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As climate change continues to increase both the frequency and intensity of environmental hazards and disasters, the need for a cohesive national mitigation policy grows. As the environmental federalism scholarship indicates, the inherent tension in federal, state, and local policy implementation highlights that despite a national need, environmental quality is a local public good. To complicate matters, there is disagreement about the optimal level of decision‐making regarding the adoption and implementation of environmental policy. This study addresses this gap by considering the role of policy ambiguity and conflict in policy implementation. The analysis relies on primary qualitative data collected from open‐ended interviews with 22 local government officials in 12 municipalities following Hurricane Harvey. Through the lens of policy ambiguity and conflict, we find confirmatory support for the idea that policies with less ambiguous goals are more likely to be implemented. Furthermore, we find that policy conflict arises when local governments perceive there is little for the community to gain by implementing the federal program. Thus, the level of protection afforded to citizens varies greatly between communities and is influenced heavily by politics. This research supports the Ambiguity‐Conflict Model of policy implementation, an oft‐cited but rarely tested theoretical framework for assessing the intergovernmental politics of policy implementation. It also demonstrates the barriers to local implementation of federal environmental policy in a nested system of government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aimed to determine the association between role stress and depressive symptoms, as well as the moderating role of job autonomy on the role stress‐depressive symptoms relationship. The data came from the China Social Work Longitudinal Study. Depressive symptoms were measured with Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale. Role stress was assessed using two standardized scales of role conflict and role ambiguity. Job autonomy was assessed with a measure derived from the Job Content Questionnaire. We found that role conflict and role ambiguity were positively associated with depressive symptoms, while job autonomy was negatively associated with depressive symptoms. In addition, job autonomy was found to act as a moderator against the detrimental effect of role ambiguity on depressive symptoms. Our findings suggest that measures focusing on improving job autonomy and decreasing role stress are necessary to improve social workers' psychological well‐being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of role ambiguity, despite its wide application in nursing research, lacks a clear definition and conceptualization, resulting in inconsistencies about how it is defined, operationalized, and applied in research. The purpose of this paper was to analyze and define the concept of role ambiguity among hospital nurses providing nursing care, using the concept analysis method developed by Walker and Avant. The three defining attributes of role ambiguity were lack of information (information deficiency), lack of clarity, and unpredictability. Antecedents included lack of clear role definitions, lack of education/training, communication problems, supervisory behaviors and support, organizational culture, practice environment conditions, experience, group cohesiveness, and preferred work setting. The consequences of role ambiguity included increased stress, lack of organizational commitment, job dissatisfaction, burnout, and increased intent to leave. This concept analysis provides a clear conceptual definition to better understand role ambiguity among hospital nurses along with implications for nurse leaders, educators, clinicians, and researchers to support nurses and guide future research. This paper further emphasizes the importance of nurse‐manager relationships in reducing the experience of role ambiguity among hospital nurses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]