| Status | 已發表Published |
| Do your resident tutors know what they are doing? Role ambiguity in university residences | |
| Yeung, E. W. K.; Wan, S. W. S. | |
| 2020-07-01 | |
| Source Publication | BELMAS Annual Conference 2020
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| Abstract | Resident Tutors, or RT, are the first contact-point who directly interact with resident students. RTs, who are postgraduate students as well as academic or administrative staff, are expected to perform a wide range of duties, such as community building, academic advising, conflict management, counselling, etc. A clearly defined of job role and duties is believed to improve their quality of service. If the role is not clearly defined, there may be confusion of job expectations and the consequences of performance, which is referred to as Role Ambiguity. Role ambiguity is well researched in the business context, but there are few studies in the educational setting. The previous studies show that role ambiguity negatively affected RTs’ stress level, appraisal score, job satisfaction, and residents’ satisfaction. However, other factors that cause role ambiguity (e.g. traits of RT) and the impact of role ambiguity (e.g. intention to interact with their residents) is not known. There is also an absence of scientific measurement for role ambiguity in the university residence context. This study was conducted in a comprehensive university in Hong Kong in 2016. A mixed-method was adopted. In the first stage, four personal interviews were conducted with two RTs and two supervisors of RTs. Then, two focus groups (each attended by five RTs) were conducted. Several themes emerged from the qualitative data were extracted to develop a scale to measure RTs’ role ambiguity in students residence. Subsequently, the the scale was sent to all RTs (around 100) and 30 completed surveys were returned. Descriptive statistics and Factor Analysis were conducted to analyse the quantitative data (n=30). Principal Component Analysis was used to determine the underlying variables for the role ambiguity scale, where those variables with loadings <0.50 and those with overlapped loadings with <0.50 were removed. Six components were identified: (1) Reasons why they become a resident tutor, (2) Role ambiguity, (3) Relationship between resident tutors and students, (4) Relationship between resident tutors and their supervisor, (5) Issues that upset resident tutors, and (6) Traits of resident tutors. Tutors had the highest mean score in Component (1) Reasons why they become a resident tutor but relatively lower mean score in Component (2) Role ambiguity and Component (4) Relationship between resident tutors and students. Role ambiguity is found significantly correlated with RTs’ intention to interact with resident students. This paper provides a better understanding of university RT role ambiguity and its underlying factors and impacts. It offers information for designing policy, guidelines and training. RTs generally had a clear understanding about their role, while there is a significant numbers of RTs expressed neutral about their understanding to their role. Role ambiguity is found significantly correlated with their interaction with their resident students. In view of the findings, A more clearly defined to RT role will improve the outcome of the residential education of university student residence. A large scale of investigation in RT role ambiguity in all tertiary institutes in Hong Kong is suggested. |
| Keyword | Role Ambiguity Residential Education Resident Tutor |
| URL | View the original |
| Language | 英語English |
| The Source to Article | PB_Publication |
| PUB ID | 54234 |
| Document Type | Conference paper |
| Collection | STANLEY HO EAST ASIA COLLEGE |
| Recommended Citation GB/T 7714 | Yeung, E. W. K.,Wan, S. W. S.. Do your resident tutors know what they are doing? Role ambiguity in university residences[C], 2020. |
| APA | Yeung, E. W. K.., & Wan, S. W. S. (2020). Do your resident tutors know what they are doing? Role ambiguity in university residences. BELMAS Annual Conference 2020. |
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