HR managers have to be aware of the fact that though they are expecting the workforce to be dynamic and handle multiple roles, it might lead to undue conflicts and stress in the organization. Special care should be taken while designing job descriptions such that roles are clearly defined and do not conflict with other roles. HR managers should also hold counseling sessions to determine if any such roles are present that could be affected so that rectification can be done. Especially the managerial positions should be free of role conflicts and ambiguity not only considering the undue stress but also the affect on employee performance and business.
An employee in such cases loses interest in work and tends to be more involved in avenging the role conflict and if this happens regularly then it would mean a less motivated workforce that is not coordinating and aligned to the organization goals.
As far as role-conflict and ambiguity are concerned, it is the HR and line manager ' s responsibility to ensure that the roles are clearly defined, documented and assigned with clear accountability for each. Even if employees need to perform multiple or cross-functional roles, these should be limited in scope and clearly defined so that there is no conflict or ambiguity later. HR manages should be all ears for ongoing conflicts in organizations and determine the nature of these conflicts. If the conflicts are related to role jurisdiction then there is a probability that either the part of the role is not clearly defined, or ambiguous, or is not on paper.
Avoiding or resolving such conflicts can go a long way in improving the coordination and cooperation amongst the workforce, thereby improving the productivity. HR managers have to be in constant touch with the top management because HR alone may not be able to resolve role conflicts that are in the upper tiers and will need support from the top management to sort things out. Another perspective is that some roles are by nature such that there cannot be a clear line drawn and some ambiguity or conflict may occur. In case a particular pair of managers is having problems with their roles, then the HR has to transfer the managers or restructure the roles such that the problem pair doesn ' t have to work together in the problem area. The HR thus has to play the employee champion and change agent role to improve the workforce productivity.
The third hypothesis, job stress has a significant negative influence on employee performance i. e. if job stress increases beyond a limit, it reduces employee performance, has also been found to be consistent with the findings. This has been established in many studies. From a HR point of view, it is important that the structure and manpower planning be such that there is an optimum workload on each person or depending on the ability of the person to handle the stress. This would mean that a eustress level is attained that lies between no stress and stressful state which would mean optimum performance by employees. Though this might sound impractical, the HR should take steps in this regard and only then he will be able to determine the extent to which this can be made possible.
The fourth hypothesis, Autonomy is a situational moderator for Role Ambiguity and Job Stress i. e. if Autonomy is higher, Role Ambiguity is not mediated by Job Stress is also found to be consistent with the results. Most of the firms now-a-days are moving towards a paradigm wherein they are emphasizing on providing greater amount of autonomy at the workplace in most of the daily decisions. This also proves helpful to manage the everyday job stress arising out of role ambiguity. Also, in case of any ambiguity / conflict arising in the minds of the employees, if he is able to take decisions on his own, he isn ' t affected that much and hence his job-stress significantly reduces. This finding has major implications for organisations that tend to emphasize on a more dynamic work-environment to foster productivity. For such organisations, providing a bit more autonomy to the employees might prove helpful in reducing their stress levels and may ultimately aid in getting the desired level of output required by the organisation.
Finally, as a whole the HR has to consider the effects of both work-life balance and role conflict on job stress and employee performance and in no case would / should both be allowed to get out of hand because it would mean excessive stress and lowered performance. HR has to be proactive in handling it and work with the line managers to effectively eliminate it in order to ensure smooth functioning and productive workforce.
6.0 CONCLUSION 6.1 Limitations of the study
The sample size could have been larger and a longitudinal study would have provided a more accurate picture than the present cross-sectional study. Providing clarity on the questionnaire in case the respondents had any doubts while filling was not considered.
Most importantly, work-family balance was a significant predictor of Job Stress in the literature that had been reviewed, but in the research were needed to be found out the causes of deviation from the expected output.
6.2 Future scope of research
The present study considered the impact of work-family balance on job stress in the Indian context. First, further research may consider the impact of the same in a Western context where the difference in orientation towards work and job may provide different results. Further role conflict / ambiguity were considered as one variable as both have similar characteristics. It may happen that roles are well defined in many organizations
17