Abstract

THOMSON, L-A  and  DE BRUIN, K. Personality as predictor of life balance in South African corporate employees. JCMAN [online]. 2007, vol.4, n.1, pp.68-85. ISSN 1815-7440.

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between personality traits and life balance amongst employees in the South African corporate sector (N = 175). Life balance is defined as the state that people reach when they experience contentment regarding their time involvement, emotional involvement and level of satisfaction achieved from each life role. This conceptualisation encompasses Super's five adult life roles, namely that of student, worker, citizen, leisurite and home and family person. Each participant completed a biographical questionnaire, the Basic Traits Inventory and a life balance questionnaire. Examination of the individual personality traits in relation to life balance indicated that Extroversion, Conscientiousness and Openness to Experience had statistically significant positive relationships with life balance, while Neuroticism surrendered a statistically significant negative relationship with life balance. Conscientiousness was the only trait which yielded a meaningful relationship of > 0.30 with life balance. Results of a multiple regression analysis, which was employed to investigate the combined effect of personality traits, revealed a statistically significant predictive relationship between traits and life balance. Personality traits accounted for approximately 15% of the variance in life balance experience. The study has implications for organisations who attempt to contribute to positive life balance experiences of employees.

Keywords : Life balance; Work-life balance; Work-life conflict; Work-life facilitation; Five-factor model of personality; Big Five personality traits.

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