Terrorism vulnerability: organizations’ ambiguous expectations and employees’ conflicting priorities

Abstract

This study demonstrates how field employees’ perceived threat of terrorism (PTT) is magnified by the incompatibility between role demand (travel and work outdoors) and resources (terrorism-endangered environment). With a foundation in the conservation of resources perspective and transactional theory of stress, a theoretical framework was proposed to test the mediating effect of role ambiguity (RA) and role conflict (RC) in the relationship between PTT and emotional exhaustion (EE). An approach involving confirmatory factor analysis and the structural equation was used for analysis. Data from 432 pharmaceutical sales representatives indicate a significant positive relationship between PTT and EE, while RA and RC significantly mediated the relationship. The findings are potentially useful for employers in charge of field employees in high-risk regions by explaining how such groups can be provided with support to reduce their role stress and exhaustion, leading ultimately to increased satisfaction.

Keywords:

• emotional exhaustion
• perceived threat of terrorism
• role ambiguity
• role conflict

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.