You should
spend about 20 minutes on Questions 29 – 40 which are based on Reading
Passage 3 below.
Role set
Any individual in any situation occupies a role in relation
to other people. The particular individual with whom one is concerned in the
analysis of any situation is usually given the name of focal person. He
has the focal role and can be regarded as sitting in the middle of a
group of people, with whom he interacts in some way in that situation. This
group of people is called his role set. For instance, in the family
situation, an individual’s role set might be shown as in Figure 6.
Figure 6
The role set
should include all those with whom the individual has more than trivial
interactions.
Role definition
The definition of any individual’s role in any situation will
be a combination of the role expectations that the members of the role
set have of the focal role. These expectations are often occupationally denned,
sometimes even legally so. The role definitions of lawyers and doctors are
fairly clearly defined both in legal and in cultural terms. The role
definitions of, say, a film star or bank manager, are also fairly clearly
defined in cultural terms, too clearly perhaps.
Individuals often find it hard to escape from the role those
cultural traditions have defined for them. Not only with doctors or lawyers is
the required role behavior so constrained that if you are in that role for long
it eventually becomes part of you, part of your personality. Hence,
there is some likelihood that all accountants will be alike or
that all blondes are similar – they are forced that way by the expectations of
their role.
It is often important that you make it clear what your
particular role is at a given time. The means of doing this are called, rather
obviously, role signs. The simplest of role signs is a uniform. The
number of stripes on your arm or pips on your shoulder is a very precise role
definition which allows you to do certain very prescribed things in certain
situations. Imagine yourself questioning a stranger on a dark street at
midnight without wearing the role signs of a policeman!
In social circumstances, dress has often been used as a role
sign to indicate the nature and degree of formality of any gathering and
occasionally the social status of people present. The current trend towards
blurring these role signs in dress is probably democratic, but it also makes
some people very insecure. Without role signs, who is to know who has what
role?
Place is another role sign. Managers often behave very
differently outside the office and in it, even to the same person. They use a
change of location to indicate a change in role from, say, boss to friend.
Indeed, if you wish to change your roles you must find some outward sign that
you are doing so or you won’t be permitted to change – the subordinate will
continue to hear you as his boss no matter how hard you try to be his friend.
In very significant cases of role change, e.g., from a soldier in the ranks to
officer, from bachelor to married man, the change of role has to have a very
obvious sign, hence rituals. It is interesting to observe, for
instance, some decline in the emphasis given to marriage rituals. This could be
taken as an indication that there is no longer such a big change in role from
single to married person, and therefore no need for a public change in sign.
In organizations, office signs and furniture are often used
as role signs. These and other perquisites of status are often frowned upon,
but they may serve a purpose as a kind of uniform in a democratic society;
roles without signs often lead to confused or differing expectations of the
role of the focal person.
Role ambiguity
Role ambiguity results when there is some uncertainty in the
minds, either of the focal person or of the members of his role set, as to
precisely what his role is at any given time. One of the crucial expectations
that shape the role definition is that of the individual, the focal person
himself. If his occupation of the role is unclear, or if it differs from that
of the others in the role set, there will be a degree of role ambiguity. Is
this bad? Not necessarily, for the ability to shape one’s own role is one of
the freedoms that many people desire, but the ambiguity may lead to role stress
which will be discussed later on. The virtue of job descriptions is that they
lessen this role ambiguity.
Unfortunately, job descriptions are seldom complete role
definitions, except at the lower end of the scale. At middle and higher
management levels, they are often a list of formal jobs and duties that say
little about the more subtle and informal expectations of the role. The result is
therefore to give the individual an uncomfortable feeling that there are things
left unsaid, i.e., to heighten the sense of role ambiguity.
Looking at role ambiguity from the other side, from the point
of view of the members of the role set, lack of clarity in the role of the
focal person can cause insecurity, lack of confidence, irritation and even
anger among members of his role set. One list of the roles of a manager
identified the following: executive, planner, policy maker, expert, controller
of rewards and punishments, counsellor, friend, teacher. If it is not clear,
through role signs of one sort or another, which role is currently the
operational one, the other party may not react in the appropriate way — we may,
in fact, hear quite another message if the focal person speaks to us, for
example, as a teacher and we hear her as an executive.
Questions
29 – 35
Do the
following statements reflect the views of the writer in Reading Passage 3?
In boxes 29
– 35 on your answer sheet write
YES if the statement reflects the views
of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the
views of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to know what the
writer thinks about this
29 It would be a good idea to specify the
role definitions of soldiers more clearly.
30 Accountants may be similar to one
another because they have the same type of job.
31 It is probably a good idea to keep
dress as a role sign even nowadays.
32 The decline in emphasis on marriage
rituals should be reversed.
33 Today furniture operates as a role
sign in the same way as dress has always done.
34 It is a good idea to remove role
ambiguity.
35 Job descriptions eliminate role
ambiguity for managers.
Questions
36 – 39
Choose ONE
OR TWO WORDS from Reading Passage 3 for each answer.
Write your
answers in boxes 36 – 39 on your answer sheet.
36 A new headmaster of a school who
enlarges his office and puts in expensive carpeting is using the office as a
...
37 The graduation ceremony in many
universities is an important...
38 The wig which judges wear in UK
courts is a ...
39 The parents of students in a school
are part of the headmaster’s ...
Question
40
Choose the
appropriate letter A – D and write it in box 40 on your answer sheet.
This text is
taken from
A a
guide for new managers in a company.
B a
textbook analysis of behavior in organizations.
C a
critical study of the importance of role signs in modern society.
D a
newspaper article about role changes