Big Five traits as Predictors of Perceived Stressfulness of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This study examined the Big Five personality traits as predictors of individual differences and changes in the perceived stressfulness of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany between early April 2020 and early September 2020. This timeframe includes the first national “lockdown,” the period of “easing” of restrictions, and the summer vacation period. Data were collected from n = 588 full-time employees, who provided baseline data on their personality traits in early December 2019, and then later provided data on perceived stressfulness of the COVID-19 pandemic at five time points, spanning six months. Consistent with expectations based on event and transition theories, results showed that, on average, perceived stressfulness declined between early April 2020 and early September 2020. Moreover, this effect was stronger between early April 2020 and early July 2020. Hypotheses based on the differential reactivity model of personality and stress were partially supported. Emotional stability was associated with lower, and extraversion associated with higher, average levels of perceived stressfulness. Finally, extraversion was associated with increases (i.e., positive trajectories) in perceived stressfulness between early April 2020 and early July 2020 and decreases (i.e., negative trajectories) in perceived stressfulness between early July 2020 and early September 2020.

Researching employee experiences and behavior in times of crisis: Theoretical and methodological considerations and implications for human resource management

“…Moreover, event system theory (Morgeson et al, 2015) and transition-adaptation theories (Bliese et al, 2017) can be fruitfully integrated to explain how employees initially react to and, over time, recover from crisis events (e.g. lockdowns), for instance in terms of perceived stressfulness (Zacher and Rudolph, 2021a) or self-rated work performance (Zacher et al, 2021).…”

“…In the current paper, we take a step back and reflect on what we have learned about researching employee experiences and behavior in times of crisis in the years 2020 and 2021, based on our own conceptual and empirical work on the COVID-19 pandemic and employee experiences and behavior (Rudolph and Zacher, 2021b;Zacher et al, 2021;Zacher and Rudolph, 2021a;Zacher and Rudolph, 2021b), as well as the work of our colleagues. We first review theoretical approaches that (could) have been applied to understand changes in employee experiences and behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as theoretical approaches that could be applied to examine these phenomena during future crises.…”

Resilience, well-being, and organizational outcomes of Croatian, Thai, and US workers during COVID-19

“…All these drastic workplace changes increased emotional stress and concerns for the health and safety of loved ones as well as oneself (Kocjan, Kavčič, & Avsec, 2021; Xiong et al, 2020). Previous research has suggested stressors such as these are likely to lower employee well-being (Mojtahedi et al, 2021; Zacher & Rudolph, 2021), and in turn decrease job productivity (Toscano & Zappalà, 2020) and strain workplace relationships (Kaushik & Guleria, 2020). Against this backdrop, this study focuses on three outcome variables pertinent to workers worldwide during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic: psychological well-being, productivity, and relational satisfaction at work (Galanti, Guidetti, Mazzei, Zappalà, & Toscano, 2021; Kaushik & Guleria, 2020; Kniffin et al, 2021).…”

“…In this study, psychological well-being is defined as one's levels of positive affective states, functioning, and quality of life (Topp, Østergaard, Søndergaard, & Bech, 2015; Winefield, Gill, Taylor, & Pilkington, 2012). The impact of COVID-19 on employee well-being has been well-documented with multiple studies reporting an increase in employees' anxiety, depression, and stress compared to the pre-pandemic era (Labrague & De los Santos, 2020; Mojtahedi et al, 2021; Zacher & Rudolph, 2021).…”

“…Previous examinations on the relationship between extraversion and mental health during COVID-19 have reported conflicting findings. For example, Nikčević, Marino, Kolubinski, Leach, and Spada (2021) found that extraversion was linked with decreased anxiety whereas Kocjan, Kavčič, and Avsec (2021) and Zacher and Rudolph (2021) reported extraversion was linked with increased stress. Also, Wijngaards, Sisouw de Zilwa, and Burger (2020) suggested that introverts fare better than extroverts when living with governments' imposed stringent measures.…”