Role awareness is quite necessary in any organizations

Role awareness is quite necessary in any organizations

A.B. Susanto, The Jakarta Consulting Group, Jakarta

One of the keys to allow a member of an organization to
contribute significantly to the organization is to understand his
role and then play it the best way he can. We know that in
carrying out an activity, an organization is based on a process
that links one part and the other in a well-arranged system. This
means that an organization is made up of individuals undertaking
certain activities harmoniously, just as in an orchestra. The
piano player in an orchestra knows well what to play. The
violinist, the flutist and other musicians know their own roles
well and, based on the direction from the conductor, they produce
harmonious music.

Organization is very much the same. Each member of an
organization must understand their own role in the harmonious
movement of an organization. In an organization there is a
structure, with positions occupied by individuals. In a position
or status there is a certain behavior that the status holder must
assume. This is what is known as a role. A role is often broader
than just the description of a position. In a description of a
position, details of activities of a position are given and also
how this position relates to other positions in an organization.
A role has a significance of a broader scope because it is not
related only to formal matters but also to informal ones.

In every role, there is role expectation, which is a hope for
an attitude which the role player assumes in the situations faced
in organizational life. At first, role expectation is reflected
when someone joins a working environment. When he first becomes a
member in this environment, he will feel a psychological contract
depicting an agreement about the expectations desired by the
employer and other employees.

In a discussion on role awareness, it is very important to pay
attention to someone's point of view about how he must act and
behave in a particular situation (individual role perception),
which will be very much influenced by someone's background, the
values he believes in and his education. If this individual role
perception differs with the group's role perception, consequently
there will be disharmony in teamwork.

What must not be missed in relation to role awareness is role
identity. Role identity is an attitude or behavior consistent
with the role one plays. In a particular situation, an individual
must have the ability to read the changes in his role, and in
this way he will quickly make an adjustment and change the
identity of his role. Take, for example, a salesman promoted to
the position of sales supervisor. He must change the identity of
his role and also change his behavior in relation to his fellow
salesmen as they are now his subordinates. A change in the
identity of a role followed by a change in position laterally and
vertically often gives rise to unsteadiness and puts someone in
an awkward situation. A change in improper behavior will also
produce a similar result.

What must be a source of alertness is role ambiguity, a
situation in which it is not clear what must be achieved, and
what rights, obligations and authority one may possess to do a
job that suits one's position. This may lead to a low level of
occupational satisfaction and job inefficiency.

In reality, an individual plays a multiple of roles so that it
often happens the demand of each role clashes and the result will
be role conflict within the individual concerned. Some of the
role conflicts that may come out are a person-role conflict (if
someone's daily needs conflict with his viewpoint of life, an
intra-role conflict (resulting from a different expectation for a
particular role) and an inter-role conflict (resulting from
several roles played simultaneously).

The role that an individual plays in an organization is
actually more important than its position in the organization.
So, if an employee has an enhanced role awareness and prioritizes
the fulfillment of the role, he or she may have a better career.