Psychodiagnostics of employees' hardiness and related personality parameters

Penzina Nella ORCID: 0000-0003-4069-6172 PhD in Economics Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Moscow Financial and Industrial University "Synergy" 129090, Russia, Moscow, Meshchanskaya str., 9/14 p. 1 nella@list.ru Other publications by this author

Semakova Elena Vladimirovna ORCID: 0000-0002-2556-4342 PhD in Medicine Associate Professor; Department of Psychology; Moscow Financial and Industrial University 'Synergy' 129090, Russia, Moscow, Meshchansky district, 9/14 Meshchanskaya St., building 1 semaksmol@yandex.ru

Introduction. In any company, regardless of the form of ownership, a large role is assigned to work with human capital. The development and multiplication of human capital becomes the priority of the organization, because the success of any enterprise depends directly on the quality of employees.

An important aspect in the formation of high-quality human capital is the initial verification and psychodiagnostics of potential employees ^[1]. Such work should be systematically and efficiently organized in the organization. The selection process needs to adapt the employee and continue his personal and career development within the organization. To work successfully in conditions of uncertainty and instability, it is necessary to have a number of important personal qualities in an employee. Such qualities are: fortitude, poise, self-control, self-regulation, etc. These vital qualities help the employee to withstand the difficulties of the work process, constant changes in external circumstances, pressure from others, help to maintain physical and psychological health and maintain the employee's working capacity. This article presents an analysis of the personal characteristics of employees and the relationship between these characteristics and resilience.

The purpose of the study is to identify the relationship between personal characteristics and the level of resilience of employees in various departments of the company. The object of the research is the resilience of the personality and personal characteristics of the company's employees. The subject of the research is to study the relationship between the level of resilience and personal characteristics of the employees of the organization. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that a comprehensive psychodiagnosis of the resilience and personal characteristics of employees, such as a sense of subjective happiness, volitional self-control, and tolerance to uncertainty, was carried out. The results obtained make it possible to expand the knowledge base on the study of resilience and related personal parameters of a person.

Review of scientific literature on the research topic

The concept of resilience was introduced by American psychologists Salvatore Maddi and Susan Kobeisa in 1984. It should be noted that D. A. Leontiev was also engaged in the development and study of this phenomenon in Russian psychology. Considers resilience in the context of personal potential as a trait that reflects the extent to which a person overcomes set circumstances. L. A. Alexandrova. Studies resilience in the context of coping behavior by S. N. Knizhnikov. Explores resilience in the context of the prevention of suicidal behavior. E. Y. Korzhova. She studies resilience in the context of protection from disintegration. N. V. Krasnopolskaya considers resilience as a mechanism of emotional well-being associated with emotional intelligence ^[2].

Galiev R.R. provides a review of existing empirical and theoretical studies of personality resilience in his scientific article. The author pays great attention to resilience in the context of the life of cadets ^[3]. A number of other researchers studied the personal characteristics and resilience of cadets. G.M. Muratshina revealed that "the higher the resilience of cadets at a military university, the higher the indicators of their life-meaning orientations." The author of the article notes that in the process of studying at a military university, a cadet develops resilience as a basic characteristic of a future serviceman ^[4].

In her dissertation research, Nalivaiko T.V. revealed the interrelationships of resilience with extraversion, introversion, spontaneity and anxiety. The interrelationships of life-meaning orientations and self-attitudes with the resilience of the individual were studied ^[5].

A number of researchers have noted that the concept of "resilience" is at the intersection of psychology and pedagogy. In his article, N.I. Chertykov classifies approaches to the study of the concept of resilience, dividing representations into three groups: resilience as a result of the socialization of an individual, as a result of moral education and as an integral characteristic of the personality as a whole ^[6]. In the field of resilience research in the context of pedagogy, it should be noted that resilience contributes to the development of the ability to manage one's emotions, solve pressing problems rationally, and is a teacher's help in matters of adaptation and socialization ^[7].

A number of authors have studied the influence of religion on the resilience of the individual. In her works, E. Prutskova identifies three basic problems that receive the most attention at the present stage: religiosity, religion, and the relationship of religion with other social institutions. J. Schumaker believes that religiosity correlates with a high level of mental health, and religious beliefs contribute to the optimal resolution of intrapersonal conflicts. This reduces existential anxiety and neurotic guilt. Religion has a positive impact on personal well-being. In the study of K. Alison, it has been shown that people with strong religious faith have a high degree of life satisfaction and personal happiness ^[8].,

Having analyzed a number of foreign publications on the topic of personality resilience, it can be noted that the emphasis of such studies is on the study of resilience in the context of mental health.

This study will examine the relationship between the level of happiness, volitional self-control, tolerance to uncertainty and religiosity of subjects with resilience.

Materials and methods of research. Methods of analysis, synthesis and classification were used in this article. The authors of this article conducted psychological diagnostics of employees using the following tools: S.Muddy's Resilience Test (adapted by D.A.Leontiev), Oxford Happiness Iinventory, A. G. Zverkov and E. V. Eidman's Volitional Self-Control Questionnaire, T.V.Kornilova's Uncertainty Tolerance Questionnaire, Yu.V. Religiosity Test.Shcherbatykh and the author's questionnaire, which was provided to respondents after undergoing psychodiagnostic techniques. The research was conducted in the company for 1 year. 200 employees of one organization participated in this study. The organization under study is part of a group of companies related to the high-tech and knowledge-intensive sectors of the economy, engaged in the development of electronic components. Main characteristics of the study sample:

- The age of the subjects: from 22 to 45 years, the average age was 32 years;

- Gender: 46% men and 54% women;

- level of education: from incomplete higher education to second higher education;

- marital status: about 60% are married, the rest indicated a marital status of "single/single";

- Professional activity: employees occupy line positions and there are middle managers (22%) and senior managers (8%). They are representatives of different departments.

The study was conducted in several stages:

1. The subjects underwent psychodiagnostic techniques;

2. After answering the questions of the methods, there was a diagnostic conversation and filling out an author's questionnaire in order to find out the religiosity of the subject and the influence of religion on decisions in the subject's life;

3. Next, the results were summarized in a table of initial data, and a check was carried out on the normality of the data distribution. It was found that the data did not follow the law of normal distribution, and the Spearman correlation coefficient was chosen to calculate correlations.

4. The results of the correlation analysis were presented in Table 4 of this study.;

5. Conclusions and conclusions were drawn on the conducted research.

Results and discussions.

The resilience of a personality (from the English hardiness — "endurance", "stability", "tempering") is the ability of a personality to withstand stressful situations, while maintaining internal balance without reducing the success of activities ^[9].

In 1975, S. Muddy studied managers from the Illinois Bell company. It should be noted that the study was conducted during a difficult period for the company: the rules and principles of work were changing, and mass layoffs were taking place. Maddy examined about 450 employees on a number of medical and psychological parameters, and after unpopular measures and the majority of employees, their health indicators worsened, their work success decreased, and family and friend relationships began to deteriorate. Only a third of the sample had an increase in performance under the influence of stress. Employees became more cheerful, new work ideas appeared, and work efficiency increased. Based on these results, Maddy described 5 mechanisms that contribute to the buffering effect of resilience on the development of diseases and stress ^[10]:

-assessment of life changes as less stressful;

- creating motivation for transformational coping;

- increased immune response;

- strengthening responsibility towards health practices (healthy lifestyle);

-search for active social support that promotes transformational coping.

A resilient employee is able to remain optimistic, can rebuild their own attitudes, and transform their life experience ^[11]. The authors of this article suggested that there are a number of personality traits and qualities in employees that may be related to resilience. The hypothesis of the study was formulated: we assume that resilience is interconnected with such features as tolerance to uncertainty, volitional self-regulation, with a subjective sense of happiness, and there is a relationship between resilience and how religious the subject is.

Table 1 below shows the psychodiagnostic techniques that were used in the study in the order in which they were conducted with the subjects.

Table 1

Presentation and characteristics of the psychodiagnostic techniques used

The author's questionnaire was compiled in order to find out the necessary information that could not be identified based on the results of a psychodiagnostic study using the methods listed in Table 1. The study presents the main questions that relate to how religious an employee is and other points related to religion that are important for conducting the study. After filling out the author's questionnaire, the scores for all subjects were calculated. The data was used to further calculate how resilience correlates with indicators of religiosity.

Table 2

The results of the survey of the subjects (author's questionnaire)

About 66% of the subjects demonstrate an average level of religiosity. The religious attitudes of the employees demonstrate an average level of involvement in religious life. It should be noted here that in this case, employees could give socially desirable answers (average level) in order to be conformal to their group. The frequency of attendance at religious events is low, and religion has a neutral attitude towards religion in general. To the question "Do you think it is possible to overcome the discrepancy between science and religion?" most employees answer "no." In general, this confirms the general trend that religious institutions have lost their former control over people, and faith has become a personal choice of each person and attitudes have shifted to more secular ones.

Next, the results were calculated using the following methods: the S.Muddy Resilience Test (adapted by D.A.Leontiev), the Oxford Happiness Iinventory, the Questionnaire of Volitional Self-control (VSK) by A. G. Zverkov and E. V. Eidman, the Questionnaire of tolerance to uncertainty by T.V.Kornilova, the Test of religiosity by Yu.V.Shcherbatykh and summed up the results of the author's questionnaire. The results after the psychodiagnostic techniques are presented below in Table 3.

Table 3

Analysis of the obtained indicators for all psychodiagnostic methods (n=200)

According to the Muddy method (general resilience index), a low score ranges from 0 to 61 points, an average score from 62 to 99, and a high score from 100 to 135 points. The overall level of resilience of employees is 78, which corresponds to the average indicator. The subjects have a high level of control (36), they are used to controlling the situation and maintaining confidence that they are in control of their lives. The "Engagement" component is also at a high level (38 points), which indicates that employees are involved in the company's work processes and there is no alienation. Risk acceptance is at an average level (10 points), employees try to avoid controversial and risky situations. As a result, we can say that the men in the sample demonstrate a higher level of risk acceptance than the sample of women (20 points and 8 points, respectively. If we analyze the age groups, it should be noted that employees under the age of 27 have a higher level of resilience (the overall indicator of personal resilience in this age group is 90 points).

The average happiness score according to the Oxford Happiness Iinventory method was 62 points, which is a moderately high result. Most of the company's employees rate their life satisfaction above the average level, with a high level of optimism. It can be assumed that this is due to the living and working conditions, wages were increased in 2024 and bonuses were planned to be paid based on the results of the financial year. Perhaps some employees gave socially desirable answers.

According to the Questionnaire of tolerance to uncertainty by T.V.Kornilova, average results were obtained in terms of tolerance to uncertainty, intolerance (orderliness in everything and rejection of uncertainty) 37 and 31 points, respectively. According to the indicator of interpersonal intolerance to uncertainty (meaning the desire for clarity and control in interpersonal relationships, discomfort in case of uncertainty in relationships with others), a low score of 21 points was obtained. This means that employees do not have static relationships with colleagues and unstable behavior.

According to the results of the Questionnaire of volitional self-control (VSC) by A. G. Zverkov and E. V. Eidman, we see high results among employees on the index of volitional self-regulation (16 points) and on the index of self-control (12 points) and the average result on the index of perseverance (8 points).

After conducting the religiosity test, Y.V.Shcherbatykh revealed average scores on the scales of "support and consolation", "religious self-awareness", "religion as a model of morality" and low scores on the scales of "attitude to religion" and "interest in "animal science". This complemented the results obtained after processing the questionnaires. About 66% of the subjects demonstrate an average level of religiosity. The religious attitudes of the employees demonstrate an average level of involvement in religious life.

After the conducted psychodiagnostic techniques, there was a diagnostic conversation with each employee, about 30% of respondents noted that resilience reduces professional burnout and "professional fatigue" ^[12].

A check was carried out on the normality of the data distribution. The data does not follow the law of normal distribution, and the Spearman correlation coefficient was chosen to calculate correlations. Significant correlations are shown in Table 4.

Table 4

Correlations of the results of psychodiagnostic techniques used in the study (n=200)

Significant correlations at rs > rs cr.= 0.27 (p<0,05)

According to the results of the statistical analysis, 9 significant correlations should be noted. The study sample showed significant correlations between the resilience index (general index) and the happiness index (424**), the volitional self-regulation index (505**), the self-control index (625*) and the tolerance index (350*). The higher the employees' sense of subjective happiness, tolerance to changing circumstances, volitional self-regulation, and sense of self-control, the higher their resilience. One indicator of an inverse significant relationship between resilience and ITN was obtained (-,523**). This indicates that the higher the level of interpersonal intolerance to uncertainty (meaning the desire for clarity and control in interpersonal relationships, discomfort in the case of uncertainty in relationships with others), the lower the resilience. The "control" indicator according to the Muddy resilience method showed a direct relationship with a number of indicators: the index of volitional self-regulation (403**), the index of perseverance (295*) and the index of self-control (335*). The "engagement" indicator according to Maddy's resilience method showed a direct relationship with the overall indicator of the Oxford Happiness Scale (,415**). It can be concluded that the more involved an employee feels in the events taking place, the higher his level of happiness. A person with a developed component of engagement always enjoys his own activities.

Conclusions and conclusions. This article reviewed the practice of using the S.Muddy Resilience test (adapted by D.A.Leontiev), the Oxford Happiness Iinventory, the Volitional Self-Control Questionnaire by A. G. Zverkov and E. V. Eidman, the Uncertainty Tolerance Questionnaire by T.V.Kornilova, the Religiosity Test by Yu.V.Shcherbatykh and the author's questionnaire in in the context of studying the resilience and personal characteristics of employees, which are interrelated with resilience. The data from the correlation analysis were presented in Table 4. It can be concluded that resilience is interrelated with such features as tolerance to uncertainty, volitional self-regulation, and a subjective sense of happiness, and there is a relationship between resilience and how religious the subject is. The hypothesis of the study was confirmed, in addition to the relationship between the indicators of resilience and religiosity of employees. There were no significant correlations in these parameters.

The results obtained make it possible to expand the knowledge base on the study of resilience and related personal parameters of a person. This is especially true given the current situation, when employees are experiencing increased psychological and physical stress, the situation is constantly changing and employees are faced with a large flow of incoming information. The study confirmed the hypothesis of the relationship between resilience and tolerance to uncertainty, volitional self-regulation, and a subjective sense of happiness. The prospect of further research is to develop questions about the relationship between religion and resilience in a more diverse and numerous sample and expand the list of factors that may be related to the resilience of a person.