The Effect of Traffic Congestion on Employee Productivity in Dhaka Bangladesh

This study examined the impact of road traffic congestion on workers’ performance in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The population for this study emanated from the staff quoted from different public and private companies within Dhaka city. The data was collected through a structured questionnaire from 63 sampled from different companies of Dhaka. Information was solicited on how traffic congestion affect their effectiveness, efficiency, development, satisfaction, innovation, quality of work and how it affect the set target at work. Workers performance measures the bottom-line results on which traffic congestion variables has an impact. The performance construct was indicated by items such as effectiveness, efficiency, career progression of worker, satisfaction, innovation, and quality of work. These data were subsequently analyzed through descriptive statistics and multiple regressions. Keyword: Traffic, congestion, workers, performance, satisfaction, efficiency, innovation, Dhaka, Bangladesh THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BUSINESS & MANAGEMENT ISSN 2321–8916 www.theijbm. com 223 Vol 7 Issue 5 DOI No.: 10.24940/theijbm/2019/v7/i5/BM1811-023 May, 2019 which cause or aggravate congestion. Most of such circumstances are concerned with reduction in the capacity of road at a given point or over a certain length, or increase in the number of vehicles required for the movement of people and goods. Downie (2008) further argues that economic surge in various economies has resulted in a massive increase in the number of vehicles that overwhelms transport infrastructure, thus causing congestion on roads in cities. Traffic congestion and crowded public transportation systems are the top causes of stress and declining productivity among employees of Dhaka city, a recent survey by workplace solutions provider suggested recently.The problem of road traffic congestion and its influence on the performance of employees is increasingly gaining a space in the academia discussions and employers in particular time spent on road traffic congestions and time spent on work among the employee’s plays a significant role on employee’s performance in an organization (Lupala, 2010). Employers are feeling the negative impact of the daily traffic jams on their business. According to studies related to stress; job dissatisfaction and job changes are influenced by commuting factors (Novaco, Stokols, & Milanesi, 1990). Recent study in the United States report that 48 % of working adults reported their job dissatisfaction as an impact of commuting, 32% took commuting into consideration when deciding their current job, 27% of the respondents stated that they could perform their duties from home and 15% of the respondents reported they would change their jobs for a shorter commute (Road Wage Survey, 2011). Also as stated by Kluger (1998), long distance commuting can easily be associated positively with tardiness. Along with increases in productivity; motivation level, financial savings and employment opportunities enhance according to the quality of the commuting. Individual time and monetary costs and individual consequences such as distortion of work-life balance, some health issues ,increased stress and environmental concerns such as carbon emissions and increased traffic congestions should also be considered (IBM Corporation, 2009) (Lyons & Chatterjee, 2008). As being equilibrium for workers in residential and financial decisions, the work of Costa (et al., 1988) states that the main cause of the daily trips of half of the commuters is the difficulty in finding close residences to the workplace. This difficulty may arise both from limited supply of 3 available houses or prices. Almost same proportion of commuters state that they would sustain their commuting status for current jobs or even travel further for prospects of finding more satisfying and wellpaid jobs. Thus a commuter individual is likely to change jobs or to be in search of new residences, both in some instances (Gottholmseder et al., 2009). 2.1. Effect of Traffic Congestion on Employee Productivity The traffic congestion on the road is highly occurs during the peak hour or the rush hour that normally happens twice a day which is once in the morning and once evening. This is because of the standardized working hours as the employee so to work in the morning and coming home in the evening. There is also a third peak hours which occurs during the afternoon. This phenomenon happens because of the lunch break and the end of the morning school sessions. The heavy traffic during these hours usually occurs at the school area and food centers. There is proof that business sees traffic congestion as bringing about a major issue. The conviction is that it causes a huge cost burden. A study from the United Kingdom found that traffic congestion was seen as the most imperative component prone to influence expenses and administration in the following three years (Fernie, and Marchant, 2000). A substantial number of transport financial aspects concentrate on the time segment of driving costs (Small and Verhoef, 2007). According to UN, (2011) higher level of road traffic congestion causes stress and fatigue among people which have a significant impact on health and performance of employees. Oni (1992) argued that traffic congestions creates workers fail to realize time management in their work done as the result affect their work progress at an institutions. According to the co-location hypothesis, congestion simply induces employer-employee suburban co-location (Crane and Chatman, 2003; Gordon et al., 1989; Levinson and Kumar, 1994). In contrast, empirical research on job–housing imbalance (Cervero, 1996; Cervero and Wu, 1998; Schwanen et al., 2004) suggests significant commuting burdens while theoretical urban economic models likewise imply congestion-induced urban economic inefficiencies (Arnott, 2007; Anas and Xu, 1999; Fujita and Thisse, 2002; Weisbrod, Vary, and Treyz, 2001), most notably by reducing agglomeration benefits (Graham, 2007). Moreover, research suggests industry-variant sensitivity to congestion’s potential drag—most notably, service industries are least sensitive while manufacturing industries are most sensitive, indicating that industry mix is important. Commuting has inevitable consequences for workers. Monetary costs of transportation outstands as one of the most important factors upon deciding the job search location, intention to change jobs and to quit, and evaluating the wage offered for job candidates. Besides wasting quality time, it may lead to stress and loss of productivity. Along with monetary costs, time wasted during daily trips should also be considered. Based on recent OECD reports, average amount of time spent travelling to and from work in OECD countries is 38 minutes per day. South Africa, Japan and Turkey have the longest daily commuting times as 56, 55 and 47 minutes respectively. Ireland, Denmark and Sweden on the other hand, have shorter daily commuting trips (OECD, 2011). Physical or mental, any commute is an effort and expenditure of resources for the individual. As stated, it is not only time, but the way it’s allocated and individual differences that are important to interpret the outcomes. Van Hooff (2013) reports that psychological detachment from work during the commute is also important for commuters. According to the utilization of the commute or the subjective experiences about the process, commute from work can be the time for individual to relax and unwind from work. It is a transition between work and home and helps people change their mood and provides a transmission between roles. Depending on the 5 pleasantness of the commute, it can be considered a form of recovery. According to Gatersleben & Uzzell (2007), this might be the only part of the day when individuals have the chance to dedicate to themselves. THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BUSINESS & MANAGEMENT ISSN 2321–8916 www.theijbm. com 224 Vol 7 Issue 5 DOI No.: 10.24940/theijbm/2019/v7/i5/BM1811-023 May, 2019 3. Research and Findings 3.1. Methodology Research typeQualitative (Online) Respondents63 employees (working in different private and public ltd companies in Dhaka, Bangladesh) There are several factors that causes impact on human lives due to traffic congestion faced by them everyday. Some of the factors that are discussed below, are: impact on productivity, time, health, expense, and work-life-balance. The pie-charts below describes the impacts that are caused due to traffic blockage, and to determine the factors, a survey was conducted online by maintaining the Likert Scale format. 3.2. Data of 63 Responses to the Survey Question About Traffic Congestion  There is more than enough transportation on road than needed. Strongly disagree