HSL/2002/25 - Safety Culture: A review of the literature

This document reviews the literature on safety culture, focussing particularly on research carried out from 1998 onwards. Objectives 1. To review the main features of safety culture and safety climate within the existing academic and applied literature 2. To explore the links between safety culture and safety performance. Main Findings 1. Culture can be seen as a concept that describes the shared corporate values within an organisation which influences the attitudes and behaviours of its members. Safety culture is a part of the overall culture of the organisation and is seen as affecting the attitudes and beliefs of members in terms of health and safety performance (Cooper, 2000). Safety climate is a distinct yet related concept which can be seen as the current surface features of safety culture which are discerned from the employees attitudes and perceptions (Flin et al., 2000). However, in reality the terms are not so clear cut and many writers use the terms safety culture and safety climate interchangeably. 2. From the literature it emerged that management was the key influence of an organisation's safety culture. A review of the safety climate literature revealed that employees' perceptions of management's attitudes and behaviours towards safety, production and issues such as planning, discipline etc. was the most useful measurement of an organisation's safety climate. The research indicated that different levels of management may influence health and safety in different ways, for example managers through communication and supervisors by how fairly they interact with workers (Thompson, 1998). Thus, the key area for any intervention of an organisation's health and safety policy should be management's commitment and actions towards safety. Ultimately management's attitudes and behaviour in terms of safety influence many aspects of safety behaviour including: Ÿ The success of safety initiatives. Ÿ The reporting of near-miss occurrences, incidents and accidents. Ÿ Employees working safety, e.g. nurses compliance with universal precautions. Ÿ Employees taking work related risks. Ÿ Influencing production pressures. Ÿ Implementing safety behaviour interventions. Ÿ Health interventions. Ÿ The effectiveness and credibility of safety officers. Ÿ The effectiveness and credibility of safety committees. 3. Many definitions of safety culture (e.g. ASCNI, 1993) present a view of employees having a shared set of safety values and beliefs. However, a number of studies have found the presence of subcultures within an organisation which suggest an absence of a cohesive safety culture. Subcultures are likely to develop when employees within the …