The use of questionnaires in safety culture research – an evaluation

Questionnaires have not been particularly successful in exposing the core of an organisational safety culture. This is clear both from the factors found and the relations between these and safety indicators. The factors primarily seem to denote an overall evaluation of management, which does not say much about cultural basic assumptions. In addition, methodology requires that levels of theory and measurement are properly recognised and distinguished. That is, measurements made at one level cannot be employed at other levels just like that unless certain conditions are met.Safety management has been described through nine separate processes that together encompass the safety management system (SMS) of an organisation. Policies developed at the organisational level shape the organisational context and working conditions of the group and individual levels and therefore also attitudes within the organisation. The questionnaires seem to expose only those attitudes that are shared throughout the whole of the organisation. The workforce could very well recognise the safety policies of higher management as concern for their well-being and the overall value attached to safety. Pictured this way, safety climate (attitudes) and safety culture are not separate entities but rather different approaches towards the same goal of determining the importance of safety within an organisation.     

An investigation of occupational subgroups with respect to patient safety culture

There are varying views about the consistency of safety culture across a given organisation or industrial sector: some view it as homogeneous, whereas others have suggested the presence of sub-cultures that vary according to the work group or worksite. This paper reports on a study in which job characteristics and safety climate ratings from a sample of British community pharmacists (N = 860) were subjected to a cluster analysis, with the aim of identifying whether discrete groups can be identified on the basis of these ratings. A four-cluster solution was obtained from the analysis. Examination of quantitative and qualitative data from each cluster led to them being identified as: (i) the disenfranchising pharmacy; (ii) the perilous pharmacy; (iii) the safety-focused pharmacy; (iv) the challenging pharmacy. On the basis of the data obtained, safety culture appears to have both characteristics generic to all community pharmacies and characteristics specific to each cluster, with a number of social and organisational factors influencing the culture in any one setting. Implications for the modelling and assessment of safety culture are discussed.     

Safety culture in an aircraft maintenance organisation: A view from the inside

This article deals with a case study about the safety culture of an aircraft maintenance organisation. The case study provides ethnographic accounts based on participant observation, interviews and document analysis. Safety culture is specifically related to the development and growth phase of the organisation and explicitly relates safety culture to production interests. The analysis focuses on the various roles and the tensions between the quality assurance and maintenance management departments, and the way aircraft maintenance technicians (AMTs) in practice deal with tensions between safety and production interests. Theoretically this article stresses the value of a process view on organisational development for the analysis of safety culture and the paradoxical relationship between safety and economic interests.     

Work-related road safety: A case study of Roche Australia

Fleet, work-related or occupational road safety has the potential to make a major contribution to reducing both human harm and asset damage. To date, however, there would appear to be a dearth of well researched and evaluated case studies in the public domain in this area.This paper provides an on-going, documented, real-world case study of work-related road safety within an Australian company that has sought to manage, monitor and improve its road safety performance over the last 5 years through a range of proactive, fleet manager, insurance and risk-led initiatives.Roche Australia has successfully implemented a Company Motor Vehicle Safety Program with support from its fleet insurers and risk management advisors. Four key initiatives are set out covering: (1) Driver risk assessment, monitoring and improvement. (2) Policy development and communications. (3) Process and outcomes evaluation. (4) Continuous review and refinement of policies, processes, programs and future developments.The program has led to a range of process and performance-based outcomes. Typical barriers to success in work-related road safety have been identified and overcome. Almost 100% risk assessment and improvement process compliance by drivers has been achieved. A predictive relationship between risk assessment outcomes and collision history has been identified. Reductions in insurance claims, collision costs and claims ratio have been sustained. A detailed project plan is in place to continue the program for the next 3 years.The paper concludes that with effective management, a well developed work-related road safety program can result in performance improvements within the initiating organisation. Several limitations in the case study methodology, as well as areas for further work and lessons for policy makers, researchers and practitioners are also identified.     

Learning organisations for major hazards and the role of the regulator

A learning organisation is one that not only values and encourages learning from its own experiences, but also looks beyond itself for lessons, and avoids complacency. To be a learning organisation is a key part of the safety culture of any organisation involved with major hazard processes. It facilitates learning which can reduce the risk from major accident hazards. The paper provides a learning organisation toolkit which synthesises, from various literature sources, an understanding of what a learning organisation is and how to begin to develop one within an organisation. The paper illustrates how the regulator can be a learning organisation for major hazards, using the example of HSE's offshore fire, explosion and risk assessment team.     

Managers’ conceptions regarding human factors in air traffic management and in airport operations

Human factors (HF) in creating and managing safety in complex systems is a continuous topic of research and discussion. In the aviation organisation under study here, an HF expert had started work in a newly created position one and a half years prior to the study. The aim of the study was to find out if HF was seen as a safety creating factor and what the conceptions of HF were in regard to the theoretical developments in the field. These topics were studied in order to determine the most effective means of implementing HF-work within the organisation. Two manager groups (upper and middle management) were targeted as subjects of the study due to their crucial role in developing working culture. Twenty-one managers were interviewed from nine units that represented three operational environments (radar units with heavy traffic, combined civil/military units and procedural air traffic control units, including airport operations. Managers were found to have disjointed and vague conceptions of HF and a lack of shared vision or strategy regarding HF. Some managers lacked an appropriate conception of HF. The present situation can prevent the organisation from utilizing HF competence in maintaining and developing the safety of services. Conceptions were most up-to-date at units, where outside pressures for change had forced managers to take HF issues into account in their operational environments. While the long-term implementation of HF faces considerable challenges, the article gives several proposals for organisational structures that support a more effective realization of HF.     

A study of the precursors leading to ‘organisational’ accidents in complex industrial settings

This study aggregates the narrative findings from the investigation of 12 accidents or ‘near hits’ across a wide range of industrial settings to build a catalogue of organisational and cultural precursors to accidents. It was found that many were important factors in multiple events. It is argued that by addressing these potential vulnerabilities using the findings and proposed tools based upon them, organisations undertaking safety related activities will not only develop greater awareness of these deeper-lying issues but should be able to better control the risks associated with them.The precursors have been classified under eight headings and examples of key findings from three of these are presented. Statements providing potential defences against the identified vulnerabilities have been developed which should enable organisations to scrutinise the adequacy of existing expectations or requirements within their business. Probing questions have been developed based on the statements which should allow an assessment to be made as to whether these have been ‘embedded’ in the organisation.It is argued that organisational vulnerability tools should be developed to enable a systematic approach to ‘diagnosing’ incubating precursors. It is also argued that there is the potential for further resilience to be achieved through the use of models of the complex dynamics of socio-technical processes within organisations.     

Assessing safety management systems

Traditionally, both academe and practitioners have tended to address fire safety by focusing on technical aspects and looking for the immediate causes of fire incidents or accidents after they have taken place. More recently, organisations have focused on assessing the consequences of the fire risk inherent in their operations pro-actively. However, fire safety still tends to be addressed in isolation, though fire loss is an emergent property. An organisation's emergent property results from the interrelated activities of people who design it, manage it and operate it. There is still a need for a systemic approach to understand the systemic nature of fire safety. This paper describes a fire safety management system (FSMS) model that aims to maintain fire risk within an acceptable range in an organisation's operations in a coherent way. This systemic approach can be used as a diagnostic tool to assess the effectiveness of existing safety management systems (SMS). It is hoped that this approach will lead not only to more effective management of fire safety, but also to more effective management of safety, health and the environment for any organisation.     

Lessons learnt from a crisis event: How to foster a sound safety culture

Recent events in the nuclear industry have blamed a declining safety culture both on the utility and regulatory side as the major responsible. Confidence in the nuclear industry can be dramatically affected by such events. In this context, the present paper analyses a recent crisis event that involved a research reactor. It shows the time history of the event and how its escalation brought to a temporary shut down of the reactor. In-depth analysis of the event pointed out safety culture deficiencies within the organization. The paper presents the key elements in the ensuing organizational change process and describes the different phases (short and long term approaches), players and measures involved in the process that the organisation set up to address deficiencies and improve safety culture. The case represents an interesting example from which important lessons can be learnt. In particular, staff motivation in terms of involvement in improvement activities is considered central in managing safety.     

Developing a framework for safety validation of multi-stakeholder changes in air transport operations

The high volume of air traffic over Europe is expected to double within the next 15 years. This requires changes in the airspace structure and in the organisation of air transport operations that involve multiple stakeholders. Changes, by regulation, require a sufficient safety validation, in order to show that the changed situation is safe and will remain safe during an applicable period. Many methods and techniques exist that can be used to support such safety validation process. However, for air transport operations, the stakeholders involved are numerous and diverse, and there are no guidelines on how to address their roles, responsibilities and goals during development and validation.This paper develops a safety validation framework that emphasises the active roles and collaboration of multiple stakeholders during the development phases of air transport operations. The framework is developed in three steps: First, established validation views from literature are identified and analysed to reveal open issues when it comes to their use for multi-stakeholder changes in air transport operations. Next, validation views emerging beyond the established ones are identified, and evaluated on whether they address the open issues. Finally, the strong points of established and emerging views are combined into a novel framework.     

企业安全领导力研究进展

列举几起因安全领导力缺乏造成的典型事故,指出当前企业安全管理和安全文化建设中的不足;探讨安全领导力的概念以及与安全管理的区别,论述安全领导力理论发展的4个阶段,重点分析交易型领导力和变革型领导力的关键要素及对企业安全绩效的影响,并对安全领导力的重要意义进行探讨。最后对企业决策层、中间管理层和基层管理层的安全领导力进行归纳和对比。研究表明:企业各级管理层安全领导力既是企业健康安全管理的关键要素,同时也是企业安全文化的基础,它决定了企业其他员工对安全的态度和行为。     

Implications of turnover and trust for safety attitudes and behaviour in work teams

Turnover potentially leads to a new individual being selected into a work team. This study investigated the safety-specific trust which team members place in their organisation’s selection and induction processes, and related this to the perceived risk from new employees. The research was conducted with teams working in forest harvesting, an occupation which has high-turnover, high risk and a high accident rate. Results indicate that trust in induction processes was negatively correlated with perceived risk from a new employee. Team members also engaged in a number of safety ensuring behaviours when a new individual joined the team, and these were related to the level of perceived risk, and how much they cared about their team members’ safety. It is argued that trust in the safety-specific characteristics of an organisation’s selection and induction process may have negative consequences for safety.     

现代卫生填埋工程研究与分析

现代卫生填埋工程是一种安全、有效、有控制地处理城市固体废弃物的方法,其涉及众多学科,属于环境安全、生态安全、工业安全、卫生安全共同关注的问题。城市及工业废料的卫生填埋工程目的是实现减量化、无害化和资源化,形成一个安全、有效、严格控制、环境生态保护,经济化、无害化、资源化科学发展的循环体系。笔者介绍国内外现代卫生填埋工程的研究概况,详细论述现有填埋场的研究内容,指出其中存在的主要问题与不足,并在此基础上探讨了该领域的发展趋势及研究方向。     

Safety management systems and safety culture in aircraft maintenance organisations

A self-regulatory model was proposed to examine how different organisations manage safety, with particular emphasis on the human and organisational aspects. The relationships of different aspects of safety culture and safety management systems were explored through the deployment of different research measures and methods. Studies of four aircraft maintenance organisations included analysis of documentation and qualitative interviews, surveys of safety climate and attitudes, expected response to incidents and compliance with task procedures. The model was effective in analysing the salient features of each organisation' s safety management system, though it underestimated the roles of planning and change. The data from management interviews, the incidents survey and safety climate survey exhibited a large measure of agreement in differentiating between the different safety management systems and safety climate of the four organisations. The measures of compliance with task procedures and safety attitudes did not differentiate between the four organisations (though one organisation did differ from the others in safety attitudes). This suggests a strong, relatively homogeneous professional sub-culture of aircraft technicians spanning the different organisations. Differences in safety attitudes and climate were found between occupational groups, though in the case of climate the differences between occupational groups were a function of the organisation, suggesting a differentiated notion of safety culture. The professional sub-culture of technicians is likely to mediate between the organisation' s safety management system and safety outcomes.     

The INDICATE safety program: evaluation of a method to proactively improve airline safety performance

A number of recent and highly publicised fatal aircraft accidents, within the Australian regional airline industry, has highlighted the need for operators of regular public transport aircraft to be more proactive in identifying and addressing aviation safety hazards. Despite this need, there are currently few proactive safety management programs that are practical, simple, cost effective and which reliably demonstrate improvements in airline safety performance. This paper outlines a new proactive airline safety program called INDICATE (Identifying Needed Defences In the Civil Aviation Transport Environment) that has been applied within the Australian regional airline industry. To evaluate the INDICATE program, a major Australian regional airline agreed to implement the program in one of its operational bases while another base was used as a control group. Five evaluation criteria were applied to determine whether the program would have a positive influence on the airline's safety performance. These criteria included airline safety culture, staff risk perception of aviation safety hazards, willingness of staff to report safety hazards, action taken on identified safety hazards and staff comments about safety management within the airline. Results from the trial suggest that the program can have a positive influence on airline safety performance, specifically: improving staff confidence in how safety is managed, increasing staff willingness to report safety hazards and incidents, improving organisational safety culture and reducing staff perceptions of the severity and likelihood of safety hazards occurring within the airline. The success of the trial has resulted in a number of Australian and International airlines adopting the program.     

Evaluating a safety culture campaign: Some lessons from a Norwegian case

The focus of the present study is on the implementation and some of the results of an evaluation of a safety culture campaign that partly was aimed at increasing workmate interventions (care). I focus on three groups either working on or with a Norwegian offshore platform: onshore managers, crane operators and process operators. The research questions are: “Has the safety culture campaign contributed to new safety cultures related to care in the three groups, why/why not and what can we learn from this?”. The study indicates that two of the groups have developed new safety cultures that sensitize them to new hazards, motivate and legitimize new preventive practices. In accordance with the interpretive approach to culture in organizations, these changes are discussed in light of members’ of each group’s negotiation over the meaning and relevance of campaign efforts on workmate interventions. Lessons that can be learned from the study are discussed.     

Perspectives on safety culture

Overviewing selected elements from the literature, this paper locates the notion of safety culture within its parent concept of organisational culture. A distinction is drawn between functionalist and interpretive perspectives on organisational culture. The terms ‘culture’ and ‘climate’ are clarified as they are typically applied to organisations and to safety. A contrast is drawn between strategic top down and data-driven bottom up approaches to human factors as an illustrative aspect of safety. A safety case study is used to illustrate two measurement approaches. Key issues for future study include valid measurement of safety culture and developing methods to adequately represent mechanisms through which safety culture might influence, and be influenced by, other safety factors.     

安全信息有效沟通在增强企业安全文化中的作用

在分析若干起由于安全信息沟通失效引起的事故及当前企业安全文化建设不够深入的基础上,进一步探讨安全信息有效沟通对于增强安全文化的重要作用;分析信息沟通的基本过程和基本形式及在安全管理中的应用;重点研究企业内部和外部安全信息沟通的内容和形式以及影响安全信息有效沟通的因素;提出一些提高安全信息有效沟通的建议和措施。研究表明:安全信息的有效沟通对于鼓励员工参与安全事务、获得员工合作和支持、增强企业积极的安全文化建设等方面具有重要的作用。     

Perceptions of organizational safety: implications for the development of safety culture

Regulatory bodies in the U.K. have emphasized the importance of ‘a positive health and safety culture’ to the safety performance of companies. A key feature of a company's safety culture is shared perceptions amongst managers and staff concerning the importance of safety. This study recorded the perceptions of 312 British Rail train drivers, supervisors and senior managers concerning the relative importance of 25 railway factors. Each level also gave their estimates of the ratings of the other levels. The study found that whilst there was a shared perception of the importance of safety, intergroup perceptions were not realistic. It is argued that accurate intergroup perceptions are essential to the development of mutual trust and understanding between levels, which forms the basis for a positive safety culture. Suggestions for establishing the foundations for a positive safety culture are discussed. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

安全文化、安全科技与科学安全生产观

通过10余年来对安全文化的研究,提出了一些安全科技文化的新思路、新理念:以安全哲学及认识论的观点,研究安全文化与人的安全自护能力;从实践论和科技进步的视角,研究安全文化的发展;从安全文化的理念,探讨安全文化与安全科学的关系以及安全文化与工业发展的关系;用科学发展观看待安全生产严峻形势;讨论安全生产“五要素”与安全文化的关系;提出“安全第一”公理;特别强调提高农民安全文化素质的现实作用和战略意义;依据大安全观、广义安全文化和安全科学发展观,给出了科学安全生产观的内涵。可以认为:倡导和弘扬、发展和创新安全文化是预防或减少我国意外伤亡事故和减灾防灾的根本途径。