Organizational role stress among medical
school faculty members in Iran: dealing
with role conflict
Soleiman Ahmady, 1 Tahereh Changiz,2 Italo Masiello,3 and Mats Brommels4
1
Department of Learning, Informatics, Management, and Ethics, Karolinska
Institutet, KI, 171 76 Stockholm, Sweden, and National Public Health Management
Center, Tabriz University of Medical sciences, IR-Iran
2
Medical Education Research Centre, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, IR-Iran
3
Department of Learning, Informatics, Management, and Ethics, Karolinska
Institutet, Sweden
4
Medical Management Centre, Department of Learning, Informatics, Management,
and Ethics, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, and Department of Public Health,
University of Helsinki, Finland
Corresponding author.
Soleiman Ahmady: soleiman.ahmady@lime.ki.se ; Tahereh Changiz:
changiz@edc.mui.ac.ir ; Italo Masiello: Italo.Masiello@ki.se ; Mats Brommels:
Mats.Brommels@ki.se
Received October 18, 2006; Accepted May 29, 2007.
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Background
Little research has been conducted to investigate role stress experienced by faculty
members in medical schools in developing countries. This becomes even more
important when the process of reform in medical education has already taken place,
such as the case of Iran. The objectives of this study were to investigate and assess
the level and source of role-related stress as well as dimensions of conflict among
the faculty members of Iranian medical schools. Variables like the length of academic
work, academic rank, employment position, and the departments of affiliation were
also taken into consideration in order to determine potentially related factors.
Methods
A survey was conducted at three different ranks of public medical schools. The
validated Organizational Role Stress Scale was used to investigate the level of role
stress and dimensions of role conflict among medical faculty members. The response
rate was 66.5%.
Results
The findings show that role stress was experienced in high level among almost all
faculty members. All three studied medical schools with different ranks are
threatened with relatively the same levels of role stress. Specific differences were
found among faculty members from different disciplines, and academic ranks. Also
having permanent position and the length of services had significant correlation with
the level of role stress. The major role- related stress and forms of conflict among
faculty members were role overload, role expectation conflict, inter-role distance,
resource inadequacy, role stagnation, and role isolation .
Conclusion
The most role-related stressors and forms of conflict among faculty members include
too many tasks and everyday work load; conflicting demands from colleagues and
superiors; incompatible demands from their different personal and organizational
roles; inadequate resources for appropriate performance; insufficient competency to
meet the demands of their role; inadequate autonomy to make decision on different
tasks; and a feeling of underutilization. The findings of this study can assist
administrators and policy makers to provide an attractive working climate in order to
decrease side effects and consequences of role stress and to increase productivity of
faculty members. Furthermore, understanding this situation can help to develop
coping strategies in order to reduce role-related stress.