CAN OTHER DISCIPLINES SUPPORT OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY EFFORTS? IMPORTANCE OF SAFETY CULTURE: A STUDY ON A COAL MINE INSTITUTION

Abstract

Human behaviour is strongly influenced by the culture they live in. Therefore, if safety is a priority in a company's culture and this norm is internalized by every member of this organization, elimination of all types of unsafe behaviour would be possible. This aspect of organizational culture is called safety culture. In order to evaluate the safety culture in an organization, one of the useful tools is application of a safety culture survey. Application of a safety culture survey among a company's workers and managers would supply the management with valuable data concerning the safety culture perception of the organization members. Thus, the results from analyses of this data including the demographical features of the organization members would help the managers and OHS professionals design more effective activities to prevent workplace accidents. This paper aims at explaining the importance of safety culture and its contribution to OHS efforts. An empirical study applied at a large state owned coal mine institution located in Kütahya province in Turkey using a safety culture survey tool will be presented as an example of how a safety culture survey is implemented and evaluated for a company with high level of risks. Results of the analyses revealed that the participants' safety culture levels have statistically significant difference for age, education level, work experience, duty at work groups, and the state of having been exposed to any nearmiss accidents. However, no statistically significant difference was determined for their marital status, position at work, the state of having been exposed to any occupational accidents in any workplace and the state of having been exposed to any occupational accident in their current workplace.