Linking personality traits with perceived augmented stress with mediation of interpersonal relationship behaviours: an explorative study on indian marine engineers

Abstract

Human resources are considered invaluable to any business organisation, especially when such resources are equipped with a blend of techno-human skills and at the same time, scarce in nature. While human resources can be of extreme potential, at the same time, such a resource can be prone to experiencing psychological stress at times. Such a situation is not uncommon nowadays in many business organisations due to rapid technological development, competitive business environment, multiple job roles, etc. Worth mentioning here is that the concept of stress is relative in nature. While some individuals perceive a situation as significantly stressful, others may not. Scientific pieces of evidence establish that such a difference exists among others due to differences in personality as well as preferences towards building interpersonal relationships. However, different mediating factors may soothe such linkage between personality traits and stress. For instance, support from peers is a significant way of reducing stress, particularly while working in a team environment. This is more so under uncertain situations like COVID-19, which demand a collaboratively competitive teamwork environment. The present study tries to test such linkage between personality traits and augmented occupational stress and the mediating impact of interpersonal relationships of an employee on such linkage during COVID-19. The Indian marine engineers are taken as a case study to understand such dynamics.