Exploring pathways to unsafe behaviors under stress: identifying safety antecedent factors and configuration analyses

Purpose Unsafe behaviors (UBs) of construction workers, as a major cause of construction accidents, can be attributed to multiple safety antecedent factors (SAFs). The construction industry is often stressful for its participants, and suffering stress can further exacerbate UBs of workers. However, it is still unclear how stress complicates the process through which SAFs trigger UBs. Built on Stimulus–Organism–Response (SOR) theory and by introducing the engineering Stress-Strain model, the current study is set to examine the interactions between stress and SAFs and their combined effect on UBs. Design/methodology/approach A total of 414 valid longitudinal responses were collected from construction workers through two waves of questionnaire surveys, which were subjected to analyses including structural equation modelling for structural relationships between variables and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis for the combined effect of stress and multiple SAFs on UBs. Findings Major findings include the following: (1) stress can exacerbate UBs through imposing detrimental effects on cognition-related SAFs (including safety attitude, safety awareness, subjective norm and safety knowledge), motivation-related SAFs (intrinsic and extrinsic motivations) and state-related SAFs (self-efficacy only); and (2) five configurations of UBs were formed with the presence of stress as a core condition and the presence of multiple SAFs simultaneously. Originality/value The current study theoretically contributed to enhancing the current understanding of SOR theory and the influencing mechanism of workers’ UBs under stressful situations. The findings should be useful to develop effective management interventions for enhancing safety in the construction industry.