There is a popular notion that employees’ unsafe acts are the primary causes of workplace accidents, but a number of authors suggest a perspective that highlights influences from operating and social systems. The study described herein addresses this subject by assessing steelworkers’ responses to a survey about social, technical, and personal factors related to safe work behaviors. Results provide evidence that a chain reaction of technical and social constructs operate through employees to influence safe behaviors. These results demonstrate that safety hazards, safety culture, and operational production pressures can influence safety efficacy and cavalier attitudes, on a path leading to safe or unsafe work behaviors. Based on these results, we conclude with prescriptions for operations managers and others who play a role in the causal sequence.

"Controlled Production Planning for Short-Run Suppliers," Vol. 38, no. 5, pp. 1163-1182, International Journal of Production Research with Al Ansari Ph.D. and Batoul Modaress Ph.D.

The authors examine the use of statistical process control (SPC) techniques in the small batch production environment. Use of an exponentially weighted moving average approach to SPC results in an early warning mechanism that can avoid backorders of material. Simulation results bear out the proposed approach.

"Focus on Quality: The Long Term Benefits of Developing Quality Processes," with Greg Prussia Ph.D., presented at the 30th Annual Meeting of the Decision Sciences Institute, complete study tentatively targeted for Journal of Operations Management.  It must be emphasized that this paper is only a small sample pilot study of this issue.

The authors present a model for the impact of the ISO 9000 series of certifications and explore how the series has impacted both the companies achieving ISO 9000 registration and their customers.  The pilot study data set has 60 companies and compares income both 12 months before and after certification dates.  The current data set contains over 300 international companies and has quarterly information on stock price, net income, net profit, and cost of goods sold.  Next additions to the data set include certified companies' customer data and survey data on program scope, motivations, and effort.

This research has received generous funding from UCO's Office of Institutional Research that will be of tremendous help in data collection.  Even as we speak, my talented graduate assistant is collecting data, ready for input into my shiny new copy of EQS for Windows.

"Sample Acceptance Rates and Gender Bias: An Empirical Investigation," with Stacia Wert-Gray, Ph.D., published in the Proceedings of the Southwest Business Symposium, University of Central Oklahoma

This study examines the tendency of people to accept an offer of a free sample.  Three hundred persons were offered a sample with manipulated factors of sample delivery method and sample administrator gender.  The data suggest that consumer acceptance rates are affected by both the manner in which the sample is distributed and the gender of the person offering the sample.  Consumers that are approached by the sample administrator are more likely to accept the offer than if they must approach the administrator.  Males are more likely to accept a sample than females, and are more likely to do so when a female administers the sample.