Intra-role conflicts in the HR-domain: Insights in dilemmas from practice

Abstract

The diversity of responsibilities and interests that HR-professionals deal with, and the expectations they are required to live up to, bring tensions to their job and are likely to result in intra-role conflicts. In these conflicts, job responsibilities and expectations contradict or collide with other each other, with other required role behavior or with personal values. Intra-role conflicts can lead to negative feelings like stress and anxiety, and limit HR-professionals in effectively executing their job. These consequences stress the importance to tackle and prevent intra-role conflicts, for which more insight into what the conflicts constitute was necessary first. Through qualitative analysis of 24 intra-role conflicts of 13 HR-professionals, this study gained unique insights into dilemmas from practice and distinguished four types of expectations that constituted the intra-role conflicts. The authentic cases of intra-role conflict experienced by a varied group of HR-professionals give a deeper understanding of what challenges HR-professionals face, their complex position and the uniqueness of each intra-role conflict. These valuable findings can be used to prepare (future) HR-professional to a greater extent, with improved training and education based on dilemmas from practice. To do so more accurately, further analysis of personal aspects and job aspects that influence intra-role conflicts would be an interesting line of future research.