Effects of personality on job burnout and safety performance of high-speed rail drivers in China: the mediator of organizational identification

Abstract

Although the rapid development of high-speed rail (HSR) enhanced the national transportation and boosted the economical grow in China, it also has great impacts on the psychology and behaviors of high-speed rail drivers. Personality traits affect individual's psychological and behavioral performance at work. In this paper, two studies were designed to partly investigate whether or not personality factors affects job burnout and safety performance of HSR drivers in China. In Study 1, the data was collected from 273 HSR drivers in China. The results showed the personality of HSR drivers affected their job burnout. In particular, neuroticism, openness and agreeableness negatively influenced job burnout. Organization identification partly mediated the association between neuroticism, openness, agreeableness and job burnout. In Study 2, we collected data from 349 high-speed rail drivers from 6 railway bureaus across the country, and the results are very similar to of Study 1. That is neuroticism, openness and agreeableness positively influenced safety performance. Organization identification partly mediated the association between neuroticism, openness, agreeableness and safety performance. Finally, the difference between the results of this study and other scholars' research results is also discussed, and practical suggestions are put forward.

Keywords:

• personality
• job burnout
• safety performance
• organizational identification
• high-speed rail drivers

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Social Science Fund of China [grant numbers: 18AGL012].