Impacting shop floor behavior in the context of pharmaceutical operational excellence programs : a management control perspective

The management of shop floor behavior plays a critical role for the success of operational improvement programs, which rely on the workers that perform the direct value creation tasks. But what precisely should managers do to influence that behavior constructively? In the corresponding stream of Operational Excellence (OPEX) literature, this question has recently experienced an increase in research interest. For pharmaceutical manufacturers, addressing this question can be considered mission critical for two main reasons. First, OPEX programs are viewed as an antidote for low quality levels in pharmaceutical manufacturing, which are significantly lower compared to other industries. Second, procedural regulation can affect what behaviors are deemed acceptable. This should be accounted for, as OPEX and regulatory compliance can have differing behavioral priorities. The purpose of this dissertation is to provide theoretical and practical guidance for impacting shop floor behavior with pharmaceutical OPEX programs to facilitate balanced and high levels of operational performance. For this purpose, this research draws on literature on OPEX, Management Control (MC) and structuration theory to develop a research model in a first step. A mixed-method approach combining qualitative analysis and quantitative hierarchical linear regression analysis is then applied to empirically study the determinants of shop floor behavior in the context of pharmaceutical OPEX programs. The research findings suggest that the interplay between structural and behavioral determinants of shop floor behavior can lead to unintended consequences that are context dependent. They further suggest that this interplay is not comprehensively accounted for as part of pharmaceutical OPEX programs, since the underlying determinants are typically managed in isolation. Finally, the regression results underline the importance of taking unintended consequences that result from said interplay seriously, suggesting that MC has significant positive and negative moderation effects, which can increase respectively decrease the performance returns from OPEX programs.