Purpose

Faculty play a unique role in universities performing duties along the three fronts of teaching, research and service. While it might be teaching that contributes most to the bottom line of a small university, it is often research by which faculty merit is judged. This study explores the relationships between role ambiguity, role conflict and commitment (affective, normative and continuance) as mediated by job satisfaction among faculty members.

Design/methodology/approach

A sample of 133 faculty members at a US-accredited university in Lebanon served as the basis for this study. The faculty members completed a survey covering scales on role ambiguity, role conflict, commitment and job satisfaction in addition to demographic variables.

Findings

We find that a decrease in role ambiguity strengthens affective and normative commitment but weakens continuance commitment. Structural equation modeling indicates that job satisfaction partially mediates the relationship between role ambiguity and affective commitment, while not mediating the relationship between role ambiguity and normative and continuance commitments. Similar findings hold for job satisfaction as a mediator in the relationship between role conflict and commitment.

Originality/value

Based on statistical modeling, this work (1) puts forth a revised scale for organizational commitment tailored to academia and (2) provides guidance to higher education institutions in terms of the differential impacts on faculty commitment that stem from reducing role-ambiguity versus role-conflict. Managerial recommendations focus on improving normative and affective commitment through the design of policies to reduce role conflict among faculty.

中文翻译：

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等待！我的工作是什么？角色模糊和角色冲突作为教师承诺的预测因素

目的

教师在大学中发挥着独特的作用，在教学、研究和服务三个方面履行职责。虽然教学可能对小型大学的盈利贡献最大，但评判教师功绩的往往是研究。本研究探讨了教师成员的工作满意度所调节的角色模糊、角色冲突和承诺（情感、规范和持续性）之间的关系。

设计/方法论/途径

本研究的基础是黎巴嫩一所美国认可大学的 133 名教职人员样本。教职员工完成了一项调查，除了人口变量之外，还涵盖了角色模糊、角色冲突、承诺和工作满意度的量表。

发现

我们发现，角色模糊性的减少会加强情感和规范承诺，但会削弱持续承诺。结构方程模型表明，工作满意度部分调节角色模糊性与情感承诺之间的关系，而不调节角色模糊性与规范性和持续性承诺之间的关系。类似的发现也适用于工作满意度作为角色冲突和承诺之间关系的中介。

原创性/价值

基于统计模型，这项工作（1）提出了适合学术界的组织承诺修订量表，（2）为高等教育机构提供了指导，以了解减少角色模糊性与角色模糊性对教师承诺的不同影响。冲突。管理建议的重点是通过设计减少教师之间角色冲突的政策来提高规范和情感承诺。