The influence of personality traits on nurses' job satisfaction in Taiwan

Abstract

Aim: The purpose of this study was to empirically investigate a set of personality traits based on core self-evaluations in relation to job satisfaction among nurses in Taiwan, and to identity important personality characteristics in contributing to nurses' satisfactory attitudes towards work.

Method: A cross-sectional survey research was conducted with self-reported questionnaires. The participants were 314 nurses (89% response rate) in two regional hospitals in Taiwan. Among them, 99% were female (n=311), 54.5% (n=171) ranging between 21 and 30 years old, 37.9% (n=119) ranging between 31 and 40 years old, 44.6% (n=140) are registered nurse, 29.3% (n=92) are licensed vocational nurse and 52.9% were married (n=166). In addition, ethical research requirements for conducting research on human subjects were fulfilled for all of the participants in the study.

Analysis: Data were analysed using SPSS version 14.0 software (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). A number of data analysis procedures were conducted including descriptive statistics, Pearson product-moment correlation and multiple regression analysis. The selection of the predictor variables was performed with the level of significance P<0.05 and the adjusted explained variance was used to examine statistical explanatory power.

Results: Personality traits of optimism, self-esteem, proactive personality, self-efficacy and negative affectivity significantly contributed to job satisfaction.

Conclusions: The findings of this study confirmed the importance of taking personality variables into consideration during the process of evaluating job satisfaction. Job satisfaction should not only be related to extrinsic factors but also associated with individual differences of dispositional tendency. Nurses with positive evaluation and expectation towards self and others tend to report higher job satisfaction. The results of this study are consistent with previous studies. The implications for nursing managements are discussed.