This exploratory study seeks to explain variation in conflict and ambiguity among a national sample of directors of school district research and evaluation units. The approach developed argues that variation in evaluation unit directors' role conflict and ambiguity is a function of both school district and evaluation unit characteristics, since both sets of organizational features influence the political/economic context within which the director must function. It is also argued that the social resource characteristics of the school district, that is, the external context within which evaluation units function, and the organization of the unit itself, are key sources of information about them, and particularly about the amount of conflict and ambiguity confronted by the directors. (Author/GK)