Integrating operations management and occupational health and safety: A necessary part of safety science!

Abstract

Occupational safety and health (OSH) management has expanded inside companies, and research is now indicating that it yields benefits for both workers’ safety and health and for business performance. However, in daily operations, OSH management tends to end up in a ‘sidecar’ to operations management (OM). We argue that the division between the two fields can be explained by conflicts between the dominant logics of risk for OSH management and efficiency for OM. These conflicts are translated into differences in goals, rationales behind practices, and the organisation of the OSH and operations tasks, respectively. We argue that the future of safety science requires research in the relations between the two fields to increase the impact of the OSH field. By investigating competitive and cooperative constellations of the two logics, we identified potentials for additive constellations amplifying both productive and safety capabilities in companies, and potentials for facilitative cooperation where a new overarching institutional logic of responsible and sustainable business can create a need for synergy between the two logics. Furthermore, a broader understanding of the need for worker well-being and commitment for both OSH and OM opens the possibility for a closer integration of the two fields.