The moderating role of conscientiousness personality trait in the relationship between emotional exhaustion and job performance

The purpose of this study was to investigate the moderating role of conscientiousness personality trait in the relationship of emotional exhaustion with job performance (task performance, organizational citizenship behaviors). The participants of this study consisted of 400 high school teachers in Khuzestan province (260 male & 140 female) that were selected by multi-stage random sampling method. The instruments used in this study were Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), NEO Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) and Job Performance Scale (JPS). Data were analyzed by Pearson correlation coefficient and analysis of moderated hierarchical regression. The results showed that there was a significant negative relationship between emotional exhaustion and job performance and (task performance, organizational citizenship behaviors). Further, moderated regression analysis showed that conscientiousness personality trait moderated these relationships significantly. According to these findings, emotional exhaustion is an important factor in reducing teachers’ job performance and this relationship is stronger in teachers with low levels of conscientiousness personality trait.