Burnout among Retail Workers in Spain: The Role of Gender, Personality and Psychosocial Risk Factors

Abstract

This study examines the direct and interaction relationships between personality traits, psychosocial risk factors, and burnout among male and female workers in the retail sector in Spain. Through a cross sectional design involving 667 participants (241 men, 426 women), it employs self report questionnaires to measure these variables. In addition to a sociodemographic questionnaire, the MBI (burnout), NEO-FFI (personality), CarMen-Q (cognitive, temporal, emotional, and performance demands), and DECORE (support, control, and rewards) were administered. Results indicate that women exhibit higher emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. Results from stepwise multiple regression confirmed that personality traits directly impact burnout dimensions and psychosocial risk factors. Specifically, neuroticism and emotional job demands significantly influence emotional exhaustion, while depersonalization correlates with neuroticism, agreeableness, temporal demands, and organizational support. Personal accomplishment links with extraversion, interacting with temporal demands in men and cognitive demands in women. Individuals high in neuroticism and low in extraversion tend to perceive elevated emotional job demands, leading to intensified emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. The study confirms that personality traits and working conditions affect burnout differently for men and women.

Keywords

• burnout
• Big Five personality traits
• mental workload
• reward satisfaction
• job control
• organizational support