Rizzo, House & Lirtz man, 1970). In a study( Chen, Hui Chen, Tsai & Yueh Lo, 2004) on nurses, impact of role stress on job satisfaction was established. After controlling for personality traits, role stress variables predicted 24.8 % of the variance in job satisfaction. Role ambiguity( P <. 001) and role overload( P <. 01) were the best predictors amongst the job stress factors which clearly show the impact of them on job stress. The paper focused on role ambiguity and complexity and reinforced that they result in job stress. Brumels & Beach( 2008) pointed out the percentage share of no. of respondents that cited role ambiguity and role complexity / overload as significant factors of job stress. Tang and Chang( 2010) carried a similar research on Taiwanese companies and is in-line with a different mechanism proposed by Cohen( 1980) where an employee dedicates more cognitive resources with increasing stress.
The role conflicts have major effects in the demanding environments of few jobs like customer service jobs. Customer service executives may take their jobs home with them, creating conflicts in families that lead to additional stress at work, finally affecting their performance and customers ' evaluations. Other important stressors referred are WFC and family – work conflict( FWC); the former is a form of interrole conflict in which the demands are created by the job interfere with the performance of family-related responsibilities, and the latter is a form of interrole conflict in which the
Figure 1: Path Model |
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Work-family Balance |
H1(-) |
Job Stress |
H3
(-)
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Employee Performance |
Role conflict / ambiguity |
H2(+) |
Autonomy |
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revealed a direct and positive link of role ambiguity and complexity on job stress, thus creating a negative impact on job performance and creativity.
Role conflict and role ambiguity are known to influence job related output parameters such as job stress and performance( Netemeyer, Brashear-Alejandro & Boles, 2004), job satisfaction( Bettencourt & Brown, 2003), job burnout( Bhanugopan & Fish, 2006), work-family conflict( Foley & Hang-Yue, 2005). Specifically the domain of professional selling is influenced extensively by exploration of stresses resulting from conflicting work roles( Behrman & Perreault, 1984). The impact of role ambiguity / conflict on job performance is supported theoretically by the role-episode model( Kahn et al. 1964). Kahn et al. posit that( 1) interface spanners( e. g. salespeople) interact with different role senders( e. g. fellow workers, boss) in many situations( e. g. evaluation & feedback, visits to customers) to gather various details, orders, help, and direction;( 2) expectations of role sender ' s( e. g. boss, customers) can result in stress when the interface spanner believes in existence of ambiguity or conflict;( 3) perceived role stressors are related to a person ' s characteristics like dispositional, psychological and sociological; and( 4) prolonged exposure to role stressors can undermine a person ' s outcomes( e. g. job performance, satisfaction, commitment). This sequence demands are created by the family interfere with the performance of work-related responsibilities( Netemeyer, Boles, & McMurrian 1996). This interrole conflict theory suggests that job stress is practiced if a person is harassed to meet the demands of a role. To date, there is little evidence of the effects of WFC and FWC on employee performance and customer outcomes.
A study by Netemeyer et al( 2005) reports that Job stress affected both aspects of performance, in-role performance and customer directed extra-role performance. Job stress may directly affect customer purchase intent( CPI) by inhibiting the service employee from offering a stirring role performance when interacting with customers. Customers may sense this and give low CPI ratings. Since the psychological needs of employees can be critical in determining how they respond to their work context, when individuals have a strong need for personal accomplishment, learning, and development they may attempt to initiate behaviors that will lead to creative performance, even when the work context is not supportive( Shalley, Gilson, Blum, 2009). While, Indartono and Chen( 2010) studied that employee performance was more related to employee ' s capability and competency fit on the job and related to individual characteristics such as sex, age, work experiences, and level of education than other factors. Further a study by Pryor, Pryor, Taneja, Humphreys( 2010) suggests that
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