Role of ICT for workers’ safety at the workplace during pandemics: evidence from global data
Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management
ISSN: 2042-6747
Article publication date: 18 May 2022
Issue publication date: 21 November 2022
Abstract
Purpose
This study contributes to the extant literature on ICT firms by investigating the interrelationship between the health and safety (H&S) measures, market performance, and the coronavirus (COVID-19).
Design/methodology/approach
To conduct the confirmatory analysis by testing our hypotheses, data have been collected from Bloomberg of all ICT firms from five countries. The authors gathered from 2010 until 2020 as the research sample to examine the pandemic impact on market performance and H&S measures.
Findings
First, our results reveal a significant and positive relationship between market performance (proxied by Tobin’s Q) and the H&S measures of information technology (IT) firms. Second, the authors find that the IT firms have significantly increased the H&S measures during the COVID-19 period and were dynamic in linking employees’ adaptive capabilities to positive attributes. This has contributed to business success, resiliency, and sustainability.
Research limitations/implications
The authors used a quantitative method of testing our hypotheses. Future studies may consider checking the robustness using qualitative methods such as structural or semi-structural interviews.
Practical implications
The study offers valuable insights to academics, practitioners, stakeholders, policymakers, and international entities by fostering knowledge about responses to crises, integrating digital solutions, and disseminating digital information. The study also has implications on the health, social, business, and economic levels. This study is a call for international and local humanitarian organisations such as United Nations High Commission, Care international and many more to understand the gravity of safety of the workers in the workplace during the pandemic period and introduce a firm-level policy accordingly.
Originality/value
This paper is novel considering that the paper is unique in evaluating ICT firms’ market performance and H&S from a global perspective, considering the context of this historical pandemic.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This paper forms part of a special section “The COVID19 impact on humanitarian operations: lessons for future disrupting events”, guest edited by Bhavin Shah, Guilherme Frederico, Vikas Kumar, Jose Arturo Garza-Reyes and Anil Kumar.
The authors acknowledge the funding and research support as a part of the Sustainable Business Research Cluster Grant ([STR-RCGS-SUSBIZ[S]-003-2021) funded by Sunway University.
Citation
Najaf, K., Dhiaf, M.M., Nasrallah, N.H., Atayah, O.F. and Marashdeh, H. (2022), "Role of ICT for workers’ safety at the workplace during pandemics: evidence from global data", Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management, Vol. 12 No. 4, pp. 554-569. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHLSCM-12-2021-0129
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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