Absorptive capacity, adopting change and compliance practice in occupational health and safety

Purpose We study how organisations (that upgrade from baseline standards to advanced standards) use and integrate knowledge to adapt to changes in compliance practices. We explore this problem in the context of occupational health and safety (OH&S) and build on the absorptive capacity (AC) perspective. Design/methodology/approach We conducted a qualitative study and interviewed experts (internal auditors, external auditors, managers from organisations and from conformity assessment bodies) in Australia and New Zealand. The respondents are considered leading experts in the domain and oversee adoption, auditing and certification of OH&S standards. Findings We found that organisational ability to adopt changes in compliance practice is facilitated by standard-specific absorptive capacity (i.e. in our context, capacities directly associated with the OH&S standards). However, standards generic AC (i.e. capacity from other domains) complements and accelerates transformation and exploitation of knowledge during the adoption – moderated by recognition of value related to the standards by organisational leaders. Practical implications Managers need to plan strategically the development of AC related to standards and changes in compliance practice through purposeful development of four components of AC. Originality/value Departing from existing studies, this study is the first study to investigate the transition from baseline to advanced standards – delivering a theoretical model on the effect of AC on the adoption of advanced standards.