Volume 26, Issue 4 pp. 521-535

Toward a theory of the linkages between safety and quality

Ajay Das

Ajay Das

Zicklen School of Business, Baruch College, The City University of New York, New York, NY 10010, USA

Tel.: +1 646 312 3646.

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Mark Pagell

Mark Pagell

Operations Management and Information Systems, Schulich School of Business, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3, Canada

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Michael Behm

Michael Behm

Occupational Safety Program, East Carolina University, 231 Slay Hall, Greenville, NC 27858, USA

Tel.: +1 252 328 9674.

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Anthony Veltri

Anthony Veltri

College of Health and Human Sciences, Environment, Safety and Health Program, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA

Tel.: +1 541 737 3831.

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First published: 22 June 2007
Citations: 122
Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 416 736 2100x77939.

Abstract

The role of employee safety in supply chain performance has inexplicably been overlooked by operations management literature. With a few notable exceptions, there is no guidance in the literature for operations managers trying to understand the role that employee safety at their own or a suppliers could play in quality outcomes. This manuscript takes a first step to rectify this oversight by using cognitive dissonance theory to build a series of propositions that link safety perceptions to quality outcomes. Empirical tests of these propositions provide initial evidence that safety does indeed contribute to quality outcomes in the supply chain.

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