Impact of psychological safety on supply chain operational performance

ABSTRACT

This study examines the relationship between psychological safety and operational performance in the context of supply chain partners, i.e. an inter-organisational setting. While collaboration among supply chain partners enables effective problem solving and generates innovation, such collaborations may result in superior performance improvements when a psychologically safe business environment is created along the supply chain. The analysis of this study is based on data collected from 241 manufacturing companies in China using a survey questionnaire. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to assess the validity of the measures, and an ordinary least squares (OLS) regression was used to test the hypotheses. Study results indicate that there is a significant positive association between psychological safety and operational performance in the context of supply chain partners. The results further show the relationship to be moderated by the learning orientation and inter-functional coordination. While the effect of psychological safety on performance has been studied in intra-organisational settings, studies on the psychological safety – performance relationship in an inter-organisational setting are scant. This study contributes to the literature in psychological safety and supply chain management as it extends the relationship to the context of supply chain partners.

KEYWORDS:

• Psychological safety
• operational performance
• supply chain
• learning orientation
• coordination

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the 4th author upon reasonable request. (Basic, Share upon Request)

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Brandon W. Lee

Brandon Lee is an Assistant Professor of Operations Management and Business Analytics at the University of Dayton. His research focuses on the areas of healthcare operations management, quality and process improvement, and supply chain management. He obtained his PhD degree in Supply Chain and Operations Management from Clemson University. Prior to his academic career, he had a 12-year career in multinational corporations including Siemens and Aisin (a Toyota Group company), where he primarily worked in the field of quality management and Six Sigma process improvement.

Lakshminarayana Nittala

Lakshmi Nittala is an Assistant Professor in the Department of MIS, Operations & Supply Chain Management, and Business Analytics in the School of Business Administration at the University of Dayton. He received his PhD degree from University of California San Diego in Innovation, Technology and Operations. Dr. Nittala's research interests include Open Innovation, New Product Development, Knowledge Management and Supply Chain Management.

Mark A. Jacobs

Mark Jacobs is Professor of Operations and Supply Management at the University of Dayton where he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses. He has published several articles on the topics of product and portfolio complexity, modularity, and supply chain integration in the Journal of Operations Management, Journal of Product Innovation Management, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, and others. Prior to an academic career Dr. Jacobs held a variety of positions of increasing responsibility in the professional services industry beginning as an Industrial Engineer at IBM and culminating as Chief Operating Officer at JL Analytical Services.

Wantao Yu

Wantao Yu is a professor of Supply Chain Management at the University of Roehampton. His research interests include supply chain integration, integrated green supply chain management, and data-driven supply chains. His work has been published in journals such as International Journal of Operations & Production Management, British Journal of Management, International Journal of Production Economics, International Journal of Production Research, Industrial Marketing Management, Production Planning & Control, Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, and Decision Support Systems.