From Role Conflicts to Perceived Stress
Much of the existent research presents perceived social support as an effective tool of stress management at work. Our research aims to test this hypothesis by interrogating the moderator role attributed to perceived social support from superiors and subordinates in the relationship between role conflict and stress among middle managers (MI) and proximity managers (MP) in the public sector. The job demands-resources model (Bakker and Demerouti, 2007) serves as a theoretical framework. According to this model, perceived social support is a professional resource that can help to mitigate the adverse effects of job demands on mental health. The data collected from 310 managers in local public administration only partially confirm this hypothesis. Indeed, our research does not initially support the moderating influence of perceived social support from supervisors and subordinates in the relationship between role conflict and perceived stress among MI. Similar results are observed in some cases among MP. Consequently, the idea of non-mobilization of social support as a professional resource for managers in certain conditions is put forward in discussing these results. The results show that the effectiveness of perceived social support depends on several factors: the nature and the source of the perceived social support, the type of role conflict and the status of the managers concerned (MI and MP). Hence, the MP seem to be more receptive than the MI to the social support of their supervisors when facing role conflicts and, as a result, their stress levels decrease. In order to manage the stress of MP caused by role conflicts, their professional skills need to be recognized.