The mediating role of coping styles in the relations between temperament traits and occupational burnout in bank employees

Abstract

Introduction: The dynamics of the changes currently taking place in the banking sector and the very nature of work in a bank make the level of stress experienced by employees a risk factor for burnout, especially in persons temperamentally predisposed to using less adaptive ways of coping. Aim of the research: To establish if coping styles mediated between temperamental traits and occupational burnout in bank employees. Material and methods: The study included 91 bank employees, who completed the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situa- tions (CISS), the Formal Characteristics of Behavior – Temperament Inventory (FCB-TI), and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). In data analysis the authors used a multiple mediation model, which allowed for testing individual coping styles as sequential mediator variables. Results: It was found that task-oriented and emotion-oriented styles were mediators between five temperamental traits and the overall level of occupational burnout; briskness and endurance predisposed subjects to the use of task-oriented coping strategies, reducing the level of burnout; activity reduced the tendency to focus on negative emotional states, as opposed to perseverance and emotional reactivity, which promoted the tendency to confront anxiety or frustration and exposed employees to burnout. Conclusions: To the authors’ knowledge, the present study is the first attempt to investigate the mediating role of coping styles between temperamental traits and occupational burnout in employees of the banking sector. Although these findings do not exhaust the issues discussed, they are a point of departure for further research into risk and protective factors for the experience of burnout in bank employees.