Big five model personality traits and job burnout: a systematic literature review

BackgroundJob burnout negatively contributes to individual well-being, enhancing public health costs due to turnover, absenteeism, and reduced job performance. Personality traits mainly explain why workers differ in experiencing burnout under the same stressful work conditions. The current systematic review was conducted with the PRISMA method and focused on the five-factor model to explain workers' burnout risk.MethodsThe databases used were Scopus, PubMed, ScienceDirect, and PsycINFO. Keywords used were: "Burnout," "Job burnout," "Work burnout," "Personality," and "Personality traits".ResultsThe initial search identified 3320 papers, from which double and non-focused studies were excluded. From the 207 full texts reviewed, the studies included in this review were 83 papers. The findings show that higher levels of neuroticism (r from 0.10** to 0.642***; beta from 0.16** to 0.587***) and lower agreeableness (r from - 0.12* to - 0.353***; beta from - 0.08*** to - 0.523*), conscientiousness (r from -0.12* to -0.355***; beta from - 0.09*** to - 0.300*), extraversion (r from - 0.034** to - 0.33***; beta from - 0.06*** to - 0.31***), and openness (r from - 0.18*** to - 0.237**; beta from - 0.092* to - 0.45*) are associated with higher levels of burnout.ConclusionsThe present review highlighted the relationship between personality traits and job burnout. Results showed that personality traits were closely related to workers' burnout risk. There is still much to explore and how future research on job burnout should account for the personality factors.