The mediating role of workplace spirituality between personal attributes and job performances of Indian bus drivers

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Abstract

Purpose

Transport industry is one of the leading accident causing industries all around the world. Personal attributes like educational qualification, work experience, marital status, consumption of alcohol, hours of work of bus drivers are known to influence such accidents. In the present study, the mediating effects of Workplace spirituality (WS) among bus drivers between the personal attributes and job performance variables like self-reported accidents, punishments and appraisals are carried out.

Design/methodology/approach

A mediation analysis of WS between personal attributes and job performances of bus drivers is conducted in the present study. Since there is scarcity of studies measuring the effects of WS of bus drivers, new scale to measure WS was developed. The study was carried out in the government-owned road transport corporation in the state of Kerala, India. Responses were obtained from 617 male drivers.

Findings

Using exploratory factor analysis, four factors were identified, namely Meaningful work, Sense of Community, Mindfulness and Compassion. Confirmatory factory analysis provided good fit. The intercorrelations of personal attributes of drivers (independent variables) between WS factors (mediating variables) and job performance variables (dependent variables) were found out. Mediation analysis showed complete mediation of WS factors between marital status, alcohol consumption, hours of work and job performances like number of self-reported accidents, punishments and appraisals. The WS levels of drivers decrease significantly as working hours per goes beyond the legally allowed working hours.

Originality/value

Psychological attributes like Mindfulness, Sense of community, compassion etc. which are collectively known as WS influence the job performances of employees in other industries. Yet it is not studied in the transport industry. Hence, in the present study, the levels of WS are studied among bus drivers of government-owned road transport corporation in the State of Kerala, India.

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Most cited references 88

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Spirituality at Work

Dennis Duchon, Donde P. Ashmos (2016)

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Workplace spirituality and employee work attitudes

John F. Milliman, Jeffery Ferguson, Andrew J. Czaplewski … (2003)

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Shift and night work and long working hours--a systematic review of safety implications.

Anthony Sverre Wagstaff, Jenny-Anne Sigstad Lie (2011)

In order to devise effective preventive strategies, it is important to study workplace stressors that might increase the risk of workplace accidents - both affecting workers themselves as well as causing harm to third-parties. The aim of this report is to provide a systematic, updated overview and scientific review of empirical research regarding accidents in relation to long work hours and shift work, primarily based on epidemiological studies. The search for articles was part of a large review study on the effects of work hours on various health outcomes, safety, and performance. The search strategy included 5 international scientific databases, and nearly 7000 articles were initially identified using our search string. Following the application of inclusion and exclusion criteria, 443 publications were found and evaluated using a pre-defined scoring system. Of these, 43 concerned safety and accidents but only 14 were considered to be of high quality (total score 2 or 3 on a scale from 0-3) and therefore used for this study. Both shift work and long working hours present a substantial and well-documented detrimental effect on safety - all the studies that are included in this review have one or more significant findings in this respect. The trends are quite coherent although the increases in accident rates are mostly from 50% to 100%. In epidemiological terms, this may be seen as rather small differences. The use of such data is therefore only of importance if the accident incidence is high or if accidents may have large effects. The findings are most relevant to safety-critical activities such as the transport and health sectors. Work periods >8 hours carry an increased risk of accidents that cumulates, so that the increased risk of accidents at around 12 hours is twice the risk at 8 hours. Shift work including nights carries a substantial increased risk of accidents, whereas "pure" night work may bring some protection against this effect due to resynchronization. The evaluated studies give no clear indications of any age or gender being specifically susceptible or protected against the effects of work times scheduling on accident risk.