ABSTRACT
Stress is a significant occupational hazard that can impair employees’ physical
health, psychological wellbeing and performance (e.g. Griffin & Clarke, 2011).
Alongside depression and anxiety, stress is one of the leading causes of employee
absenteeism. In the United Kingdom for example, stress is estimated to cause over
11 million lost working days, costing society £3.7 (US $5.8) billion per year (Health
and Safety Executive, 1999, 2010). In the National Health Service (NHS) alone,
the largest employer in Europe, stress is estimated to account for over 30% of
sickness absence, costing taxpayers £300-400 (US $470-630) million per year (NHS
Employers, 2010; NHS Jobs, 2009). Moreover, in the education sector, stress
alongside depression and anxiety is the leading cause of employee absenteeism,
and school teachers have been shown to experience particularly high levels of stress
on the job (Health and Safety Executive, 2000). Role stress is one of the most widely researched forms of job stress (e.g. Jackson
& Schuler, 1985). Role stress has two main aspects: role conflict and role ambiguity
LONGITUDINAL RESEARCH IN OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY
(Katz & Kahn, 1978; Rizzo, House, & Lirtzman, 1970). Role conflict occurs when
employees are required to perform two or more incompatible behaviours, and role
ambiguity occurs when employees are unclear as to what behaviours they are
required to perform (Katz & Kahn, 1978). Role conflict and role ambiguity have been shown to be associated with higher levels of burnout and to predict increases
in burnout over time (e.g. Lee & Ashforth, 1993; O¨rtqvist & Wincent, 2010; Peiro´,
Gonza´lez-Roma´, Tordera, & Man˜as, 2001; also see Cordes & Dougherty, 1993;
Lee & Ashforth, 1996; O¨rtqvist & Wincent, 2006). Role conflict and role ambiguity
also represent job demands in the job demands-resources model of job stress and
employee burnout (Bakker, Demerouti, de Boer, & Schaufeli, 2003; Demerouti,
Bakker, Nachreiner, & Schaufeli, 2001).
