A network-based approach to organizational culture and learning in system safety

While it is now generally agreed that system safety cannot be adequately addressed using technical analysis alone, an approach to modeling the organizational issues associated with safety is still needed. This paper offers an analytical approach to assessing the complex relationships among organizational culture and safety practices and outcomes. The paper argues that, in principle, organizational culture can be represented as a network of shared mental models (SMMs). While it would be impractical to construct a network that fully captures an organization’s culture, the approach can be used to model particular dimensions of culture. Thus, a network of SMMs is a meaningful representation of safety culture to the extent that the data effectively capture shared knowledge about system safety. Similarly, organizational learning can be quantified as the evolution of that network’s structure over time. The goal of the research is to develop a quantitative methodology for analyzing the relationship of organizational culture and learning to safety performance. The research is built on a collaborative effort between academia and industry focused on improving process safety in the oil and gas industry, but it can be applied to safety-related problems across organizations. The results are expected to have implications for training, professional development, safety protocols, and methods for measuring and managing safety practices in the development and operation of complex engineered systems. © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of Stevens Institute of Technology.