SURVIVING THE PRESSURE COOKER: HOW HEALTHCARE PRACTITIONERS' MACHIAVELLIANISM AND RESILIENCE INFLUENCE INTERPERSONAL WORKPLACE STRAIN

Abstract

In healthcare profession, emergency situations, long working hours, high patient volumes, and emotional interactions, leads to burnout, emotional fatigue, and chronic stress. The current research paper aimed to explore the interaction between dark personality traits, resilience, and interpersonal workplace strain (IWS) in healthcare practitioners. Correlational research design was employed to carry out the study. Data was collected by utilizing purposive sampling from a sample of N=300 participants. The measures used included the Urdu translated version of Short Dark Tetrad scale (SD4), Resilience scale (RS), and Interpersonal workplace strain scale (IWSS). Participants were selected from various Govt and private hospitals of Lahore city, Punjab. The study sample consisted of 3 categories, doctors (n=100), nurses (n=100) and paramedical staff (n=100). The results of correlational analysis revealed that Machiavellianism and resilience have significantly negative correlation with IWS. Furthermore, regression analysis also found that both Machiavellianism and resilience are significant negative predictors of IWS. There were no statistical gender differences found, however, private sector showed high IWS. It was also revealed that paramedical staff experience more IWS as compared to other categories. The overall findings highlighted the significant role of Machiavellianism and resilience in mitigating interpersonal strain in professional settings of healthcare professionals depicting that the practitioners having high Mach traits and high resilience will experience low level of interpersonal workplace strain.