Big five personality factors and other elements in understanding work stress of Turkish health care professionals

Work stress has been a vital issue for the past decades in healthcare setting as well as the role of personality in stress. The purpose of this study is to improve the understanding of the effect of personality and other related elements (individual characteristics and work environment) on work stress based on a cybernetic framework. In order to define work stress, the framework points out individual characteristics, personality and environment, which play a systematic role interactively. This study investigated the effect of personality and other elements on work stress among Turkish health care professionals. The Big Five personality factors were taken into account. It consists of neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness to new experience. Data were collected using questionnaires from 462 health care professionals who are working in 25 different state hospitals and 12 cities in Turkey. The results of correlation analysis showed that extraversion was negatively linked with work stress, and neuroticism was positively linked with work stress. The results of regression analysis revealed that neuroticism as a personality factor, gender as a personal characteristic; and position variables as a work environment, were the predictor of work stress.