The role of personality, occupation and organization in understanding the relationship between job stress, performance and absenteeism

The relationship between job content and job context sources of stress and selected behavioural and attitudinal outcomes, absenteeism and perceived performance, was empirically examined, while controlling for differences in personality, occupation and organizational culture. Twelve hundred hospital workers were administered an occupational stress questionnaire and attendance records were collected from personnel files. Job content stress was found to reduce absenteeism but not to influence perceived performance, while job context stress increases absenteeism and reduces perceived performance. Personality was found to have a significant effect on performance but not on absenteeism; occupation influences absenteeism but not performance; and organizational culture contributes to the explanation of both absenteeism and performance. A significant interaction between job context stress and personality types was documented for the two outcomes.