Back in the line: A diversity management case study to involve blue collars with functional limitations

The presence of pathology in blue collars – mainly due to repetitive tasks - determines a serious problem for the organization safety, affecting company’s performances and organizational climate. After redesigning its main production lines, Electrolux Italia tested ‘Accomodation RAL’, a new procedure of re-integration in line of blue collars with functional limitation. The objective of the research is to detect the psychosocial impact of this kind of Diversity Management (DM) strategy and to measure its efficacy. The peculiarity of the study is to underline the strategic role of the worker’s involvement in the processes of change. The assumption of responsibilities, the research of meaning in its own job and role, the perception of a procedure based on the workers’ involvement result significant related to safety perception and performance. The huge literature about blue collars and the psychosocial factors about the work in line is mainly dedicated to monotony, stress, muscle-skeletal disorders. Rare are yet the researches (Rivilis et al., 2008) which examine the efficacy of involvement in DM. The results highlight the necessity to propose (again) the centrality of the human being in the industrial contest.