Toward a theory of the linkages between safety and quality

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.