Impact of Stressors on Employee Performance: Moderating Role of Big Five Traits

Abstract

The nature of jobs, across the globe, is becoming more complex and demanding since last few decades. Today, the technological innovations, growing competition, and pressure of performance at the workplace are inducing the organizations to take necessary steps to make their workforce more productive. Scholars suggest that organizations under such circumstances exert pressure to perform better that results in negative consequences for both the organizations and the individuals. The purpose of the current study was to examine the effects of two important workplace stressors such as time pressure and workload on desirable job behaviors (i.e. in-role job performance, OCB and creative performance). The study also examined the effects of big five personality traits (Emotional Stability, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience) on these job outcomes. In addition, the study examined the role of personality traits as buffering agents against the harmful effects of workplace stressors on these job outcomes. Data was collected from 230 full time employees working in different organizations in Pakistan in two stages whereby data on independent and moderating variables were collected in Time 1 and data on dependent variables were collected in one month later in Time 2. The results revealed that time pressure had a negative effect on job performance and OCB. Workload was found to have no significant effect on job performance, OCB, and creative performance. The results suggested that conscientious individuals were less likely to demonstrate creative performance. The findings also suggested that extravert and conscientious individuals were less likely to demonstrate citizenship behaviors at the workplace. Further, agreeableness and openness to experience had a positive effect on both OCB and creative performance. The results for moderation suggested that time pressure had a significant negative effect on job performance for high conscientiousness. Similarly, time pressure had a significant negative effect on job performance for low extraversion. The findings also revealed that the negative 2 relationship between time pressure-OCB was stronger when extraversion was high. In addition, time pressures had a significant negative relationship with OCB for low agreeableness. Further, the negative relationship between time pressure and creative performance was significant for those low on agreeableness The results further demonstrated that the workload-OCB relationship was positive when emotional stability was low whereas this relationship was negative when extraversion was high. Findings also suggest that the workload-OCB relationship was positive when extraversion was high whereas this relationship was negative when extraversion was low. Moreover, the workload-OCB relationship was positive when agreeableness was high whereas this relationship was negative when agreeableness was low. Furthermore, workload had a negative relationship with creative performance for high extraversion. Finally, workload had a negative effect on creative performance for low agreeableness.