Relationship between Emotional Exhaustion and Deviant Behaviors: Moderating Role of Big Five Personality Traits

Abstract

Personality traits are very important factors for research and theory and also for understanding various employees' behavior at work settings. The aim of the current inquiry was to investigate the relationships between emotional exhaustion and deviant behaviors with consider moderating effects of big five personality factors among employees of an public sector organization in Tehran, Iran. Using a simple random sampling method, a sample of two hundred and sixty five employees responded the emotional exhaustion, deviant behaviors, and big five personality traits questionnaires. The results revealed that extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism moderate the relationship between emotional exhaustion and deviant behaviors. That is, in high extroversion and agreeableness, emotional exhaustion not significantly related to deviant behaviors, while in high neuroticism, emotional exhaustion positively and significantly related to deviant behaviors. Result of the current investigation showed that agreeableness and extroversion are two protective personality traits, and neuroticism is a personality risk factor in the relationship between emotional exhaustion and deviant behaviors.