ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the analytical framework for the research on CIMIC roles and the influence of role conflict on its effectiveness. It offers a brief overview of the main approaches and concepts of role theory, with a particular emphasis on Sheldon Stryker’s structural symbolic interactionism as the basis for the research on CIMIC boundary-spanning role and role conflict. It also provides an outline of other theoretical concepts used in the analysis such as ambidexterity, Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical metaphor, Getzels and Guba’s approach to measuring the severity of role conflict, as well as various ways of managing role conflict. The chapter further discusses the topic of effectiveness and innovation especially in military engagement and links it to the concepts of role strain and role conflict.
