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.
Highlights
Accepted: 15 December 2021In recent years, e-commerce has grown rapidly in China and represents, with 40.1 billion delivered parcels in 2017, more than 50 percent of global deliveries [1]
To measure the non-customer-related job stressor, workload was operationalized via a three-item scale (e.g., “I send and receive a large number of parcels combined with heavy work and tight schedules”), while turnover intention was operationalized via eight items (e.g., “I often think about leaving the job”)
The analysis suggested that verbal aggression and amAmbiguous customer biguous customer expectations were significantly related to turnover intentions, and this expectation → Inten0.12 (N.S.)
Summary
E-commerce has grown rapidly in China and represents, with 40.1 billion delivered parcels in 2017, more than 50 percent of global deliveries [1]. This e-commerce growth led to a growth in courier drivers by 130 percent between January 2014 and November 2017, bringing the total to more than 1.2 million Chinese courier drivers [2,3]. 150–300 parcels a day [4] These conditions have led to high voluntary turnovers of couriers, with 50 percent leaving the courier job within a year and 80 percent between six months and three years [5]. The most influential stress-related models, including the Karasek [12]
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