Research Journal of Recent Sciences _________________________________________________ ISSN 2277-2502 Vol. 3(7), 13-17, July (2014) Res.J.Recent Sci. International Science Congress Association 13 An Examination of the Conflict Role and Ambiguity Role on Job SatisfactionSobhan Abdolmaleki Institute for Management and Planning Studies, IRANAvailable online at: www.isca.in , www.isca.me Received 17th January 2014, revised 12th April 2014, accepted 26th May 2014Abstract The current research concerns with the relationship between conflict role and ambiguity role on job satisfaction. The main idea of this research deals with some factors which can be influential on conflict role as stimulation of customer orientation and job performance on sales people and also the central question is that to what extent they are effective? The methodology of research is to survey and to make descriptive casual which are collected by sales people in furniture market of Iran. 320 issues of sample are gathered out of 370 questionnaires which were distributed as some of them were not returned, non- returned and non-precision. The significant variable points of this research are including conflict role, ambiguity role and job satisfaction. Keywords: Role ambiguity, role conflict, job satisfaction, average variance extracted, composite reliability, convergent validity, discriminate validity. IntroductionAppearance of newfound and effective methods in the field of marketing leads to the conclusion that we are living in a unique global market in which we have types of brands, communication methods, and shopping techniques around us. In today’s variable environment, marketing communications of companies for growth, survival, and higher interaction with customers and consequently increasing the share of market and customer plays an important role. Companies are no longer trying to just sale their products, since they have found out that the optimum communication with the customers and making them confident can lead to attracting and maintaining them. On the other hand, increment of the amount and flow of information should be considered, since it further complicates the construction of marketing communication programs. Methods of introducing and presenting products, mode and type of advertisements, quality of the products and brand of the company, and most importantly type of marketing communications of a company have considerable importance, in this regard and can lead to success of companies in this competitive market. The novel phenomenon in marketing field entitled “Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC)” is discussed as a competitive advantage for the companies. In this research, investigating the effect of factors affecting these communications i.e. “customer-orientation, brand-orientation, competitive-orientation” on brand personality, it is tried to propose solutions for improving the brand performance (for increasing sales, causing higher share in market,). Nowadays, several novel concepts on marketing communications have been presented due to globalization, and development of new technologies. In 1993, a novel concept named Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) was introduced. IMC is a customer-oriented managing process which aims to create or effectively vary the nature and integration of communicational tools of the companies in order to achieve communicational harmony. As a result, by integration of communicational tools in addition to improving the performance of name and brand, enhances the share of market and customer and this issue from most researchers’ viewpoint is a competitive advantage in the market. IMC system means all the messages of the company, all the images that the customers have from the company and its products in their mind, base and the position of the company in the market and finally the identity of the company in the whole system of marketing communications become integrated. IMC is the process of managing the relations with the customers which tries to direct the fundamental values of the brand by communicational activities, since the ultimate result of improving such communications is to improve the brand performance and finally leading to higher profit and sales. In this research, IMC infrastructures are considered which include three components of brand-orientation, customer-orientation, and market-orientation. Furthermore, brand personality is investigated based on the Aaker’s model in five aspects of sincerity, competency, excitement, sophistication, and ruggedness. The effect of IMC infrastructures on brand personality is studied and ultimately the effect of these factors on improving the brand performance is examined. Review of Literature: Role Conflict: Generally the Attempts to estimate the needs of two groups which are customers and managers would lead to a kind of conflict. The Impact of role conflict on job performance is essential. In a study on the retail industry the negative effect of role conflict on job performance was founded out and also its relationship with a customer sales directly. Other studies illuminate that role conflict has positive Research Journal of Recent Sciences ______________________________________________________________ ISSN 2277-2502Vol. 3(7), 13-17, July (2014) Res. J. Recent Sci. International Science Congress Association 14 impact on job performance. Some of the researches reveal that conflict the role has a negative effect on performance. However, Singh offers a reasonable level of role conflict. Role ambiguity: The level of the knowledge of the employee can affect profitability. Wetzels et al conducted a study on vendors to understand the negative relationship between role ambiguity and commitment in providing quality service with one another. It seems reasonable that if a seller has little comprehension of their own ability and responsibilities, they reduce the ability to convince the customers. Job performance: Wetzels et al believes that the performance of job duties and responsibilities to some extent depends on what and how the employees are doing their tasks and duties. The specific important point for job performance due to resource managers believes this is the costs for training vendors. Job performance in the industry is counted out as a sales point. In other words, Some of Researchers had recommended that the job performance of the retail outcomes including two outputs (or sales) and behavioral (e.g., customers). Considering the customer orientation and sales orientation as the way to determine the job performance can be useful to create a retail manager. In addition, the topic of the research is to put the management of customer satisfaction and productivity along with each other to achieve the objectives of the service. Job satisfaction: Job satisfaction means to feel pleasure by a staff who does the work and obtains the goals of the system and it is believed as a positive reaction to the job and the job outlook is positive. Weitz proclaims that we can develop attitudes towards their jobs and by giving importance and paying attention to their feelings, beliefs and behaviors. Hypotheses: H 1: Role conflict has positive impact on role ambiguity. H 2: Role conflict has negative impact on job performance. H 3: Role ambiguity has positive impact on role conflict. H 4: Role ambiguity has negative influence on job performance. H 5: Job performance has positive effect on job satisfaction. Methodology This research is applied from the research goal viewpoint. The research plan in this descriptive research is survey. This research is descriptive, since it presents an image from the present condition. Also, it is survey, since it is performed by gathering information from the population using questionnaire. For this research, cluster sampling has been employed. In cluster sampling, every store is considered as a cluster in which peoples in the clusters are inhomogeneous and the clusters (or in fact stores) are homogenous relative to each other. It means they do not have a tremendous difference with each other in offering services to the customers. In this research, population is ETKA chain stores which contain 10 main chain stores in Tehran. Based on the sample volume, for every store 40, and as a result an overall number of 400 questionnaires were distributed and collected. For calculating the required sample volume for the research Cochran formula in the following form is used:   \n\n \n \r  , based on the existing tradition is considered 0.05 or 0.01. Statistical amount of Z is in 95% meaningful level (which equals to 1.96). x: the standard deviation of the population: since the amount of standard deviation is not available, the distribution of the population is normal and also Likert’s 5 option spectrum from very low to very high has been used, the standard deviation can be estimated as =0.667 Error value of 0.5 percent is considered10. (1.96) (1.96) (0.5) (0.5)/ (0.05) (0.05) 385 Figure-1 Conceptual Model Role Conflict Role Ambiguity Job Performance Job Satisfaction H1 H2 H3 H5 H4 Research Journal of Recent Sciences ______________________________________________________________ ISSN 2277-2502Vol. 3(7), 13-17, July (2014) Res. J. Recent Sci. International Science Congress Association 15 Finally, in the 95% confidence level, a sample with the volume of 385 is used for data analysis. To ensure the return of the considered sample volume, 400 questionnaires were distributed. Validity and Reliability: All metrics and their collecting method were extracted from valid international references, so the reliability and validity of this study are dependable. For instance, Inter-rater reliability was 0.916 for double conversion metric. Methods and Instruments of Data Collecting: Depending on each metric, the proper method to collect data was selected, as demonstrated in table 3. Data Analysis: Demographic information about SPDMIS metric can be analyzed using the chart shown in figure 2. The results demonstrated that the major of shoppers had been interviewed to measure SPDMIS metric were undergraduate and between 25-35 years old. Table-1 Collecting method for each metric Metric Method to collect data information SPDMIS Intercept interview Planned purchases (unaided category and brand planning) Demographics and profiling information Double conversion Non-participant observation Visitors who become shoppers Shoppers who became buyers Satisfaction Intercept interview Satisfaction level from in-store retailer environment NPS Intercept interview Willingness to recommend the store Figure-2 Demographic information about SPDMIS metric 52%12%32%4% High School Diploma Associate Degree Bachelor postgraduate 51%49% Female Male 10%32%20%26%8%4% 20-25 25-35 35-45 45-55 55-65 �65 Research Journal of Recent Sciences ______________________________________________________________ ISSN 2277-2502Vol. 3(7), 13-17, July (2014) Res. J. Recent Sci. International Science Congress Association 16 Findings: Using descriptive and illative statistics (structural equations model), and employing SPSS 18, and LISREL 8.5 software, the data is analyzed. Initially, using descriptive statistics and statistical indices of average, standard deviation, minimum and maximum values, and cognitive graph of the state, demographical properties of the respondents were determined. Consequently, for examining the hypotheses and investigating casual relations of the existing variables in the research, structural equations model (confirmatory factor analysis or path analysis) was used. Indeed, exploratory factor analysis is also performed, in this section. In illative statistics section, using LISREL software, model fitting parameters and indices are investigated. Furthermore, confirmatory factor analysis and study of correlation among variables are also performed and finally using multiple regressions the effects of variables are investigated. Table-2 Normal Distribution Test (KS)Significance Level Skewness and Kurtosis Variables 065/0 720/3 Role Conflict 170/0 577/3 Role Ambiguity 068/0 622/4 Job Performance 726/0 656/0 Job Satisfaction Table-3 Path Analysis Result Standard Parameter Path Hypothesis Rejected10/0 03/0 Role Conflict Role Ambiguity H1 supported12/2 55/0 Role Conflict Job Performance H2 supported 42/4 47/0 Role Ambiguity Role Conflict H3 supported 09/4 44/0 Role Ambiguity Job Performance H4 supported 62/9 75/0 Job Performance Job Satisfaction H5 Results and Discussion According to t-value amounts reported in table 1, it can be concluded that all the impact coefficients among the variables have been meaningful (t value of greater than 1.96). Only impact coefficient of competence variable on improvement of Job Satisfaction with the value of 0.03 and t-value of lower than 1.96 has not become meaningful. It means based on the statistical exams performed and investigation of the relations between variables, all the assumptions of the research are approved, instead of assumption No. 4. In recent years, several companies have found out that intangible assets, and most importantly their brands can be value creator. Marketers have found out that in today’s complex and growing marketing world, an attractive and strong brand should be presented and they should use the methods for communication with customers, which associate the desired brand better, faster, and with adequate confidence in customer’s mind. The point is different IMC tools and IMC infrastructures should be used for communicating with the customer and as a result reinforcing brand personality and improving its performance. Conclusion Since IMC is a process for planning, executing, and supervising the brand messages which creates relationship with the customer and brand relations is one of its results. If these relations be strong, they can lead to improving the brand performance and as a result enhancement of profitability. It can be concluded that this improvement of performance is a required competitive advantage for all organizations in today’s competitive scene. Based on the results, effect of factors like customer-orientation, market-orientation, and brand-orientation on brand personality and also the effect of brand personality on brand performance are observable. It means that in order to improve the brand performance in the market, IMC infrastructures for designing brand personality can be used and designed brand personality according to market and a special class of customers. Since consumers match brand personality with their own personality and choose the brand which is more close and similar to their personality. If the brand personality is designed based on what is organization’s desire, and certainly according to Aaker’s 5 personal dimensions, we can be more hopeful about the effectiveness of this personality in the brand on customer’s personality and on the other hand achieve the improvement of the performance of that brand and consequently higher sale in the market. 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