The Relationship between Personality Traits and Job Satisfaction in Employees with Teleworking Experience: Moderating Role of Communication Channels Satisfaction and the Amount of Teleworking

Choosing teleworkers and how to communicate with each teleworker is important for employers. The present study tries to provide a practical indicator to answer this issue by analysing personality traits, communication channels and the amount of teleworking. So, this research aims to investigate the relationship between personality traits and job satisfaction with regard to the moderating roles of communication channels satisfaction and the amount of teleworking in employees with teleworking experience.

The present study is a descriptive correlation-moderator type study. The statistical population of this study was all employees with telework experience who were members of Telegram and WhatsApp messengers, living in Tehran and Isfahan province in February and March 2021. The sample included 98 employees with teleworking experience. Respondents were selected through the convenience sampling method. The data were collected by the short form of NEO-FFI personality traits, job satisfaction scale of Judge and Bono, and Smith, Patmos and Pitts’ communication channel satisfaction. For data analysis, hierarchical regression analysis was used.

Results indicated that among the personality traits, only neuroticism was significantly and negatively correlated with job satisfaction. No significant relationship was found between the amount of teleworking and job satisfaction. In addition, the amount of teleworking does not moderate the relationship between personality traits and job satisfaction. Satisfaction with communication channels moderated the relationship between neuroticism, conscientiousness and agreeableness with job satisfaction.

Findings from this study yield important practical implications for organizations including suggestions for optimizing communication channels satisfaction for employees with different personality traits and recommendations to help organizations effectively hire and retain teleworkers.