When What Happens at Work Impacts Behavior During the Commute: Understanding the Mechanisms that Link Workplace Attitudes and Experiences to Aggressive Driving Behaviors

Aggressive driving behaviors have been gaining in notoriety in recent years, with U.S. drivers identifying aggressive driving as a serious problem. Researchers have called for understanding the contextual factors that contribute to drivers engaging in such behaviors. If individuals engage in aggressive- and potentially aggressive- driving behaviors during their work-to-home commutes, it is possible that some aspects of work may be influencing these behaviors. The present study examined the influence of employee’s work attitudes and experiences on aggressive- and potentially aggressive- driving behaviors, and the mechanisms that might explain the nature of any spillover effects. Data were collected via a baseline survey and daily diaries administered over the course of one working week, from employees (N = 109) who worked full-time and commuted by private vehicle alone on a daily basis. Objective indicators of potentially aggressive driving behaviors were also collected using a mobile application from a subset of the sample (N = 31) during one working week. Daily diary surveys indicated that on days when employees experience job stress and incivility at work, they engage in aggressive driving behaviors during their work-to-home commutes, through the explanatory mechanisms of negative emotions while driving and perceived psychological contract violation during the commute. In addition, some convergent support was found for the hypothesized relationships using potentially aggressive driving behaviors as the outcome of interest in both the survey- and app-based samples. Overall, the present findings suggest that spillover effects due to employees experiencing job stress and workplace incivility have the potential to impact behaviors elicited during the commute, raising the risk of detrimental consequences for both the employee and employer. Practical implications and future lines of research are discussed