A Longitudinal Study of Changes in Role Ambiguity, Relationship Conflict, and Turnover Intentions

Understanding the causes of conflict in organizations is of great importance due to the challenges inherent to conflict management as well as its costly implications. In this article, we examine increased role ambiguity over time as a significant predictor of conflict emergence. Integrating theoretical perspectives developed in the fields of job stress and conflict research, we argue that relationship conflict is likely to result from increased role ambiguity due to associated performance and coordination breakdowns, as well as biased interpretations of the work environment. In a two-wave longitudinal investigation of 134 employees working in the healthcare sector, we find support for our proposition that increases in relationship conflict mediate the effect of increases in role ambiguity on increases in turnover intentions over a three-year period. We discuss these findings in terms of their implications for conflict and job stress research. We also consider their implications in terms of how best to manage employees who are at risk of developing increased role ambiguity over time.