Abstract
The growth of e-commerce in China can be regarded as a significant factor in the increase in occupational stress and the voluntary turnover of courier drivers. This paper aims to investigate selected occupational stress factors behind the turnover intentions of Chinese courier drivers. Using data from 229 couriers employed at the largest delivery companies in China, this study applies structural equation modelling to investigate not only the direct relationships between job-stress factors and turnover intentions but also the extent to which workload indirectly mediates turnover intentions among couriers. The results indicate that a combination of high workload with social stressors leads to turnover intentions. In particular, it was found that workload completely mediated the relationship between both the independent variables and the intention to leave the industry, suggesting that when workloads are high, the net effect of negative work experiences with regard to verbal aggression and ambiguous customer expectations increases the likelihood of an intention to leave the industry. Although restricted to China, this is one of the first studies investigating the effects of courier drivers’ job stressors which highlights the importance of delivery companies working with staff to mitigate job stressors to reduce turnover intention.
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of Publication
12-1-2021
Volume
13
Issue
24
Publication Title
Sustainability
Publisher
MDPI
School
School of Business and Law
RAS ID
42739
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Comments
Wen, H., Sun, H., Kummer, S., Farr-Wharton, B., & Herold, D. M. (2021). The antecedents, consequences, and mediating role of workload among Chinese courier drivers. Sustainability, 13(24), article 14015.
https://doi.org/10.3390/su132414015