Personality, stress and counterproductive workplace behaviors among employees of Ministry of Education and Sports

Abstract

The study aimed at investigating the relationship between personality, stress and counterproductive workplace behaviours among employees of Ministry of Education and Sports. The study adopted a correlational study design with a population of 60 employees from the human resource department. Simple random sampling technique was used to draw a sample of 52 respondents from the population. Data was collected from respondents using selfadministered standard questionnaire and through Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) data was entered and analyzed. Descriptive statistics showed that 51.9% of the respondents were female and 48.1% were male, majority were between 20-30 years (48.1%). Results from Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient (r) further indicated that there was a no significant relationship between personality and stress (r=.210, p=.136); no significant relationship between personality and stress (r=-.143, p=.313); and there is a significant positive relationship between stress and counterproductive workplace behaviour (r=.401, p=.003). Thus, the findings of this study provide several recommendations to administrators and managers of the several organizations mostly government agencies in designing policies and procedures that will determine outcomes of their staff such as reduced stress and counterproductive workplace behaviours. Basing on the findings, organisations should therefore not discriminate individuals based on the personality traits they have during recruitment and selection. Major concern should be put on interventions aimed at reducing stress and counterproductive workplace behaviours. This is because there is no significant relationship between personality and stress as well as personality and counterproductive workplace behavior.