Safety Culture - Characteristics of A Positive Safety Culture

Characteristics of A Positive Safety Culture

Several papers have sought to identify specific safety management practices that act as a predictor of safety performance (Mearns et al., 2003). Through examining organizations with good safety performance, it was intended to identify common features that are associated with good safety performance. Some examples of studies that have examined the safety performance of organizations include:

• Cohen (1977) reviewed four organizations;
• Shafai-Sahrai (1971) examined 11;
• Cohen et al. (1975) and Smith et al. (1975) examined 42;
• Shannon et al. (1996) conducted a postal survey of over 400 manufacturing companies;
• Shannon et al. (1997) reviewed 10 studies.

Reason (1998) considers an ideal safety culture to be “the ‘engine’ that drives the system towards the goal of sustaining the maximum resistance towards its operational hazards” (p. 294) Reason maintains this goal should be achieved irrespective of the organization's leader or current commercial concerns. What drives the system is a constant level of respect for anything that may bypass organizational safety systems. In other words, it is important to remember what can go wrong. It is very dangerous to think that an organization is safe because no information is saying otherwise. Reason (1998) believes in periods of good safety performance, the best way to stay cautious is “to gather the right kind of information”, which means creating an informed culture. An informed culture requires safety management to be aware of the numerous factors that have an impact on the safety systems (i.e. human, technical, organizational, and environmental). In this sense, reason believes “an informed culture to be a safety culture” (p. 294).

An organization’s safety culture is ultimately reflected in the way in which safety is managed in the workplace. It is important to note that an organization's safety management system cannot consist of a set of policies and procedures on a bookshelf. The safety management system is the manner in which safety is handled in the workplace and how those policies and procedures are implemented into the workplace (Kennedy and Kirwin, 1998). Kennedy and Kirwan, (1998) also assert that the nature by which safety is managed in the workplace (i.e. resources, policies, practices and procedures, monitoring, etc.) will be influenced by the safety culture/climate of the organization. The Health and Safety Executive (2000) believe that safety management should be integrated into the organizational system and management practice (HSG65, HSE 2000). Certainly in high-risk industries, safety should be considered number one priority. It is easy to see how the management system and culture of an organization are closely related.

It is argued “a ‘good’ safety culture might both reflect and be promoted by at least four factors” (Pidgeon and O’Leary 1994). These four factors include “senior management commitment to safety, shared care and concern for hazards and a solicitude for their impacts on people, realistic and flexible norms and rules about hazards, and continual reflection upon practice through monitoring, analysis and feedback systems (organizational learning)” (Pidgeon and O’Leary 2000). It has also been argued that fundamentally leadership is the key to affecting a safety culture (Burman & Evans 2008). Broadbent (2007), in his vocal support of Burman et al. has specifically recorded the influences of transformational leadership within safety culture development and coined the phrase "transformational safety leadership" to describe the application of his principles. Dr. E. Scott Geller of Safety Performance Solutions wrote extensively about Actively Caring person factors such as Self-Esteem and Optimism which determine organizational safety culture (Leading People Based Safety, 2008). His colleague, Dr. Josh Williams, categorized key aspects of an ideal safety culture safety into 5 main components: Systems/Conditions, Leadership, Communication, Behavior, and Person Factors/Attitudes (Keeping People Safety: The Human Dynamics of Injury Prevention, 2011).

Shannon et al., (1997) conducted a review of ten studies that examined the relationship between organizational factors and injury rates. Studies were only included if they had made comparisons between at least 20 workplaces (Shannon et al., 1997 p. 201). In order for a variable to be considered ‘consistently’ related to the injury rate, the relationship had to be:

• Statistically significant in one direction in at least two thirds of the studies in which it was examined, and
• Not found to be significant in the opposite direction in any other study.

Variables were categorized into Joint Health and Safety Committee, Management Style and Culture, Organizational Philosophy on OHS, Post-Injury Factors, Work Force Characteristics, and Other Factors. In all 17 variables were found to meet the criteria of being consistently related to lower injury rates. Some of those variables included:

• The amount of training the Joint Health and Safety Committee received,
• Good relations between management and workers,
• Monitoring of unsafe work behaviours
• Low turnover of staff, and
• Safety controls on machinery

(Shannon et al., 1997; p. 213)

Taking into account the nature and number of accidents that have occurred as a result of poor safety management (Reason, 1998) it is important that audit tools are developed to ensure that safety management practices are successful (Parker et al., 2006; Hudson et al., 1994). Mearns et al., (2003) asserts that the evaluation of safety management practices should compliment the assessment of safety climate. However Burman & Evans (2008) discuss the limitations of Safety Management Systems (SMS) in relation to culture and show how leadership has a more direct effect on safety that management. They also define the difference between the two.

Broadbent has quoted the contribution of Barling et al. (2002) to the safety culture literature, in which they demonstrate a direct mathematical relationship with the application of Transformational Leadership and the frequency of workplace injuries. In a later development, Broadbent (2004) showed how specific safety leadership items could assist organisations map their prevailing safety culture and safety leadership. This development was the creation of The Transformational Safety Culture and Leadership Assessment Systems.

It is important to remember that an organization's culture develops over a period of time and cannot be created instantly. “Organizations, like organisms, adapt” (Reason, 1998). The safety culture of an organization develops as a result of history, work environment, the workforce, health and safety practices, and management leadership (Reason, 1998).