Personality, organizational stress, and attitudes toward work as prospective predictors of professional burnout in hospital nurses

AIM To examine to what extent personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness), organizational stress, and attitudes toward work and interactions between personality and either organizational stress or attitudes toward work prospectively predict 3 components of burnout. METHODS The study was carried out on 118 hospital nurses. Data were analyzed by a set of hierarchical regression analyses, in which personality traits, measures of organizational stress, and attitudes toward work, as well as interactions between personality and either organizational stress or attitudes toward work were included as predictors, while 3 indices of burnout were measured 4 years later as criteria variables. RESULTS Personality traits proved to be significant but weak prospective predictors of burnout and as a group predicted only reduced professional efficacy (R(2)=0.10), with agreeableness being a single negative predictor. Organizational stress was positive, affective-normative commitment negative predictor, while continuance commitment was not related to any dimension of burnout. We found interactions between neuroticism as well as conscientiousness and organizational stress, measured as role conflict and work overload, on reduced professional efficacy (βNRCWO=-0.30; βcRCWO=-0.26). We also found interactions between neuroticism and affective normative commitment (β=0.24) and between openness and continuance commitment on reduced professional efficacy (β=-0.23), as well as interactions between conscientiousness and continuance commitment on exhaustion. CONCLUSION Although contextual variables were strong prospective predictors and personality traits weak predictors of burnout, the results suggested the importance of the interaction between personality and contextual variables in predicting burnout.