COMMUTING STRESS, PERSONALITY AND WORKER WELL-BEING: A STUDY AMONG HAULAGE DRIVERS IN TEMA

ABSTRACT

Though commuting to and from work has some health benefits, depending on one’s mode of commute, commuters often face the risk of contracting health issues. Commuting to and from work has posed health problems among the worker population in many countries, including Ghana. Despite the fact that there is a lot of research on commuting, there are few studies which report on commuting stress among haulage drivers. This study focused on commercial drivers, specifically the haulage driver community. It also explored the relationship between commuting stress, personality and worker well-being by using a non-experimental cross sectional survey design. Haulage drivers (N = 211) were recruited using different sampling methods such as convenience, purposive and snowball techniques so as to maximize response rate. The measurement questionnaires included the driver stress scale, personality scale and the Ryff well-being scale. Study findings revealed that commuting stress significantly decreased worker well-being of haulage drivers, after controlling for the effects of both demographic factors and personality facets. Educational status, age and religion moderated the relationship between commuting stress and worker well-being. However, only conscientiousness had significant moderating effect on the relationship between commuting stress and worker well-being. The moderation analysis also revealed that educational status, age and levels of conscientiousness significantly increased the relationship between commuting stress and worker well-being. It is recommended that future research should use a mixed methods research design to help explain how commuting stress affect worker well-being among the haulage commuting. It is also recommended that future research explores other haulage industries like, waste, ore, sand and the like. The implications of these results are discussed.