I shouldn't have to do this: Illegitimate tasks as a stressor in relation to organizational control and resource deficits

Abstract The performance of tasks that are perceived as unnecessary or unreasonable – illegitimate tasks – represents a new stressor concept that refers to assignments that violate the norms associated with the role requirements of professional work. Research has shown that illegitimate tasks are associated with stress and counterproductive work behaviour. The purpose of this study was to provide insight into the contribution of characteristics of the organization on the prevalence of illegitimate tasks in the work of frontline and middle managers. Using the Bern Illegitimate Task Scale (BITS) in a sample of 440 local government operations managers in 28 different organizations in Sweden, this study supports the theoretical assumptions that illegitimate tasks are positively related to stress and negatively related to satisfaction with work performance. Results further show that 10% of the variance in illegitimate tasks can be attributed to the organization where the managers work. Multilevel referential analysis showed that the more the organization was characterized by competition for resources between units, unfair and arbitrary resource allocation and obscure decisional structure, the more illegitimate tasks managers reported. These results should be valuable for strategic-level management since they indicate that illegitimate tasks can be counteracted by means of the organization of work. Keywords: illegitimate tasksrolemanagementwork organizationmultilevel analysisresource deficitswork-related stress Acknowledgements This work is part of a four-year (2008–2012) research programme, funded by the Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems (VINNOVA). The authors would also like to thank Antonio Ponce de Leon, Karolinska Institutet, and Anders Pousette, University of Gothenburg, for valuable comments on this work.