When there is high role clarity the perceived middle managers role conflict will be low. H4 can be accepted.

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DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

This research has been initiated to create a more quantitative basis on whether or not middle managers really experience role conflicts. Besides that, there also was an interest in which factors of working relations and personal behaviour is related to the role conflicts that middle managers experience. Initially there were three different categories of role conflicts delimited, the work-family role conflict, the manager-team role conflict and the manager-peer role conflict. As it appeared from exploratory factor analysis it was necessary to bring these three categories down to two, maintaining the work-family role conflict and combining the other two in the middle managers role conflict. The middle managers role conflict was especially used and named for this present study and can be seen as an intersender role conflict, namely when expectations within one role are incompatible with each other (Dictionary of Human Resource Management, 2001).

The results showed means of the two role conflicts, being 3,15 on the work-family role conflict and 2,58 on the middle managers role conflict. I t was expected that middle managers experienced a high level of role conflicts, especially the latter form, which is also stated by McConville and Holden (1999). The mean of the perceived work-family role conflict does not seem to be a very high average, however when it is compared to other recent studies that mention averages on the work-family role conflict, it does not deviate all that much from those averages of 3,61 (Thiagarajan, Chakrabarty, Lueg and Taylor, 2007), 3,14 (Carlson & Kacmar, 2000) and 3,22 (Boles, Johnston & Hair, 1997)1.

Although the middle managers role conflict was present among middle managers, the mean of the role conflict was not as high as expected. Also when compared to other averages gained at studies, 2,58 appears to be a rather low mean. The other studies show that averages like 3,58 (Eckmann, 2004), 3,67 (Jawahar, Stone & Kisamore, 2007) and 3,62 (Gong, Shenkar, Luo & Nyaw, 2001) are a more common number in the organisational field among jobs on rather similar level of middle managers1. The descriptive question on the prevalence of role conflicts among middle managers can be answered positively, however the middle managers role conflict is much less apparent as expected and assumed. Apparently the middle managers self report and mention the problems they come across in their jobs, but cannot report them when asked for indirectly. Perhaps the problem of a middle managers role conflict is not more prevalent than when being on any other organisational level. A reason for this lower average than expected could also lie in the way the questions are designed. The questions are partly based on previous studies on role conflicts (e.g. Rizzo, 1970), but also created by the author of this present study. Although the questions show a high internal reliability, it is possible that the wrong questions have been asked. Also a possible explanation for the divergent average could be that all other studies are performed at professional fields instead of on a certain organisational level. The samples used in the other studies are from fields that are known to be dealing with high rates of stress (and therefore role conflicts), such as the nursing field. This

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descriptive question could have been studied more thoroughly and get more solid findings on the prevalence of role conflicts when not only middle managers were questioned, but also other groups. Now there is no comparison possible within the results and above mentioned comparison has been made with other studies. However the descriptive question was not the main theme of the study, the related factors were more of interest to the author.

For hypothesis 1 it was assumed that when middle managers have a low quality in their relationship with their team (LMX, superior-subordinate) that they would experience more middle managers role conflicts. The results showed that this was somewhat the case, however not significant. I t seems reasonable logic that when there is a high quality in relationship that there are less role conflicts perceived. Perhaps this could also be said for the low quality in the relationship with subordinates. The middle manager can have a low quality in relationship and therefore care less about the subordinates. When the middle manager cares less about the subordinates it will assumable also perceive less role conflicts due to the indifference the middle managers feels. The LMX could therefore be related to role conflicts in a U-curve shaped sense. For example when a middle manager scores in the middle of the scale they are having trouble defining the relationship as really good or really bad and find themselves more in the middle and experiencing more role conflicts due to that in the middle -feeling. This assumption should be further studied to fundamentally hypothesize this relation between LMX and role conflicts in the mentioned way.

Hypothesis 2, dealing with the LLX, would probably follow the same pattern as the LMX, since LLX is based on LMX. However we see in the results that LLX, the relation between the middle managers and his/ her superior, is more related to the middle managers role conflict than the LMX. Apparently the relationship with their superior is of high importance to the middle managers. This seems quite reasonable, knowing that the middle management position is very often the next step to executive management. Middle managers are known to be ambitious and it could be that due to that ambition they have a larger focus on the executives than on other parts of their organisational lines. With their interest more upwards into the organisation it seems obvious that they have a better relationship with their superior and therefore experience less role conflicts.

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The analysis showed that role clarity was negatively related to the perceived middle managers role conflict. This was also what was stated in the hypothesis and it was expected that role clarity could help prevent arising role conflicts. Although role clarity has not yet been brought into relation to role conflicts [ among middle managers] ; role ambiguity, which means clarity, has proven to show a moderate relationship with role conflict. Showing that when there is high role clarity there would be less perceived role conflicts. I t could be that when there is low role clarity middle managers feel distressed and therefore experience role conflicts. Stress and role conflicts should then be related to each other.

Limitations and further research

There are some limitations in this study concerning the results. The performed study was limited by time and therefore no longitudinal data has been gathered on which conclusions can be drawn. Due to this limited time frame the correlation cannot per definition provide answers on the causality of the different variables. I n this study only relations have been exposed, the information on which direction that relation works cannot be seen as highly reliable due to the limited means. Although the analyses shows that for example the LLX influences the middle managers role conflict, it has not been examined whether the middle managers role conflict influences the LLX. To provide reliable conclusions on the causality of the variables, longitudinal or experimental research has to be performed.

This study has only aimed at certain characteristics, however many variables and characteristics could be linked to the theory of role conflicts, such as personality or level of education. This could be interesting for further research. Also this study could be performed on many different levels or professional fields. Due to the underlying idea of this study it had a focus on middle managers; however the study could also be very interesting on any other level. Especially when considering that mainly all studies on the topic of role conflicts are only focused on specific jobs instead of organisational levels.

Conclusion

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behaviour. Surprisingly the relationship between the middle managers and his or her team did not show any significant relations. Also on the subject of career salience no relation could be found, so apparently the ambition of the middle manager does not influence their perceived work-family role conflicts or middle managers role conflicts. Role clarity did show a significant relationship with the middle managers role conflict, which connects to the earlier performed studies on role ambiguity and role conflicts. However, the outcomes on this relationship are new for the middle managers theories; role clarity has not yet been brought into relation to the middle managers.

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