SAFETY CULTURE

DIRESTU AMALIA
 • The way safety is perceived, valued and
SAFETY prioritised in an organisation.
CULTURE ? • It reflects the real commitment to safety
at all levels in the organisation.
 National

Organizational

National
THREE CULTURES Professional
 • National culture encompasses the
value system of particular nations

• Organizational/corporate culture
differentiates the values and
behaviours of particular organizations
Three Distinct (e.g. government vs. private
organizations)
Culture
• Professional culture differentiates the
values and behaviours of particular
professional groups (e.g. pilots, air
traffic controllers, maintenance
engineers, aerodrome staff, etc.)

• No human endeavour is culture-free

Organizational/corporate
culture
Sets the boundaries for acceptable behaviour
in the workplace by establishing norms and
limits

Provides a frame work for managerial and

employee decision-making.
“This is how we do things here, and how we
talk about the way we do things here”

Organizational/corporate culture shapes –

among many others – safety reporting
procedures and practices by operational
personnel
 A trendy notion with potential for misperceptions
and misunderstandings

A construct, an abstraction

Safety It is the consequence of a series of organizational

processes (i.e., an outcome)
Culture
Safety culture is not an end in itself, but a means to
achieve an essential safety management
prerequisite:

Effective safety reporting

Why Safety culture is
Important
Safety Culture can have a direct
impact on safe performance.

If someone believes that safety is not

really important, even temporarily,
then workarounds, cutting corners,
or making unsafe decisions or
judgements will be the result,
especially when there is a small
perceived risk rather than an
obvious danger.
 Why Safety culture is Important

SMS or Safety Culture?

A Safety Management System represents an If you want to remain safe, you have
organisation’s competence in the area of to know the realities of safety in your
safety, and it is important to have an SMS and organization. How?
competent safety staff to execute it.
Three possible
organizational cultures

• Organizations and the

management of information
• Pathological – Hide the
information
• Bureaucratic – Restrain the
information
• Generative – Value the
information
 Source: Ron Westrum

Pathological Bureaucratic Generative

Information Hidden Ignored Sought

Messengers Shouted Tolerated Trained

Responsibilities Shirked Boxed Shared

Reports Discouraged Allowed Rewarded

Failures Covered up Merciful Scrutinized

New ideas Crushed Problematic Welcomed

Resulting Conflicted “Red tape” Reliable
organization organization organization organization
 managers and employees, individually and collectively, want to make
decisions and take actions that promote safety

individuals and groups continually critique their behaviours and processes

and welcome the critique of others searching for opportunities to change
and improve as their environment changes;
Positive
Safety
c. management and staff share a common awareness of the hazards and
risks faced by the organization and its activities, and the need to manage
risks;

Culture d. individuals act and make decisions according to a common belief that
safety is part of the way they do business;

e. individuals value being informed, and informing others, about safety;

f. individuals trust their colleagues and managers with information about
their experiences, and the reporting of errors and mistakes is encouraged
to improve how things are done in the future.
Prof James Reason : Safety Culture Components
What Does • An optimum Safety Culture will delivers a clearer and more
comprehensive picture of operational risk, one that takes in all
Safety aspects of the activities of the organisation.

Culture • This is possible through the achievement of a better

information flow and the maintenance of an effective dialogue
Deliver within the organisation about safety performance as priority.
Monitoring Safety Culture
Safety culture is subject to many influences and
organizations may choose to assess their safety culture to:

a. understand how people feel about the organization and

how importantly safety is perceived;

b. identify strengths and weaknesses;

c. identify differences between various groups

(subcultures) within an organization; and

d. examine changes over time (e.g. in response to

significant organizational changes such as following an
accident, a change in senior management or altered
industrial relations arrangement).
 Monitoring Safety Culture

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