ABSTRACT
This article attempts to explain differences in the occurrence of incidents between two plants both belonging to the same parent company. A negative relationship was found between leadership stability and the occurrence of incidents, where the degree of leadership stability was defined as the degree to which management positions are submitted to changes of management personnel over time. In the second part of the article, a cross sectional analysis of the two plants is reported on the basis of which it is concluded that geographical dispersion of the technical installations; the degree of normative dependence of the parent company; the degree of centralization of authority relations; the organizational culture; the emphasis on training and the degree of informal social control are interdependent factors that can be related to plant safety.
