People First, Mission Always: A Tension-Centered Approach to Conducting Safe, Effective Logistics

Abstract

Logistics organizations' cultures inherently produce tension between safety and operational requirements. Perhaps counterintuitively, such tension is important for organizations to achieve safe practice and effective operational outcomes. In this study, we evaluate how logistics managers and workers create, identify, and manage various tensions between operational requirements and personnel health and safety during an extended period of uncertainty. Using a grounded theory (GT) approach, this research draws on multiple data sources from six global U.S. Air Force logistics organizations during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. A six-stage GT empirical analysis process revealed a tension-centered approach to safe, effective logistics, presented as a substantive (middle-range) theory with an accompanying process model. Data demonstrate operations- and people-focused cultural elements are activated based on respective requirements, thus inducing tension between potentially competing, yet interrelated, areas. In high-performing organizations, logistics managers and workers address tensions via a balanced focus to alleviate conflicts and conduct safe, effective logistics. This research responds to calls for organizational culture research using qualitative methods while offering implications for theory and practice. Specifically, logistics leaders can use the process model to prepare personnel to safely and effectively handle dynamic operational logistics in the face of unforeseen crises or changes.