ROLE CLARITY: Key to Organizational Success

The success and failure of an organization depends on role clarity and goal clarity of its people not only at individual level but also at team level. Every organization works like an “organism” where each team member has a set of expertise and freedom to operate within a scope. Every employee is assigned a set of responsibilities. Each individual operates within a defined functional scope which is called Job Role. Every employee needs to coordinate each other’s effort and perform within a time frame to make the department run. When all the cross functional departments work in coordination and synergy with goal clarity, the organization tend to achieve success.

What is Role Clarity?

An employee gets role clarity only when he knows what he needs to deliver and what is expected out of him. Role Clarity is not limited to the job description. It comprises of responsibilities & authorities along with the content of task, work method, operational priorities and time frame. Again the Role clarity is not limited to his own role. It also includes his colleagues’ role & cross functional role. Conventionally HR briefs job description to the new recruits during orientation. But that is not sufficient. The Talent Managers need to make the new recruit realize about his role over his on the job training. The functional leader needs to educate the new recruit about different dimensions of his role. He must define how the role fits into the larger picture and how it intersects with other functions.

Role clarity facilitates work alignment in a team. It enhances process efficacy and cross functional dependency. Role clarity is the most important step which can facilitate Operational efficiency and Organizational effectiveness.

Lack of Role Clarity

Lack of Role clarity leads to stress, Poor Prioritization, Lack of alignment with strategy and operational inefficiency. Even proficient employees can not perform as per expectation without Role Clarity in an organization.

Benefits of Role Clarity

·        It increases organizational efficiency by enhancing accountability & ownership at individual level and team level.

·        Employee gets a clear cut framework and directives to perform in a job

·        It reduces role ambiguity & job overlapping

·        Clarity of job role enhances employee and team performance.

·        It helps in measuring the performance of the employee.

·        It helps to capture ideas on how to improve in current process

·        Improves job satisfaction and productive work culture.

·        Role clarity facilitates Learning.

Can Role Clarity be measured?

Role clarity is the stepping stone for organizational success. Organization must assess the degree of role clarity of its employees. It can be measured by pulse survey. This map starts with the question of whether employees know what is expected of them.

Role Ambiguity  

Lack of Role clarity creates Role Ambiguity. Role ambiguity occurs when people don’t have clear-cut direction and they are unclear what is expected out of them. In the changing global business scenario, new businesses are constantly evolving and existing businesses are under pressure to innovate something new. With effect of this, the jobs and Job roles are changing frequently in the organizations. Many companies assume that their employees understand that how their role determines the success of the company. In this process, the roles of the employees are not redefined at all and the expectations are kept unclear.

Without clear understanding of job roles, employees end up wasting their energies understanding their role within their teams rather than focusing on productive works.

Often the Role Ambiguity occurs because the functional leaders and Talent Managers are unable to invest time in define and communicate the role to the subordinates. Sometimes leaders try to educate the employees their job roles but the employees are not able to understand.

Similarly when organization goes through restructuring, specific employees get promotion and deployment; it’s clear that their roles have changed. But unfortunately the new roles are rarely defined and communicated to the employees. Lack of role clarity in similar situations can lead to severe frustration and separation in long run.

Role Ambiguity & Politics

Role Ambiguity leads to role conflict, job duplication & organizational politics. In conventional organizations where structural and functional changes are frequent & individual Roles are not clearly defined and communicated, employees get indulged in politics. Moreover, cross functional politics are quite evident in these kind of organizations.

Role Clarity & job Performance

The result of a study reveals that employees with high role clarity are much more effective than those with lower role clarity. In performing organizations, role clarity is given higher importance at all levels. Role Clarity is a prerequisite for effective team performance. When team members know that what is expected out of them in order to achieve the goal, they perform and contribute collectively to achieve the goal within given time frame. Performing organizations set individual role and review the performance in line with the expectations.

Role Clarity and Goal Clarity are not given much of importance in conventional organizations. Strategically they don’t invest time and resources in analyzing, defining and setting roles at individual level. Nor they feel the importance of defining the role while conducting structural changes. This leads to role ambiguity, job duplication, politics & frustration at individual & team level. This kind of organization must initiate Goal transformation with immediate effect. Without having Role clarity, Goal Clarity and shared vision companies cannot perform as per their expectations.