Does daily commuting behavior matter to employee productivity?

Liang Ma and Runing Ye

Journal of Transport Geography, 2019, vol. 76, issue C, 130-141

Abstract: This study is the first of its kind to explore the relationship between commuting behavior and employee productivity by drawing theories from multiple disciplines and providing empirical evidence from Australian cities. Relying on survey data collected from three major cities in Australia, this study finds that commuting distance is positively associated with absenteeism. This study also finds a positive association between active commuting (i.e., travel to work by walking or bicycling) and job performance in the middle-aged employees. The structural equation model further explored possible causal pathways from commuting to employee productivity, and the results reveal that commuting mode choices and commuting distance influence absenteeism and job performance through affecting commuting satisfaction and personal health, though commuting distance retains a direct impact on absenteeism after controlling for the indirect effects. In particular, the results suggest that the happy commuters are more productive, and the short-distance and active travel commuters are more likely to be the happy commuters. Overall, these findings support that commuting behaviors of employees influence their productivity at the workplace. Encourage active commuting not only improves the physical health of employees, but may also enhance their job performance, contributing to the economic benefits to employers and society.

Keywords: Daily commuting; Employee productivity; Commuting satisfaction; Health; Australian cities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (28)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0966692318307269

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jotrge:v:76:y:2019:i:c:p:130-141

DOI: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2019.03.008

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Transport Geography is currently edited by Frank Witlox

More articles in Journal of Transport Geography from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().