Exploring How Working Malaysians Cope with Job Stress: Preliminary Findings on Coping Strategies

Coping strategies can either result in positive or negative outcomes for the individual in terms of their stress and wellbeing; with engagement strategies producing better results compared to disengagement strategies. Individual differences, such as personality, could impact this relationship between coping styles and stress. The aims of this study include identifying the coping styles utilised by working Malaysians when managing job stress, exploring the relationship between personality, coping style, and job stress, and exploring which coping style would be beneficial in managing job stress. An online questionnaire was utilised to collect the data among 350 full time, white collared working Malaysians. Based on the findings, five main coping styles were identified which are Substance Use, Use of Religion, Humour, Seeking Emotional Support, and Problem Solving. Factor analysis confirmed that these coping factors displayed acceptable goodness of fit and high internal consistency reliability. Personality was significantly associated with job stress and the choice of coping strategies. For example, neuroticism had a significant positive correlation with job stress and Substance Use, and a significant negative correlation with Use of Religion and Problem-Solving. Extraversion had a significant negative correlation with job stress, and a positive correlation with Use of Religion, Humour, Seeking Emotional Support and Problem Solving. Conscientiousness had a negative correlation with job stress, Substance Use and Humour, and a positive correlation with Use of Religion and Problem Solving. In conclusion, personality plays an important role in understanding the process of coping with stress, which in turn, could contribute towards designing sustainable interventions to support positive wellbeing by targeting the employees’ choice of coping style based on their personality and other possible individual factors, rather than utilising a “one-size-fits-all” approach to stress management intervention.