Work antecedents, psychological strain and safety behaviours among Chinese hotel employees

Abstract

The current study examined whether psychological strain served as a mediator of the relationships between work antecedents and safety behaviours. A total of 1023 Chinese hotel employees completed a self-administered questionnaire examining workload, organisational constraints, lack of work control, psychological strain, and two forms of safety behaviours including safety compliance and safety participation. Results showed that workload, organisational constraints and lack of work control were related to psychological strain. In addition, psychological strain not only was negatively associated with safety compliance and safety participation, but also mediated the effects of all work antecedents on two dimensions of safety behaviours. Overall, these findings illustrated that poor work conditions could induce high levels of psychological strain, and this could generate fewer safety behaviours of Chinese hotel employees. Practical implications and limitations are discussed.