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Role set
Any individual in any
situation occupies a role in relation to other people. The particular
individual with whom one is concerned in the analysis of any situation is
usually given the name of focal person. He has the focal
role and can be regarded as sitting in the middle of a group of
people, with whom he interacts in some way in that situation. This group of
people is called his role set. For instance, in the family
situation, an individual’s role set might be shown as in Figure 6.
The role set should include
all those with whom the individual has more than trivial interactions.
Role
definition
The definition of any
individual’s role in any situation will be a combination of the role expectations that the members
of the role set have of the focal role. These expectations are often
occupationally denned, sometimes even legally so. The role definitions of
lawyers and doctors are fairly clearly defined both in legal and in
cultural terms. The role definitions of, say, a film star or bank manager,
are also fairly clearly defined in cultural terms, too clearly perhaps.
Individuals often find it hard to escape from the role that cultural
traditions have defined for them. Not only with doctors or lawyers is the
required role behaviour so constrained that if you are in that role for
long it eventually becomes part of you, part of your personality. Hence,
there is some likelihood that all accountants will be alike or that all blondes are similar – they are forced
that way by the expectations of their role.
It is often important that you
make it clear what your particular role is at a given time. The means of
doing this are called, rather obviously, role signs. The simplest of role signs is a uniform. The number
of stripes on your arm or pips on your shoulder is a very precise role
definition which allows you to do certain very prescribed things in certain
situations. Imagine yourself questioning a stranger on a dark street at
midnight without wearing the role signs of a policeman!
In social circumstances, dress
has often been used as a role sign to indicate the nature and degree of
formality of any gathering and occasionally the social status of people
present. The current trend towards blurring these role signs in dress is probably
democratic, but it also makes some people very insecure. Without role
signs, who is to know who has what role?
Place is another role sign.
Managers often behave very differently outside the office and in it, even
to the same person. They use a change of location to indicate a change in
role from, say, boss to friend. Indeed, if you wish to change your roles
you must find some outward sign that you are doing so or you won’t be
permitted to change – the subordinate will continue to hear you as his boss
no matter how hard you try to be his friend. In very significant cases of
role change, e.g. from a soldier in the ranks to officer, from bachelor to
married man, the change of role has to have a very obvious sign, hence rituals. It is interesting to observe, for instance, some
decline in the emphasis given to marriage rituals. This could be taken as
an indication that there is no longer such a big change in role from single
to married person, and therefore no need for a public change in sign.
In organizations, office signs
and furniture are often used as role signs. These and other perquisites of
status are often frowned upon, but they may serve a purpose as a kind of
uniform in a democratic society; roles without signs often lead to confused
or differing expectations of the role of the focal person.
Role
ambiguity
Role ambiguity results when
there is some uncertainty in the minds, either of the focal person or of
the members of his role set, as to precisely what his role is at any given
time. One of the crucial expectations that shape the role definition is
that of the individual, the focal person himself. If his occupation of the
role is unclear, or if it differs from that of the others in the role set,
there will be a degree of role ambiguity. Is this bad? Not necessarily, for
the ability to shape one’s own role is one of the freedoms that many people
desire, but the ambiguity may lead to role stress which will be discussed
later on. The virtue of job descriptions is that they lessen this role
ambiguity.
Unfortunately, job
descriptions are seldom complete role definitions, except at the lower end
of the scale. At middle and higher management levels, they are often a list
of formal jobs and duties that say little about the more subtle and
informal expectations of the role. The result is, therefore, to give the
individual an uncomfortable feeling that there are things left unsaid, i.e.
to heighten the sense of role
ambiguity.
Looking at role ambiguity from
the other side, from the point of view of the members of the role set, lack
of clarity in the role of the focal person can cause insecurity, lack of
confidence, irritation and even anger among members of his role set. One
list of the roles of a manager identified the following: executive,
planner, policy maker, expert, controller of rewards and punishments, counsellor,
friend, teacher. If it is not clear, through role signs of one sort or
another, which role is currently the operational one, the other party may
not react in the appropriate way — we may, in fact, hear quite another
message if the focal person speaks to us, for example, as a teacher and we
hear her as an executive.
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