HOW TO ELIMINATE EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AND TURNOVER ISSUES.

 

In today’s corporate sector, employee absenteeism and turnover complaints have been on the rise once again after the outbreak of the pandemic COVID-19 and its consequential economic recessions in various zones around the globe. Organizational employees are relentlessly complaining about their rising burnout, stress, and dissatisfaction levels at their jobs. The stress at work can be a result of both the internal and external factors of the surrounding environment. 

ROLE STRESSORS

Different kinds of job stress have been the major issues for employers and an enormous amount of research work has been conducted until today for prescribing relevant solutions. Role stressors, specifically role conflict and role ambiguity, are significant predictors of job stress, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intentions. Role Ambiguity is the level of misunderstanding among working employees that raises confusion in their minds and perceptions regarding their responsibilities and performance (Mañas et al., 2018). Whereas, role conflict is an uncomfortable state in which an employee experiences contradictory, incompatible demands against his role expectations, compliance with both is difficult (Katz, & Kahn, 1978).

 

Role ambiguity and role conflict arise in organizations where the division of labor and task are either ill-defined or too complex, where organizational structure is either strictly centralized or too complex, where the internal structure is experiencing transformational changes or where human resource function is ignored. Role conflict and role ambiguity are the most referred role incompatibilities that arise in an organizational context. While performing various tasks in an organization, every worker is obliged to perform a specific role-set in his organization. However, workers, due to organizational imbalances in defining role sets, have to cope with role uncertainties and conflicts.

 RESEARCH REVIEW ON ROLE STRESSORS

The studies on these factors have been widely covered by Lambert and his associates in 2005. However, a vital contribution to the history of human resources was made by Rizzo and his associates in 1970 and later on by Katz and Kahn in 1978. For a long time, researchers have been trying to prove the direct relationship between role stressors and various employee outcomes. Several research findings suggest the detrimental effect of role conflict and role ambiguity on organizational citizenship behavior, work satisfaction, involvement, and job performance.

 

The role stressors are found to have a direct relationship with an employee’s intentions for turnover. It means that the higher the levels of role stressors in a working environment, the higher the chances of employees thinking of turnover. Role stressors always have a negative effect on employee engagement intensity. It means that to increase the level of employee engagement in a working environment, the extent of role stressors should be minimized. Similarly, to have control over employee absenteeism and to minimize turnover intentions, organizations must work on eliminating the adverse impact of role stressors. Immense analysis on employee engagement with various paradigms of leadership styles, organizational commitment, citizenship behavior, employee turnover, and satisfaction exists which shows the inverse relationship of role stressors with all of these variables.

 

Transition in an employee’s career also begins when a person is triggered by internal factors of discontentment or distress. It so happens because the work-related discontentment further triggers the need to explore different options for a career change. This issue was picked up by many researchers in the early years of the 21^st Century. In short, the employee’s perception builds the foundation for his transitions in career and turnover intentions.

 

CONCLUSION

Hence, there is a strong need globally to understand the factors within the working environment which are liable to raise the extent of role stressors in organizations. Employee turnover, absenteeism, dissatisfaction, and job stress variables can be controlled by managing the roles of role ambiguities and role conflicts within an organization. I have personally practiced reducing the levels of role stressors which yielded improved relative results. Organizations at their individual and distinctive capacities need to analyze the loopholes in their system and devise adequate strategies to cope with their role stressors to minimize all its negative impacts.