Role Strain | Overview, Definition & Examples

Every person has a role in society and every role brings along duties and expectations. A person can take up more than one role simultaneously, which may require opposite responsibilities. Role conflict is tension that occurs when a person performs multiple roles and has multiple statuses. To understand role strain versus role conflict, consider this example. A working parent faces a conflict between their roles as both a parent and an employee and may face some tension at work, which is role strain. Consider another example. A public administrator may have to remove an obstacle from the roadside, but it is a tea stall run by an elderly couple. This situation, role conflict, shows the conflict between an individual as an administrator and as an empathetic human. There are two main types of role conflicts: inter-role conflict (between the roles of a person) and intra-role conflict (between a person's beliefs and role).

So, what is role strain again? Role strain occurs in one role. To understand the difference between role strain and role conflict, role conflict happens when there is tension among multiple roles that are mutually exclusive. Role strain is similar to the intra-role conflict as they both are correlated to a single role. Both can be co-occurring. Role strain is related to physical struggles while intra-role conflict is a mental tussle.

The concept of role strain was introduced by the American sociologist William Goode. He defined it as the stress that is created when it becomes difficult to meet the expectations of a role. For example, imagine a person is on a soccer team. They practiced a lot and did hard work with full dedication, but in the qualifying match, they missed the goal multiple times. Due to the lapses, their team is out of the league. In this situation, they'll experience the role strain of being a soccer player and team member. Consider another situation. As a corporate event manager, the role of a manager is to manage every aspect of the event and get the work done with the help of the team. The manager and the team have arranged the program in an outdoor venue. A sudden change in the weather occurs and it begins to rain just 10 minutes before the start of the program. This disturbance will create chaos. Managing the event, answering the client, and directing the team towards the next step in a crisis will all have to be done simultaneously and will lead to role strain. This role strain is also felt by the manager as not meeting the expectations as per typical social norms.

Sometimes, social obligations are also responsible for the role strain, for example, Richard is unemployed, and his younger sister is the breadwinner of the family. She takes care of her parents and household expenses. Richard being an elder offspring in the household is not fulfilling his role according to the norms of the society. As a result, not being able to fulfill his social obligations in the role of a son and an elder child of the family will give Richard role strain.

People suffer when they are not able to fulfill their responsibilities, which leads to role strain. This strain can aggravate physical or mental health issues. There are several methods to reduce role strain, such as focusing on duties, fulfilling responsibilities with dedication, and increasing the efficiency of the role performances. Sectionalizing and prioritizing roles and tasks help in increasing the effectiveness of each role. Overcoming role conflict is also a way to reduce role strain. Proper planning is the key to coping with stress as well as asking for help, though there are other ways to reduce and cope with role strain.

Delegation of Work

Delegation refers to the decentralization of decision-making authority, objective achievement, and tasks. It distributes responsibilities from the top to the bottom of an organizational hierarchy. The work is divided among many people so that a person becomes less burdened and stressed over its completion, hence reducing role strain. Allotting tasks according to the specialization of a person enhances the quality of work. For example, the chief justice of a court assigns cases to subordinate judges rather than presiding on every bench personally. Delegation reduces the workload of the chief justice, promotes the efficiency of the court, and provides speedy justice to people. The same goes for the manager in an office, dividing work among the employees to reduce role strain.

Each person plays a different role in society. Like Erving Goffman, the famous sociologist compared the roles people live in their lives to an actor playing different roles on stage. Each role has its own set of behaviors, expectations, and duties. If people are not able to live up to their responsibilities, they begin to suffer from stress. This is called role strain, which occurs within a single role. The definition of role strain sociology can be given as the stress felt by an individual in a specific role. Here's an example of role strain: if a team is not cooperating with its manager, thereby creating stress felt by the manager, and subsequently adversely affects the team's performance. To better understand what role strain is, consider another example of a teacher who suddenly has more students in the classroom, beyond the number that the teacher is comfortable handling. The teacher feels role strain. Moreover, if the teacher receives dissatisfactory performance feedback, or an unexpected addition to the curriculum as an introduction to a subject the teacher is unfamiliar with, or a sudden decrease in the number of aides, then the teacher will feel role strain.

An individual often plays multiple roles simultaneously, and sometimes gets trapped in conflicts that arise among two or more roles. This is known as role conflict, which results in more strain and can aggravate physical and mental health issues. The difference between role strain and role conflict is that role strain occurs in one role whereas role conflict happens when there is tension among multiple roles that are mutually exclusive. There are several ways for coping with role strain such as delegation of work, quitting a role, taking another role, and avoiding interruptions. Role performance sociology is the way individuals express themselves in a specific role. To understand role strain versus role conflict, consider the example of a man working in a corporate firm who is also a yoga instructor. He faces a conflict between his role as an instructor and an employee.