ABSTRACT
Purpose: This paper aims at examining the impact that COVID-19 pandemic and its related work implications have on the relationship between lean implementation and service performance. Design/methodology/approach: The author surveyed service organizations that have been implementing lean for at least two years and remotely maintained their activities during the COVID-19 outbreak. Multivariate data techniques were applied to analyze the dataset. This study was grounded on sociotechnical systems theory. Findings: The findings indicate that organizations that have been implementing lean services more extensively are also more likely to benefit from the effects that the COVID-19 had on work environments, especially in the case of home office. Nevertheless, social distancing does not appear to mediate the effects of lean services on both quality and delivery performances. Originality/value: Since the pandemic is a recent phenomenon with unprecedented effects, this research is an initial effort to determine the effect the pandemic has on lean implementation and services' performance, providing both theoretical and practical contributions to the field. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
The objective of this study was to evaluate the moderating effect of Occupational Health and Safety actions based on the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations to mitigate the negative effect of COVID-19 on the operational, logistical, marketing (OLMP), and health and safety performance (OHSP) of workers in multinational industries. The development of surveys in companies was the method adopted, which had confirmatory evaluations through Structural Equations Modelling (SEM). As a result, it was confirmed that this is one of the few scientific studies that expectedly validates that the COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted operational, logistical, market, and Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) performance. This is also one of the few research projects to assess the moderating effect of OHS practices based on WHO to mitigate the effects of COVID-19. According to our findings, those practices were able to reduce by at least 50% the effect of the COVID-19 crisis on operational, logistical, and marketing performance. However, they minimize by only 1.8% the negative effects of health and safety performance for the worker, generating absenteeism increasingly due to physical and mental problems. This number could be higher if the social distance could be provided in public transportation and if employees were more aware of the risks of COVID-19 contamination during their social activities.
ABSTRACT
The coronavirus pandemic meant that companies had to adapt quickly to survive the challenging scenario and avoid losing market share or even going bankrupt. In this sense, employees dedicated to Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) activities within organizations played a key role in ensuring that the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) were properly implemented. Even so, no studies were identified in the literature that investigated how the practices to combat COVID-19 improved the performance related to employee safety and occupational health. This is what motivates the accomplishment of this work; evaluate how these practices improve safety and health-related performance. For this, a survey of multinational companies was carried out and, together with this research, a model for structural equations was developed. In the end, a correlation test was performed. The main results showed that practices to combat COVID-19, such as the provision of sanitizers, the adoption of social distance, the creation of new work shifts, and the disinfection of workplaces were related to improvements in safety and health performance through the implementation of a risk management and biological risk mitigation program. Meanwhile, the provision of emergency assistance has found stronger relationships with managerial and strategic actions.