The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 37, No. 2 - 74

Diane D. Everett • Zachary V. Loftus

enforcement, the RA position grants students authority over their peers’ conduct. Yet both as students themselves and as their residents’ peers and friends in the college setting, RAs may experience role conflict when they must discipline their friends for rule infractions (Deluga & Winters, 1990; Fuehrer & McGonagle, 1988; Jaeger & Caison; Rubington, 1990). Role conflict is “the experience of attempting to satisfy competing and incompatible role demands concurrently” (Deluga & Winters, 1990, p. 31). It refers to a situation whereby the social role (i.e., set of expected behaviors) attached to one status, or social position, clashes with the social role associated with another status occupied simultaneously by that same person (Andersen & Taylor, 2008). This study conceptualized RAs’ experience of role conflict in sociological terms (Andersen & Taylor, 2008)—that is, as stemming from the seemingly contradictory and competing simultaneous roles accompanying two of their social positions within different campus structures: rule enforcer in the bureaucratic organizational hierarchy of the housing and residential life office and peer/friend in the student community. Hence, unlike some previous studies that consider role conflict as resulting from RAs’ individual attributes or personalities, this study suggests that the basis for RAs’ role conflict is organizational structures and processes, not the types of individuals who serve as RAs. This inquiry examined whether RAs have personal relationships with their residents, whether and how often they experience role conflict when enforcing institutional policy, and how difficult it is for them to take disciplinary action against residents with whom they are more familiar.

RESIDENT ASSISTANTS’ JOB PERFORMANCE AND ROLE CONFLICT
Job Performance
Given the multifaceted nature of the RA position, much of the literature relates to RAs’ job performance. Some studies emphasize identifying, recruiting, and training students to fill the position and the personal, psychological, and social factors that facilitate or hinder job performance (Bierman & Carpenter, 1994; Jaeger & Caison, 2006; Murray, Snider, & Midkiff, 1999; Posner & Brodsky, 1993; Twale & Burrell, 1994). Others focus on only one RA role, such as that of disciplinarian (Williams & Nelson, 1986), particularly with respect to policy violations concerning alcohol and other substances (O’Hare & Sherrer, 1999; Rubington, 1990, 1993). As staff members, RAs are expected to address residents’ rule violations using instrumental criteria prescribed by institutional policies and procedures, rather than relying on the expressive criteria characterizing personal relationships. By handling incidents in an impartial manner, RAs help ensure the fairness, predictability, and efficiency of the residential life office. Yet within the student community, RAs occupy simultaneous positions as peers/friends to other students, including residents. When the peer role clashes with the rule enforcer role, RAs may struggle to reconcile the conflicting demands (Fuehrer & McGonagle, 1988). This type of struggle epitomizes role conflict. Furthermore, of all the RAs’ roles, the juxtaposition of these two probably generates the most intense role conflict, one that is likely to occur frequently, for several reasons. First, because

THE JOURNAL OF COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY STUDENT HOUSING

The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 37, No. 2

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 37, No. 2