Effects of role stressors on job satisfaction : a study in the Lebanese shipping industry

Abstract

The shipping industry is a major determinant of the Lebanese trade and service sector. Shipping agencies are now aware that their employees are ever more important in sustaining competitive advantage. Provided by adequate front-line assistance, employees can greatly influence customers’ impressions about the shipping company. This study assessed the relationship between each construct of the role stressors – role ambiguity, role conflict and role overload – and job satisfaction for non-managerial employees. Role ambiguity is a state of misunderstanding a person has about his/her role’s expectations. Role conflict takes place when an employee receives two or more conflicting requests from different supervisors. Role overload occurs whenever a person perceives himself to be under time pressure due to the number of responsibilities he has at work. Job satisfaction is the extent to which a person feels happiness and contentment in his/her job. Instruments for each of the variables – role ambiguity, role conflict, role overload, and job satisfaction – were administered to non-managerial employees of Lebanese shipping agencies, and used to test the three hypotheses. Using a five-point Likert scale, 227 questionnaires were considered eligible for later quantitative analysis. Data about demographic attributes were collected and then tested for correlation with the key variables. Earlier studies in several different professions concluded that there exist an inverse relationship between each of the three different types of role stressors and job satisfaction. However, no studies concerned with this topic surveyed the employees of shipping agencies. This study found that role ambiguity and role overload significantly and negatively influenced job satisfaction, however role conflict did not have a significant correlation with job satisfaction. In addition, none of the six demographic characteristics had a significant correlation with any of the main variables.