Role of Job Stress in Mediating the Influence of Role Conflict on Job Satisfaction of South Kuta District Office Employees

 Employee job satisfaction is one of the things that the South Kuta District Office pays attention to, especially for Non-Civil Servant Employees who work there. This has prompted researchers to examine the job satisfaction of non-civil servants at the South Kuta District Office. The sample in this study was 53 people or all non-civil servant government employees at the South Kuta district office. The sampling technique uses saturated sampling. The researcher uses the saturated sample technique because the population is more than adequate, and all employees in the company are considered to be able to be used as research samples. Data was analyzed using path analysis. The result is considered imperfect due to the small population of the research location. This research was carried out at the South Kuta sub-district office, where the object was limited to one sub-district. The weakness in this study also lies in the results where independent variables can affect dependent variables with 38.7%. The value of the influence in this study is considered to be small. The research found that Role conflict significantly affects job satisfaction and job stress. Job stress also significantly affects job satisfaction and has indirect effects on role conflict toward job satisfaction.

Introduction

Government agencies, which are public agencies, place Civil Servants (PNS) in the main position to carry out their duty as public servants to the community. However, civil servants (PNS) are considered insufficient both in terms of quantity and in terms of the quality of a civil servant (PNS), so government agencies recruit contract workers (non-civil servants) to carry out government tasks.

The South Kuta Sub-District Office is a government agency engaged in public services. As a public service institution, the South Kuta Sub-District Office is required to serve the community’s problems, especially in community empowerment, fostering the implementation of government or sub-districts, and coordinating the maintenance of infrastructure and public service facilities. Therefore, the South Kuta Sub-District Office always sees that its employees are resources that must always be maintained and maintained in order to provide optimal service and quality, be able to work well, be disciplined, be creative, and work as a team.

Employee job satisfaction is one of the things that the South Kuta Sub-District Office pays attention to, especially for non-civil servants who work there. Non-civil servant employees lack job satisfaction regarding income and other factors. According to Vasan (2018), Job satisfaction is a reward for employee efforts in completing targeted work to the maximum so that they can do the job by enjoying it. Job satisfaction makes workers productive because job satisfaction plays a vital role for organizations or companies. Organizations or companies can survive and succeed if they have employees with high levels of satisfaction.

Based on the previous explanation, to see the actual conditions regarding job satisfaction of Non-Civil Servant Government Employees at the South Kuta Sub-District Office, a pre-survey was conducted by interviewing 10 Non-Civil Servant Government Employees at the South Kuta Sub-District Office. Based on the interview, Salary problems are still complained about. Some employees said the salary was not in accordance with the work, and there were still delays and deductions in the payroll system. By looking at this questionnaire data, there are indications of problems with job satisfaction. This encourages researchers to examine the job satisfaction of Non-Civil Servant employees of the South Kuta Sub-District Office.

These tasks are very likely to cause pressure at work. Many factors, including role conflict, cause pressure and problems at work. Role conflict happens if an individual’s role fails to be conveyed to the recipient of the role expectation, caused by the fact that they do not have information or deliberately hide information.

From observations at the South Kuta Sub-District Office, the research found problems with female employees, especially those who are married. Where these female employees cannot balance their roles and experience difficulties at work, causing role conflicts felt by female employees. The role conflict they face is the role of a wife for her husband and a mother of her children, where when at home, they have to serve their children and husband and do household chores. At the same time, in the world of work, they must be active employees and focus on work related to service to the community. Role conflict has consequences or impacts on employees, especially on the level of job satisfaction. Role theory states that individuals go through role conflicts when pressures are simultaneously aimed at a person, so if the individual complies with one of them, it will be difficult or impossible to comply with the other (Rifaiet al., 2019).

In connection with human resources, complexity can be defined as job complexity, task complexity, position and status complexity, and rights and authority complexity. This complexity can be a potential for organizational conflict, especially in human resources, such as role conflicts among employees, resulting in stress at work (Nagori & Singh, 2019).

Stress is a changing condition confronting a person with demands, resources, or an opportunity related to what is desired, with results considered important but uncertain. Work stress experienced by employees can have severe impacts on organizations and employees. Namely, employees will experience job dissatisfaction and not achieve the goals and ideals of the organization. Stress can also be indicated by workload, which can impact satisfaction (Hasyim, 2020). High stress and low motivation will lead to dissatisfaction (Ridho & Susanti, 2019). The cause of job stress is the task of too many tasks along with the activities that run in the office environment. At the same time, the time to complete it is also limited and sporadic due to changes in schedules and plans decided by leaders, namely following the development of existing situations and conditions. The causes of job stress are heavy perceived workloads, unhealthy work climate, and work conflict (Redita & Dewi, 2019).

According to Yulianti and Putra (2021), job stress mediates the link between role conflict and work satisfaction. An individual who experiences a high level of role conflict can become a source of stress and cause dissatisfaction with their job. High role conflict will result in tension or difficulty adjusting to work, thereby increasing stress on employees; stressed employees result in a mismatch between expectations and the reality of the work, decreasing job satisfaction. Job satisfaction tends to decrease, and the pressure from a person’s misalignment with their environment can cause stress.

Literature Review

Role Theory

The theory underlying this research is role theory because the variables studied align with existing phenomena—low levels of job satisfaction for those experiencing high role conflicts.

Conflict has a relationship with work satisfaction and behavioral dysfunction that leads to role stress and anxiety. Role conflict has a direct and adverse effect on work satisfaction. Role theory is a perspective on an employee with too many roles and responsibilities simultaneously (Arunet al., 2021).

Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction is when an employee feels satisfied with their work and the environment is supportive. The employee will positively impact the company, and vice versa; if an employee feels uncomfortable and the workplace is less supportive, the employee’s behavior will show a poor attitude or performance towards the company. Job satisfaction can be measured using the job, salary, promotion, supervision, and coworkers (Tentamaet al., 2019).

Role Conflict

Role conflict is a form of pressure from two conflicting roles in employees caused by different roles, where conflicting roles will negatively impact company productivity. Indicators of role conflict are as follows: Different ways of doing tasks, doing unnecessary work, different ways of doing work even within the same team, doing work from two parties that are incompatible with each other, violation of rules to get the job done, work tends to be accepted by one party but not the other, not supported by sufficient human resources, not supported by other physical resources and materials (Rifaiet al., 2019).

Job Stress

Job stress happens when an individual experiences tension from the environment. When employees cannot control work stress, it will have a negative impact on employees, one of which is a decrease in employee performance. Indicators used to measure the level of job stress, according to Massieet al. (2018), are as follows: Task demand, Role demand, Interpersonal demand, Organizational structures, and leadership (Massieet al., 2018).

Hypotheses

Research conducted by Bongga and Susanty (2018), Maulidina and Frianto (2021), and Ranihusnaet al. (2020) found that role conflicts have a significant negative effect on job satisfaction. As role conflicts increase, employee job satisfaction tends to decrease.

H₁: Role conflict has a negative significant effect on job satisfaction.

Role conflict impacts the rise in work stress; more frequent role conflict will increase employee work stress (Kesawaet al., 2019). Previous research conducted by Yulianti and Putra (2021) at the Gianyar Regency Land Office stated that role conflict positively affected work stress.

H₂: Role conflict has a positive significant effect on job stress.

Research conducted by Redita and Dewi (2019) and Liuet al. (2019) showed a significant negative effect of work stress on job satisfaction. In other words, job satisfaction will decrease when workers’ job stress increases. When higher job stress is felt, the lower job satisfaction.

H₃: Job stress has a negative significant effect on job satisfaction.

Research conducted by Ranihusnaet al. (2020) and Yulianti and Putra (2021) states that work stress mediates the effect of role conflicts on work satisfaction. Gareni and Heryanda (2021) state that job stress mediates role conflict on job satisfaction.

H₄: Job stress mediates the relationship of role conflict with job satisfaction.

Research Method

This research uses a quantitative approach in the form of associative causality (cause and effect). This research instrument is a questionnaire measured using a 5-point Likert scale. The population and sample used in this research were all 53 non-civil Servant employees of the South Kuta District Office. The data collection methods used are questionnaires and interviews. Path analysis and Sobel test were used to answer the hypotheses.

Results and Discussion

Respondent Characteristics

Most respondents were women, which amounted to 35 people, and the rest were men who were 21 to 30 years old. Respondents with public service section positions dominated, namely 12 people (22.64%). Respondents with 6–10 years of service dominate, namely 22 people (41.51%). Undergraduate graduate respondents dominated at 77.36 percent.

Distribution of Respondents’ Answers

Role conflict, with the highest average score at 1.87, is “I accept assignments from two parties that are mutually incompatible,” and the lowest average score at 1.69 is “I worked with two or more jobs that operate in different ways.” The average total score of the role conflict variable is 1.76 out of 5. Work stress had the highest average score at 1.91 in the statement, “The organizational structure established by the office does not employ employees effectively and efficiently.” The lowest average score was 1.67, “I do not feel enthusiastic at work because there is unhealthy competition between employees.” The average score for work stress was 1.77 out of 5. Job satisfaction’s highest average score is 4.18, “I feel satisfied because of good cooperation with my colleagues.” The lowest average score was 3.63 for “I feel satisfied because there is conformity with the implementation of job promotions with the standards that have been set.” The average score for job satisfaction was 3.97 out of 5.

Path Analysis Results

As shown in Table I, F sig is below 0.001, meaning there is a simultaneous influence of the independent variables into a dependent variable. Total determination amounted to 0.387, meaning 38.7% of job satisfaction was built up by work stress and role conflict.

Table I. Path Analysis Results

Model	Unstandardizedcoefficients		Standardizedcoefficients	t	Sig.
	B	Std. error	Beta
1	4.201	1.295		3.242	0.002
	0.325	0.091	0.448	3.583	0.001
2	27.802	1.096		25.364	<0.001
	−0.349	0.078	−0.492	−4.463	<0.001
	−0.338	0.108	−0.346	−3.137	0.003

The Effect of Role Conflict on Job Satisfaction

Role conflict has a coefficient of 0.349 and a significance value below 0.001. Thus, role conflict has a negative significant effect on job satisfaction. Therefore, H₁ is accepted. If the conflicts rise, work satisfaction lowers. Ranihusnaet al. (2020) stated that role conflict negatively affects job satisfaction.

The Effect of Role Conflict on Job Stress

Role conflict has a coefficient of 0.325 and a significance value below 0.001. Thus, role conflict has a positive significant impact on stress. Therefore, H₂ is accepted. Role conflict has caused an increase in employee job stress, which means that more frequent role conflicts will result in increased employee job stress (Yulianti & Putra, 2021).

The Effect of Job Stress on Job Satisfaction

Job stress has a coefficient of 0.338, a significance of 0.003 < 0.05. Thus, job stress has a negative significant effect on job satisfaction. Redita and Dewi (2019) found that job stress affects job satisfaction. In other words, job satisfaction will decrease when workers’ job stress increases.

The Mediating Role of Job Stress on the Effect of Role Conflict on Job Satisfaction

Based on the calculation, the z count obtained is greater than the z table (2.353 > 1.960). This result means that role conflict in work satisfaction through work stress has an indirect effect. Thus, H₄ is accepted. Ranihusnaet al. (2020) state that stress mediates role conflicts at satisfaction.

Implications

This research can add to the literature and be useful as a learning reference for further research. Role conflict and job stress can influence job satisfaction. Role conflict and job stress in this study can be used as additional material for writers, especially in helping future researchers build hypotheses.

Limitations

This research has been proposed and implemented in accordance with scientific procedure with several limitations, such as small respondents and small research scope. This research was also conducted using cross-sectional events; meanwhile, the workplace situation has dynamic changes.

Conclusion

Based on the result, the conclusion is that role conflict affects job satisfaction and stress. Job stress affecting job satisfaction also has a mediating effect on role conflicts and satisfaction.

The lowest average score on the job satisfaction variable is “I feel satisfied because of the suitability of implementing job promotions with predetermined standards.” This can be a reference for companies to provide promotion opportunities for employees with appropriate abilities and standards set by the company and always be fair to all employees.

The highest average score on the role conflict variable is “I receive tasks from two mutually incompatible parties.” This can be a reference for company leaders to pay attention to the tasks or job descriptions given to employees. Bosses should not give tasks to subordinates that are not in accordance with the previously agreed job description because it can confuse employees and hinder their performance.

The highest average score on the Job stress variable is “The organizational structure set by the office does not employ employees effectively and efficiently.” This can be a reference for companies to review the organizational structure set so that the job descriptions given to employees can be more effective and efficient for both employees and companies. Future researchers should consider other antecedents like compensation, career development, work culture, and communication.