Role conflict, role ambiguity, and proactive behaviors: does flexible role orientation moderate the mediating impact of engagement?

Abstract

This study investigates the relationships between role conflict, role ambiguity, and proactive behaviors at work (i.e. individual innovation and taking charge) as mediated by work engagement. It also investigates the moderating role of flexible role orientation on the relationships between role conflict and ambiguity, work engagement, and employee proactivity. Data were collected from 227 employees and their supervisors working in 20 small and medium-sized enterprises in Istanbul, Turkey. The findings indicated that role conflict was negatively related to taking charge while role ambiguity was negatively related to individual innovation. Work engagement acted as a full mediator in the relationship between role ambiguity and individual innovation, while partially mediating the relationship between role conflict and taking charge. With regard to the moderating role of flexible role orientation, the findings indicated that the conditional indirect relationship between (a) role conflict and taking charge, and (b) role ambiguity and individual innovation through engagement were stronger when the level of flexible role orientation was low.