The purpose of this study was to examine the relative influence of the personality and job stress of daycare teachers, which are respectively one of psychological traits and of job-related characteristics, on their role performance.
Three research que...
The purpose of this study was to examine the relative influence of the personality and job stress of daycare teachers, which are respectively one of psychological traits and of job-related characteristics, on their role performance.
Three research questions were posed:
1. What are pervasive trends in the personality strengths, job stress and role performance of childcare teachers?
2. What is the relationship of their personality strengths and job stress to role performance?
3. What is the relative influence of their personality strengths and job stress on role performance?
The subjects in this study were 300 childcare teachers in daycare centers located in South Chungcheong Province and Gyeonggi Province. After a survey was conducted, the answer sheets from 276 respondents were analyzed.
A statistical package SPSS 20.0 was employed to analyze the collected data.
To find out the general characteristics of the respondents, frequency analysis was made, and statistical data on frequency and percentage were obtained. To grasp pervasive trends in the personality strengths, job stress and role performance of the daycare teachers, another statistical data on mean and standard deviation were obtained, and Pearson product-moment correlation analysis was made to determine the relationship of their personality strengths and job stress to role performance. Finally, hierarchical regression analysis was made to find out the relative influence of the personality strengths and job stress of the daycare teachers on their role performance.
The findings of the study were as follows:
First, as a result of analyzing pervasive trends in the personality strengths, job stress and role performance of the childcare teachers, transcendence was identified as the most common subfactor of their personality strengths. As for the subfactors of job stress, relationship with fellow teachers was most stressful. Among the subfactors of role performance, the role as a planner and performer of daily schedule was most dominant.
Second, the total scores of the childcare teachers in personality strengths had a significant positive correlation with their role performance. In other words, the teachers who had more personality strengths were better at role performance. And their job stress was negatively correlated with their role performance. The teacher who were less stressed about their job were better role performers.
Third, the role performance of the daycare teachers had a significant correlation with their wisdom, knowledge, justice and transcendence among the subfactors of personality strengths, and with their job-related factor and economic factor among the subfactors of job stress. It implied that the childcare teachers were better at role performance when they had more "wisdom and knowledge," which were comprehensive of creativity, curiosity, judgment, ardor for study and power to foresee the future, when their sense of "justice" was stronger, which was comprehensive of a sense of community, impartiality and leadership, and when there was more "transcendence" in them, which was comprehensive of apprehensive power, gratitude, hope, a sense of humor and spirituality. And the teachers who felt less stress about their duties including teaching and who were less stressed about pay were more excellent role performers.
As stated above, the personality strengths and job stress of the daycare teachers were linked to their role performance, and the former two variables exercised a strong influence on the latter.
Therefore in terms of role performance, daycare teachers should be allowed to take care of the kinds of duties that are necessary for actual job performance and for teaching essentially, and how to offer more administrative assistance for them not to suffer job-related stress without being occupied with trivial work should discreetly be considered.
In order to boost the efficiency of job performance, childcare teachers themselves should try to understand and develop their own personality strengths, and appropriate education and training should be provided for them. Besides, the kind of programs that aim to improve their positivity should be developed.