Personality traits and internet addiction among selected financial institution employees

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between personality traits and internet addiction behavior. Within the same industry background, job satisfaction was measured to test whether there is any mediating effect toward the relationship between personality traits and internet behavior. Design/methodology/approach - A sample of 271 employees from financial institutions was selected, and IBM SPSS was used to perform descriptive statistic, correlation analysis and partial regression analysis, to test out three main hypotheses developed in this study. Findings - The results indicate that personality traits, namely, agreeableness and emotional stability are negatively related to internet addiction behavior. However, job satisfaction does not mediate the influence of personality traits toward internet addiction behavior, even though the results indicated personality traits, namely, agreeableness, conscientiousness and emotion stability are positively related to job satisfaction. Research limitations/implications - The main implication includes better understanding on internet addiction behavior in local context and to predict internet addiction behavior through personality traits for better outcome of awareness and prevention toward this psychological disorder. Originality/value - The study contributes in understanding internet addiction behavior in Malaysia occupational context, as most of the local researches focused in validation of measurement tools. Hence, the finding provides an empirical evidence for organizational psychology study in recognition of internet addiction as part of occupational hazards.