Iran Occupational Health

  Background and aims: since faculty members are among the most important assets of higher education institutes, surveying and identifying factors associated with these sources which can be effective on their performance & stress, have gained increasing importance. Accordingly, the aim of this study was surveying the mediating effect of individual accountability in causal relations among conscientiousness, agreeableness, and stress and job satisfaction of faculty members.

  Methods: To conduct this study a sample consisting of 250 faculty members in three state universities were chosen using random stratified sampling. The data were gathered through NEO big five factor inventories and stress, job satisfaction and individual accountability questionnaires. To evaluate the relations among latent variables, measured in conceptual model, the structural equation modeling was used.

 Results: The results showed that the personality trait of conscientiousness bears a negative and significant relation with stress, a positive and significant relation with felt accountability,
and the personality trait of agreeableness bears a positive and significant relation with satisfaction and a negative and significant relation with accountability. The results also showed that the relation between conscientiousness and job satisfaction is mediated through felt accountability. The mediating role of the felt accountability in the relation between the personality trait of agreeableness and job satisfaction was confirmed.
Conclusion: According to the results, individual accountability affects the relation among personality traits, stress and job satisfaction of faculty members. The results put emphasis on the necessity of reassessing the mediating role of individual accountability in surveying the causal relation among personality traits of conscientiousness, agreeableness, and stress and job satisfaction.