Time to take corporate innovation initiatives: The consequence of safety accidents in China’s manufacturing industry

Purpose: A bad safety accident at a manufacturing company usually results in casualties and economic losses. The company affected by such an accident must deal with pressure from multiple stakeholder groups. Employees, in particular, play a key role in pushing the affected company to develop strateg...

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Main Authors: Yang, R., Zhu, W., Marinova, Dora, Wei, J.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: EMERALD GROUP PUBLISHING LTD 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/88221
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author Yang, R.
Zhu, W.
Marinova, Dora
Wei, J.
author_facet Yang, R.
Zhu, W.
Marinova, Dora
Wei, J.
author_sort Yang, R.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Purpose: A bad safety accident at a manufacturing company usually results in casualties and economic losses. The company affected by such an accident must deal with pressure from multiple stakeholder groups. Employees, in particular, play a key role in pushing the affected company to develop strategies to improve occupational safety and health. The purpose of this paper is to seek answers to two questions: does a safety accident affect employee behavior in terms of giving up prospects to develop a career at the affected company? If yes, could innovation initiatives adopted by the company help moderate the negative consequences from a safety accident? Design/methodology/approach: By investigating 120 safety accidents reported by publicly listed Chinese manufacturing companies between 2009 and 2016, the authors conduct an empirical study using regression-based statistical hypotheses testing to describe the companies’ responses and prospects for their employees. Findings: The results show that the magnitude of the accident and the accident being caused by an employee error positively affect the turnover of employees. Furthermore, technical innovation initiatives, such as spending on R&D, by the accident-affected companies increase the positive effect of the accident magnitude on employee turnover. On the contrary, management innovation initiatives, such as corporate social responsibility activities, weaken the impact of the accident magnitude and employee error on employee turnover. Originality/value: This study contributes to knowledge development by adding a crisis perspective in human resource management research. It helps to better understand the impact of safety accidents on employee behavior and the response taken by companies through innovation initiatives.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-882212022-06-07T01:03:09Z Time to take corporate innovation initiatives: The consequence of safety accidents in China’s manufacturing industry Yang, R. Zhu, W. Marinova, Dora Wei, J. Social Sciences Psychology, Applied Management Psychology Business & Economics Occupational safety and health Career development Employee turnover Innovation initiatives Safety accident COLLECTIVE TURNOVER ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT JOB-SATISFACTION UNFOLDING MODEL WORK-FAMILY INSECURITY MANAGEMENT CAUSATION CONFLICT CAREER Purpose: A bad safety accident at a manufacturing company usually results in casualties and economic losses. The company affected by such an accident must deal with pressure from multiple stakeholder groups. Employees, in particular, play a key role in pushing the affected company to develop strategies to improve occupational safety and health. The purpose of this paper is to seek answers to two questions: does a safety accident affect employee behavior in terms of giving up prospects to develop a career at the affected company? If yes, could innovation initiatives adopted by the company help moderate the negative consequences from a safety accident? Design/methodology/approach: By investigating 120 safety accidents reported by publicly listed Chinese manufacturing companies between 2009 and 2016, the authors conduct an empirical study using regression-based statistical hypotheses testing to describe the companies’ responses and prospects for their employees. Findings: The results show that the magnitude of the accident and the accident being caused by an employee error positively affect the turnover of employees. Furthermore, technical innovation initiatives, such as spending on R&D, by the accident-affected companies increase the positive effect of the accident magnitude on employee turnover. On the contrary, management innovation initiatives, such as corporate social responsibility activities, weaken the impact of the accident magnitude and employee error on employee turnover. Originality/value: This study contributes to knowledge development by adding a crisis perspective in human resource management research. It helps to better understand the impact of safety accidents on employee behavior and the response taken by companies through innovation initiatives. 2019 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/88221 10.1108/CDI-10-2018-0270 English EMERALD GROUP PUBLISHING LTD fulltext
spellingShingle Social Sciences
Psychology, Applied
Management
Psychology
Business & Economics
Occupational safety and health
Career development
Employee turnover
Innovation initiatives
Safety accident
COLLECTIVE TURNOVER
ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT
JOB-SATISFACTION
UNFOLDING MODEL
WORK-FAMILY
INSECURITY
MANAGEMENT
CAUSATION
CONFLICT
CAREER
Yang, R.
Zhu, W.
Marinova, Dora
Wei, J.
Time to take corporate innovation initiatives: The consequence of safety accidents in China’s manufacturing industry
title Time to take corporate innovation initiatives: The consequence of safety accidents in China’s manufacturing industry
title_full Time to take corporate innovation initiatives: The consequence of safety accidents in China’s manufacturing industry
title_fullStr Time to take corporate innovation initiatives: The consequence of safety accidents in China’s manufacturing industry
title_full_unstemmed Time to take corporate innovation initiatives: The consequence of safety accidents in China’s manufacturing industry
title_short Time to take corporate innovation initiatives: The consequence of safety accidents in China’s manufacturing industry
title_sort time to take corporate innovation initiatives: the consequence of safety accidents in china’s manufacturing industry
topic Social Sciences
Psychology, Applied
Management
Psychology
Business & Economics
Occupational safety and health
Career development
Employee turnover
Innovation initiatives
Safety accident
COLLECTIVE TURNOVER
ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT
JOB-SATISFACTION
UNFOLDING MODEL
WORK-FAMILY
INSECURITY
MANAGEMENT
CAUSATION
CONFLICT
CAREER
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/88221