Díaz-Fúnez Pedro Antonio, Martín-Martín Francisco Gabriel, Martínez-Díaz Ana, Salvador-Ferrer Carmen, Consiglio Chiara, Mañas-Rodríguez Miguel Ángel
IPTORA Research Team, Department of Psychology, University of Almeria, Almeria, Spain.
Department of Psychology, Sapienza University, Roma, Italy.
PLoS One. 2025 Apr 29;20(4):e0321643. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0321643. eCollection 2025.
This study addresses a critical gap in the literature by examining how optimism can moderate the effects of role conflict specifically among administrative staff at public universities. Role conflict is a prevalent challenge for these workers, who must navigate the demands of various groups with opposing needs, such as the university's governing body, different professors and researchers, students, and suppliers. This situation can be a stressor that depletes their resources. Previous research has shown the negative impact of role conflict on job satisfaction and performance; however, few studies analyze this relationship in administrative employees at public universities considering their individual characteristics. One individual factor that has been shown to mitigate the negative effects of role conflict is employees' optimism, but it is necessary to analyze whether this effect is also observed in this uniquely characterized work context and across both sexes (women/men).
The purpose of this study is to verify whether role conflict has a negative impact on job satisfaction and perceived performance among administrative employees. Additionally, it aims to investigate whether employees' optimism moderates the negative effects of role conflict on job satisfaction and performance. Moreover, this study will explore whether the effects of role conflict and optimism vary based on the employee's sex (women/men), considering potential differences in how these factors influence their experiences and outcomes in the workplace.
Data were collected from 334 employees with administrative and customer service roles at a public university (172 men and 162 women). This sample size provides sufficient statistical power to detect significant effects, allows for reliable subgroup analysis by gender, and aligns with typical sample sizes in organizational and psychological research.
The results confirm that role conflict has a significantly negative influence on performance through job satisfaction (mediation effect), although only in the men group. Moreover, this process is moderated by optimism (Men: IE =.0733, SE =.028, 95% CI BC from.0210 to.1296; Women: IE =.0312, SE =.046, 95% CI BC from -.0660 to.1146).
It is concluded that role conflict negatively affects the perception of one's own performance among administrative employees. However, while in the men group this relationship is mediated by job satisfaction and moderated by optimism, in women, role conflict directly affects performance. This difference may be due to distinct coping strategies and emotional responses to work demands between men and women, which influence how job satisfaction impacts perceived performance. These findings suggest that interventions aimed at increasing optimism and other personal resources may be particularly effective in mitigating the negative effects of role conflict, especially in men. Nonetheless, in the case of women, it is important to further investigate other potential individual factors that may moderate role conflict, as well as implement strategies that directly reduce stress sources in the workplace.
本研究通过考察乐观主义如何调节角色冲突的影响，特别是在公立大学行政人员中的影响，填补了文献中的一个关键空白。角色冲突是这些工作人员普遍面临的挑战，他们必须应对来自不同群体、需求相互对立的各种要求，如大学管理机构、不同的教授和研究人员、学生以及供应商。这种情况可能成为一种压力源，耗尽他们的资源。先前的研究表明了角色冲突对工作满意度和绩效的负面影响；然而，很少有研究考虑公立大学行政员工的个体特征来分析这种关系。已被证明能减轻角色冲突负面影响的一个个体因素是员工的乐观主义，但有必要分析在这种独特特征的工作环境中以及在男女两性中是否也能观察到这种影响。
本研究的目的是验证角色冲突是否对行政员工的工作满意度和感知绩效有负面影响。此外，旨在调查员工的乐观主义是否能调节角色冲突对工作满意度和绩效的负面影响。而且，本研究将探讨角色冲突和乐观主义的影响是否因员工性别（女性/男性）而异，考虑这些因素如何影响他们在工作场所的经历和结果的潜在差异。
从一所公立大学的334名担任行政和客户服务角色的员工（172名男性和162名女性）中收集数据。这个样本量提供了足够的统计效力来检测显著影响，允许按性别进行可靠的亚组分析，并且与组织和心理学研究中的典型样本量一致。
结果证实，角色冲突通过工作满意度对绩效有显著的负面影响（中介效应），不过仅在男性组中如此。此外，这个过程受到乐观主义的调节（男性：间接效应=0.0733，标准误=0.028，95%偏差校正置信区间从0.0210到0.1296；女性：间接效应=0.0312，标准误=0.046，95%偏差校正置信区间从-0.0660到0.1146）。
得出的结论是，角色冲突对行政员工自身绩效的感知有负面影响。然而，在男性组中，这种关系由工作满意度介导并受乐观主义调节，而在女性中，角色冲突直接影响绩效。这种差异可能是由于男性和女性对工作要求的不同应对策略和情绪反应，这影响了工作满意度如何影响感知绩效。这些发现表明，旨在提高乐观主义和其他个人资源的干预措施可能在减轻角色冲突的负面影响方面特别有效，尤其是在男性中。尽管如此，就女性而言，重要的是进一步调查其他可能调节角色冲突的潜在个体因素，以及实施直接减少工作场所压力源的策略。
