ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Organizational Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1622001
Gain or Loss? Examining the Dual Effects of Small Talk on Employees' Safety Performance
Provisionally accepted
- 1China University of Geosciences Beijing, Beijing, China
- 2Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijng, China
- 3Open University of China, Beijing, China
- 4Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang, China
- 5Chinese Academy of Engineering, Beijing, China
- 6China Academy of Safety Science and Technology, Beijing, China
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Safety performance is critically important in maintaining workplace safety.However, the role of social interaction, such as small talk in workplace safety, has largely been overlooked. Grounded in the conservation of resources theory, this study proposed a double-edged sword effect of small talk on safety performance, incorporating psychological availability and work absorption, from an integrative perspective of the resource gain and resource loss. An empirical study with a sample covering 136 employees in China indicated that small talk could promote employees' safety performance by enhancing their psychological availability, but impeded safety performance via reducing their work absorption. Important theoretical and practical implications for workplace safety were discussed.
Keywords: small talk, Safety performance, COR theory, Psychological availability, Work absorption
Received: 03 Jun 2025; Accepted: 21 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Zhang, GUO, Duan, Shi and Wei. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Caili Duan, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang, China
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