Role Conflict and Ambiguity as a Function of the Task--Structure--Technology Interaction.

Based on the premise that organizational behaviors are phenomena of complex, interacting variables, this research analyzed the task-structure technology interaction as a predictor of perceived role ambiguity and conflict. The basic hypothesis was that incongruent matches of task-structure-technology are associated with higher levels of role ambiguity and conflict than congruent matches of these variables. The results supported the hypothesis that congruent matches of the three variables result in lower role ambiguity and conflict than incongruent matches of those variables; however, some incongruent matches result in more role ambiguity and conflict than others. These results suggest that the work done on role ambiguity and conflict consider the influence of the organization's structure and technology as well as the incumbent's task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]