Safety, reliability and worker satisfaction during organizational change

• This study proposes indicators for ex-ante evaluation of safety and reliability of the production process.
• This study identifies factors with the potential to increase safety and reliability while maintaining job satisfaction.
• The importance of participative leadership during organizational change is illustrated.
• Proper handling of variance and disturbance and proper maintenance, influence the reliability of the production process.
• This study shows a positive association between flexibility in team composition and job satisfaction.

The research presented in this paper was carried out in four process industry plants in the Netherlands, to identify factors that have the potential to increase safety and reliability while maintaining or improving job satisfaction. The data used were gathered as part of broader trajectories in these firms, aiming at the simultaneous improvement of productivity and safety, while maintaining or improving worker satisfaction. The results show that participative leadership is crucial for combining an increase in safety and reliability with job satisfaction. Participative leadership has a positive effect on job satisfaction and through proper maintenance also on the prevention and absence of disturbances and on the reliability of the production process. The results of this research show the importance of participative leadership for safety, reliability and worker satisfaction, especially during organizational change. Other important factors are operator competences, teamwork, proper handling of variance and disturbances, and proper maintenance. It also confirms that apart from technological factors associated with proper maintenance, people and team related factors are important for increasing safety and reliability in the process industry, especially for being prepared for disturbances and to be able to cope adequately with them.