title: Unintended consequences: organizational practices and their impact on workplace safety and productivity.
abstract: Managers often implement new organizational practices to improve firm performance while neglecting possible side effects. This study examines the relationship between 6 organizational practices and both productivity and injury rates in 86 small manufacturing firms. The use of performance-based pay was associated with higher injury rates and lower productivity (on 1 of 2 measures). The opposite pattern held for training: Training hours were negatively related to the injury rate and positively related to 1 measure of productivity. Surprisingly, higher hours worked per week was associated with a lower injury rate and also with lower productivity. The use of teams was associated with a lower injury rate but was unrelated to productivity. The potential interaction between hazard control measures and organizational practices in predicting injury rates is also discussed.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations, University of Illinois, 504 East Armory Avenue, Champaign, Illinois 61820, USA. mkaminsk@uiuc.edu
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kaminski
mesh_terms: D017598:Efficiency, Organizational / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007221:Industry; D016134:Organizational Policy; D012449:Safety; D017132:Workplace; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology