Employee health-relevant personality traits are associated with the psychosocial work environment and leadership

Abstract

Objectives: Little is known about personality in relation to assessments of the psychosocial work environment and leadership. Therefore the objective of this study is to explore possible associations and differences in mean values between employee health-relevant personality traits and assessments of the psychosocial work environment and leadership behaviors. Methods: 754 survey responses from ten organizations were selected from a large-scale intervention study. The Health-relevant Personality 5 inventory was used to assess personality. Five dimensions of the psychosocial work environment were assessed with 38 items from the QPS_Nordic and 6 items from the Developmental Leadership Questionnaire were used to assess leadership behavior. Results: Positive correlations were found between Hedonic capacity (facet of Extraversion) and perceptions of the psychosocial work environment and leadership behavior. Negative correlations were found for Negative affectivity (facet of Neuroticism), Antagonism (facet of Agreeableness), Impulsivity (facet of Conscientiousness) and Alexithymia (facet of Openness). There were also significant differences in mean values of all work environment indicators between levels of health-relevant personality traits. Those with higher levels of hedonic capacity had higher (better) perceptions compared to those with lower levels. Those with higher levels of negative affectivity had lower (worse) perceptions compared to those with lower levels. Conclusions: The findings show a clear association between employee health-relevant personality traits and assessments of the psychosocial work environment and leadership behavior. Personality can be important to take into consideration for leaders when interpreting survey results and when designing organizational interventions.

Keywords:

• Personality
• psychosocial work environment
• leadership

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the organizations and participants in the “Work with flow” intervention study for your dedication and your time. We also express our gratitude toward the European Social Fund for financing the intervention study “Work with flow,” and toward AFA Insurance for financing this research. We are very grateful to systems architect Jens Pettersson for immense and deeply appreciated efforts in the study. We are also thankful for valuable input from Kristina Palm (PhD) in reviewing the manuscript prior to publication.