Relationship between mental toughness, stress appraisal, and innovation performance of R&D personnel

Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China

Abstract

Four hundred and two R&D personnel were surveyed through questionnaires to study the relationship between mental toughness, stress appraisal (including experience of stress and stress control), and innovation performance. The findings reveal a significant negative correlation between mental toughness and stress experience and a significant positive correlation between mental toughness and both stress control and innovation performance. Furthermore, although the experience of stress was negatively correlated with innovation performance, stress control had the opposite effect. Experience of stress and stress control were the mediating variables for mental toughness and innovation performance, respectively. There was also a significant interaction effect between stress appraisal and mental toughness.