mediating role of perceived control in the impact of personal qualities on job stress among hospital staff

background and objectives: studies of the relationship between personal qualities and job consequences usually find poor and inconsistent correlations. it is suggested that the reason may lie in ignorance of some modifying factors mediating such relationship. the perceived control has attracted much attention as a candidate factor. this study aimed to examine the mediating role of the perceived control in the impact of agreeableness and neuroticism on job stress in the hospital staff.   methods: a conceptual model was developed, in which neuroticism and agreeableness were considered as the independent variables, perceived control, the mediating variable, and job stress the dependent variable. the statistical population of the study included all the staff of imam reza hospital in urumia of whom 248 were selected using random sampling. using morgan table, sample size of 248 was achieved. neuroticism and agreeableness were assessed through neo big five factor inventories. perceived control was evaluated using tetrick and larocco questionnaire (tetrick and larocco, 1987). job stress was measured using the scale developed by house and rizzo (house and rizzo, 1972). the conceptual model was fitted to the data using structural equation modeling technique.   findings: both agreeableness significant positive correlation with job stress and significant negative correlation with perceived control.   conclusions: our findings suggest that causal impact of personality traits on job stress is mediated through the perceived control.