UNIT 5

Objectives

CONCEPT AND SYSTEM OF ROLES

The Concepts and System of Roles

After going through this Unit you should be able to: Understand the concept of organizational roles Appreciate significance of role systems Prepare role space and role set maps Structure 5,1 The Concept of Role 5.2 The Two Role Systems 5.3 Mapping Role Systems 5.4 Summary 5.5 Self Assessment Questions 5.6 Further Readings

5.1

THE CONCEPT OF ROLE

In, any social system, such as the family club, religious community, work organization, etc., Individuals have certain obligations towards the system, which in turn gives each one of them .a defined place in the society. This system of mutual obligations can be called a role and the individual's place, a position or an office. For example, when one joins a new club, one is admitted as member is defined in terms of the hierarchical placement and privileges (the power one will enjoy). One also agrees to abide by ` certain rules, carry out certain activities when required, volunteer for certain work, etc. The other members of the club expect all this from the individual, and one also expects to dd. the needful. All these expectations, together with one's response to them comprise the role. Briefly then, and individual occupies a hierarchical position in a system, along with the ensuing powers and privileges, and performs certain functions in response to his and the member's expectations. In this case the former is the office (or position) and the latter the role. Role is the position one occupies in a social system, as defined by the functions on performs in response to the expectations of the 'significant' members of social system, and one's own expectations from that position or office. Role and office ( or position), though two sides of the same coin, are, however, two separate concepts. According to Katz and Kahn, "Office is essentially a relational concept, defining each position in terms of its relationship to other and to the system as a whole". Exhibit1 Office for Positional and Role Office/Position - is based on power relations - has related privieges - is usually hierarchical - is created by other - is part of the structure - is evaluative Role - based on mutuality - has related obligations - is non-hierarchical - is created by other and the role occupant - is part of the dynamics - is descriptive

Role Dynamics

Exhibit 2 Organization as a Structure of Offices

While office is a relational and power-related concept, role is an 'obligational" concept. Office is concerned with the hierarchical position and privileges, while a, role is concerned with the obligations of position. Exhibit 1 distinguishes between these two concepts.. While office is a point in the social structure defining an office holder's power, role is integrated set of behavious expected from a person occupying that office. An organization can be represented accoring to the offices, or the roles. Exhibits 2 and 3 represent a part of an organization in two different ways. Exhibit 3 Organization as a System of Roles

An office becomes a role when it is actually defined and determined by the expectations of other office holders (as reflected in the way an office is discharged by the concerned office holder). Each role has its own system, consisting of the role occupant and those who have a direct relationship with him, and thereby, certain expectations from the role. Using the currently accepted terminology suggested by Kaiz and Kahn, we will term the "significant' others having expectations from a role as role senders. They ' send' expectations to the role. The role occupant also has expectations from his role, and in that sense the role occupant is also a role sender: Let us take an example. In a family the father has both a position (office) and a role. Thee father's position defines his authority in the family. In some societies he is the final decision make and the other members abide by his decisions. There are certain expectation from the father that define his role - that he would earn for the family, protect the family against threats, etc. In his position as the head or the family system, his role is to maintain and protect the family. While the position gives him some privileges, the role places certain obligations on him.

A role is not defined without the expectations of the role senders, including the role occupant. The position of a personnel manager may be created in an organizations,

but his role will be defined by the expectations (stated or unstated) that different persons have from the personnel manager, and the expectations that he in turn, has from the role. In this sense, the role gets defined in each system by the role senders, including the role occupant. However, a question that can be raised is: If the role is defined in each case by the role senders, how can we talk about a role in general, e.g. the father's role? While strictly speaking a role in general. does not make much sense, in a lager social system the expectations from a role are largely shared, and have common elements. These are generalised, and we therefore, talk about the role of the Indian mother, or the role of a chairman in a public sector concern, etc. Confusion sometimes arises because the word role has two different connotation. At times it denotes the position a person holds in an organization along with the expectations from that position (e.g. the role of a teacher, a policeman, etc), and elsewhere it describes only the expected behaviour or activities (for example, a disciplinarian or an evaluatory role or a teacher, task and maintenance roles, etc.). For the sake of convenience we shall use the word role for a position a person holds in a system (organization), as defined by the expectations various 'significant' persons, including oneself, have from that person. We will use the tem function to indicate a se inter-relaited expectations from a role. We can therefore say that while 'sales manager' is a role, developing a sales force and customer contact are the related functions. Distinction needs to be made amongst certain work-related terms; office, role, job functions, tasks, etc. Although there are no universally accepted definitions, work is generally a wider terms, whereas office, role and job are ways or organizing work or dividing responsibilities. Functions are sub-units of a role. A function can be further subdivided into tasks. Exhibit 4 provides the definitions of these terms. Exhibit 4 Work-Related Terms
Work is a wider concept linking a person with his tools and with others performing a similar activity. Office or position is a specific point in an organizational structure, defining the power of the person occupying it. Role' is the set of obligations generated by the 'significant' others, and the individual occupying an office. Job is a specific requirement to produce a product or achieve an objective. Function is a group of expected behaviors for a role. Example: An individual X may occupy an office of Branch Y of a bank. As a part of this office the individual the. individual reports to the Regional Manager. Similarly, a large number of persons, in turn, report to X. His role is to develop the branch by getting a successively larger market share of deposits and advances. One of the functions under this role' is to increase deposits. One task which he performs, as part of this function, is to undertake a survey of potential depositors, another is to contact the prestigious and 'big' depositors personally.

The Concepts and System of Roles

WORK. OFFICE ROLE JOB

FUNCTION TASKS

Role Dynamics

The concept of role is vital for the integration of the individual with an organization. The individual and organization come together through a role. As shown in Exhibit 5 the organization has its own structure and goals. Similarly, the individual has his personality and needs (motivations). These interact with each other and to some extent get integrated in a role. Role is also a central concept in work motivation. It is only through a role that the individual and an organization interact with each other, as shown in Exhibit 6. Exhibit 5 Role as an Integrating Point of an Organization and the Individual

Exhibit 6 Role as an Interacting Region between an Organization and the Individual

5.2

THE TWO ROLE SYSTEMS

An organization can be defined as a system of roles. However, a role itself is a system. From the individual's point of view there are two role system; the system of various roles Which the individual carries and performs, and the system of various role of which his role is a part. The first, we will call role space and the second, a role set. Each individual occupies and plays several roles. A person X, is a daughter, a mother, a salesperson, an member of a club, a member of a voluntary organization, and so on. All these roles constitute the role space of X. At the centre of the role space is the self. As the concept of role is central to that of an organization, so also the concept of self is central to the several roles of a person. The term 'self refers to the interpretations the person makes about the referent' I".. It is a cognitive structure which evolves from past experience with other persons and objects. Self can be defined as the experience of an identity arising from a person's interactions with the external reality - things, persons and systems. A person performs various roles which are centred the self These roles are at varying distances from the self (and from each other). These relationships define the 'role space. Role space, is then a dynamic interrelationship between the self and the various role an individuals occupies, and also amongst these roles.

The distance between a role and the self indicates the extent to which the role is integrated with the self. When we do not enjoy a particular role or do not get involved in it, there is a distance between the self and the role. We shall use the term self-role distance to denote this: Similarly, there may be distance between two roles that a person occupies. For example, the role of club membership may be, distant from the, role of a husband: This we will term as inter-role distance or inter-role conflict. The role space map of an individual can be drawn by location the self in the centre, an various roles occupied at varying distances from the self. Exhibit 7 presents the role space of a person "A", who is personnel manger in a company. The numbers 9 to 1, for the various circles, represent distances. from the self 1 denoting the least distance and 9 the most. The various roles of A are located in the four quadrants according to the context (i.e., family, organization., profession or recreation). More segments or role space can be added in the diagram.

The Concepts and System of Roles

The individual's role in the organization is defined by the expectations of other significant roles, and those or the individual himself The role is pattern of inter relationships between a role, and the other roles. Katz and Kahn (1966) use the tern 'focal person' for the individual who occupies a role, and role senders, for those within the role set of the individual. Here the terns 'role occupant' have been used and 'other roles' respective for them himself. The role set map for an individual's role can be also prepared on the same lines as those suggested for preparing a role space map. In a role set map the occupant role will be in the centre, and all the other roles can be located at various points on the map. Using a circular model, the roles can be located in concentric circles marked 9 to 1-9 indicating the roles closest to the occupant's role, and 1 indicating those which are the most distant. We will use the tern inter-role distance to indicate the distance between the occupant's role and the other roles. Lesser distance indicates higher role linkages (which can be defined as, the reverse of inter-role distance). Role linkage is an important concept in role satisfaction and role conflict. Exhibit 8 gives the role set map of a person "A".

Role Dynamics

Exhibit 8 Roles Set Map of "A"

5.3

MAPPING ROLE SYSTEMS

As suggested above there are two role systems for every person the role space and the role set. Role space is the system of various roles that a person takes and performs, whereas the role set is the system of his organizational role. In the former, the self is in the centre and all roles that are performed are arranged around it. In the latter, the organizational role is in the centre. With all the interacting roles arranged around it. Knowledge of these two role systems in useful in understanding some role-related problems, and thereby dealing with them in an effective manager. For example, and individual's knowledge of how distant the self is from his different roles, can help in reducing this distance. If the professional role of the individual (say, the Secretary of a professional society) is distant from his self, he may like to analyse in detail, why is it so, it may be tat the role requires extensive travel which the individual does not like. This can be dealt with by negotiating with another office bearer on the latter's willingness to share the travel load. Various methods of reducing self-role distance will be discussed later, however, it is necessary to diagnose distances. This can be done by preparing a role space map. Similarly, a role set map can help an individual in formulating a visual impression of the proximity (or distance) of various roles in role set from his focal role. This insight may help in developing strategies for interrole linkages, A role set map may also give an overview of the various important roles with which the individual interacts. Both the role set and role space maps are, in effect, preliminary diagnostic tools. Self Exercise Mapping Role Space: List below, the various important roles you occupy and perform in the organization (one main role), family (father/mother, son/daughter, brother/sister,

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etc.), professional society, club, any other organization, etc. Then rank them in the next column form the most important to the least important (interm of your involvement). Roles Occupied/Performed 1. .. 2. .. 3. .. 4. .. 5. .. 6. .. 7. .. 8. .. 9. .. 10. .. Rank of Importance ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... .....

The Concepts and System of Roles

Now prepare your role space map by plotting the listed roles on the map outline given in Exhibt 9. The nince concentric circles in the map outline indicate distances from the self (Which is at the centre.) The nearer a role is to be self, the more you are involved in it, and the closer it should be plotted to the self.. In the map outline, circle 9 is the closest to the self, and circle 1 the farthest. Exhibit 9 Outline of the Role Space Map

Mapping the Role Set : Prepare your role set map in the outline given in Exhibit 10, as follows i. Write your own role in the central circle of the map outline.

ii. Plot the other roles department-wise, according to the distances, you think, they stand at from our role. Use each sector (A,B,C, etc.) on the map outline to represent a particular department in the organization. You may further subdivide the sector space to accommodate more departments if necessary.

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Role Dynamics

iii. Circle 9 in the outline map indicated the position closest to (least distant) your role whereas circle 1 indicates the position farthest (most distant) from your role. Distance indicates the sense of proximity you have with the role, The closer the relationship, the closer you plot the other role to your own (9. being the closest). The farther you plot the other role, the more distant is the relationship you have with it 91 being the farthest). Exhibit 10 Outline of the Role Set Map

5.4

SUMMARY

In this unit we have tried to understand the concept of role in relation to organizational boundaries, as a part of total roles one occupies as an individual in his/her life. As an individual one occupies several roles as explained in the beginning of the unit. All the roles have different set of expectations from the individual. The individual himself/ herself has certain preception of the expectation of the role. These two may not necessarily match and hence create tension. This unit has described Role Space and Role set concepts. Role Space is the whole lot of role one occupies as. an individual but the role set refers to only those concerning an individual in an organizational situation. Hence we are, in this course and unit, basically concerned with the Role Set. Towards the end this unit also discusses how you can map your role space and Role Set. Do it yourself and learn.

5.5
1. 2. 3.

SELF ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS

Explain the concept of role in relation to role space and role set How does role become a source of conflict, explain with your own experience Define and differentiate between Role space and Role set with examples

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5.6
1. 2.

FURTHER READINGS
D. Katz and R. L. Kahn elaborated the concept of role in their. book The social psychology of organization (Wiley, 1966). U. Pareek's Making organizational roles effective gives details about the concept of role and how to prepare maps of role space and role set and role set.

The Concepts and System of Roles

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