The Safety Culture Construct: Theory and Practice

Abstract

Safety culture means different things to different people which subsequently guides their improvement efforts. Providing clarity, the essence of the safety culture construct is that it reflects a proactive stance to improving occupational safety and reflects the way people think and/or behave in relation to safety. The extant evidence shows the best proactive stance is to target the significant safety issues found nested within the common safety characteristics (management/ supervision, safety systems, risk, work pressure, competence, procedures and rules) identified from public enquiries into process safety disasters. This is best achieved by focusing on the entity’s safety management system and their people’s safety related behaviours, not by trying to change people’s values, beliefs and attitudes. A revised model of safety culture is offered to help guide readers in their quest to improve their safety cultures, along with an adapted model of safety culture maturity. In addition, based on academic evidence and practical experience gained over the past 25 years in numerous industries and countries, the author provides insights into specific issues regarding the influence of senior executives, the impact of national cultures when working on international projects, whether policies and tools should be the same or differ when addressing potential minor, serious and catastrophic events, and who should be involved to drive an organisations safety culture to achieve excellence.