TITLE : MAKING ORGANIZATIONAL ROLES EFFECTIVE.

Researchers working on the increasing complexity of organizational roles recognised the potential of conflict and stress in these roles. In the early sixties Kahn et al. published their famous volume, Organizational Stress: Studies in Role Conflict and Ambiguity, focusing attention on three role conflicts or stresses. Intensive work on Indian managers revealed many more stresses. I have proposed ten such role stresses based on my work on Indian, Malaysian and Indonesian organizations, and on the doctoral work done by some of my students. I have developed instruments for measuring these role stresses and for gaining a deeper insight into their nature. I have also proposed certain interventions to deal with these role stresses. Dr D.M. Pestonjee has done pioneering work on enhancing our understanding of these stresses. His recent volume, Stress and Coping: Indian Experience, summarizes the studies done in this important area.

It has been realized by scholars and interventionists that understanding coping strategies is as important as understanding stress itself. Very little work has been done on coping strategies. Coping could be physical (exercises, swimming), chemical (smoking, drinking, use of sedatives), in the form of diversions (meditation, music, reading), or occupational (dealing with problems in a special manner). While there have been publications on the first three, there has hardly been any work on occupational coping. I have developed an instrument to deal with this important area of coping and on the basis of some studies, proposed eight coping strategies or styles-four functional and four dysfunctional.

Organizational roles have also been used to transcend the individual role occupant. Roger Harrison proposed a useful intervention for collaboration, Role Negotiation. I have used this intervention successfully in various organizations in India, Indonesia, Malaysia; others have successfully applied it in England and USA. I have developed a similar intervention called Role Contribution, which is based on empathy and the helping process. Another important element that needs to be highlighted is Belbin's classification system for team roles. It is used in forming effective teams and has been successfully tried out by Aroon Joshi in India.

The present book brings all these experiences together. It comprises four parts, the first part is devoted to a better understanding of the organizational role and the rationale of role focused interventions.

In the second part we deal with roles stress-its understanding, measurement and effective management. The reader will find a number of instruments and exercises that can be used for developing functional coping strategies. These have been developed while working with various organizations and have been tried out in different settings.

Part three focuses on developing work commitment by redesigning roles via the role efficacy approach. Detailed practical suggestions have been made on increasing role efficacy by expanding each of its ten aspects. Various methods for measuring role efficacy have also been explained.

Finally, we deal with team development where two major interventions, Role Negotiation and Role Contribution, have been discussed. Aroon Joshi has contributed a chapter to this part.

This book is meant for managers, HRD and Personnel professionals, OB and HRD consultants. It comprises comprehensive information, instruments, exercises and case studies on the effectiveness of organizational roles.

This book will also be useful for OB students interested in understanding the dynamics of organizational roles. It can enable researchers to do further work in this relatively unexplored area. Each chapter is accompanied by notes containing relevant conceptual material and research findings. Various instruments and some related material are provided in the appendices. Within the chapters, some material has been provided in boxes to enable selective and focused reading.

This book is a culmination of the work done in the last two decades. Several colleagues and students (now colleagues!) have contributed to the concepts and interventions. I am grateful to them. I am thankful to the managers in several organizations who have helped in developing these interventions. I would like to thank Dr T.V. Rao who urged me to address this book to a wider audience, and to the editorial and production team at Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited for a thorough job done. It is difficult to sufficiently express my gratitude to my secretary, Mrs Lizy

Thomas, for patiently typing and retyping the manuscript. And lastly, I am thankful to Dr Ashok Agarwal, Secretary, Indian Institute of Health Management Research, for the various facilities provided. I would welcome constructive comments, suggestions, and feedback on the book, and new information or data on any further work in this area.

UDAI PAREEK