Culture can best be understood as “the way we do things around here.” An organization’s culture will influence human behavior and performance at work.
Poor safety culture has contributed to many major incidents and personal injuries. Success typically comes from:
- good leadership,
- good worker involvement, and
- good communications.
Creating a positive safety culture in an organization is not a quick, one-off activity. It requires the sustained, consistent implementation of risk management principles in a comprehensive health and safety management system.
Features of a positive safety culture include a REPORTING, JUST, FLEXIBLE, and LEARNING CULTURE; these terms are referred to in this guidance and explained below.
A REPORTING CULTURE
In a reporting culture, people are encouraged and willing to look out for and routinely report errors, near misses, unsafe conditions and behaviors, and any other safety concerns.
A JUST CULTURE
A “just” culture treats people such that the majority believe justice will usually be dispensed – the system is seen as fair. In a “just” culture, the company line is more clearly drawn between a “blame” culture (where fear prevents open risk communication) and a “no-blame” culture (where sloppy practices and negligence tend to creep in). Such a culture can increase psychological safety, where staff feel more able and comfortable to talk about safety issues such as losing alertness and attention and being fatigued or distracted. It is important to gain agreement and trust from staff on fair disciplinary systems; formalizing acceptable and unacceptable behaviors in policies and procedures creates transparency and sets expectations.
When considering an individual’s culpability for unsafe behavior, it can be helpful to consider the “Substitution test” – would a well-motivated, equally competent, and comparably qualified individual in the same circumstances, without the benefit of hindsight, have behaved differently? If not, blaming the individual may divert attention from underlying organisational weaknesses.
A FLEXIBLE CULTURE
In a flexible culture, decisions are made by the people best equipped to make them, irrespective of their position or grade. For example, those suffering from fatigue may be best placed to identify it and self-report. Decision-makers’ identities are decided based on functional skills. Although control is usually centralized through adherence to well-tried Standard Operating Procedures, a flexible culture recognizes that blind rigidity in following “rules” carries risk because it is impossible to devise rules covering every situation.
Unexpected or fast-developing circumstances are best controlled by staff closer to and more familiar with a changing situation.
A flexible culture recognizes that first-line supervisors’ competence is critical since they are placed in control when the value of their experience and judgment is vital. First-line supervisors will often be those responsible for determining whether staff are too fatigued to work, and hence, their competence, specifically in understanding fatigue and its risks, will be key to effective decision-making. This requires a shared understanding of decision premises and assumptions so that decentralized control is consistent with overall central expectations.
Diverse work groups are encouraged to bring more perspectives and a greater total span of experience, insight, and flexibility than a homogenous group.
All rules are constantly reviewed and modified where experience shows improvement is needed, following a modification process that involves rule users throughout. This ensures that rules are practicable and will actually control risk.
A LEARNING CULTURE
In a learning culture, the organization facilitates staff learning and continuously transforms itself, with individual and organizational learning seen as critical to the organization’s survival and development. Sound competence management systems are a prerequisite. There is a recognition that the organization doesn’t operate in a static environment—new processes, pressures, and incidents arise, and reports generated by a reporting culture are only useful if the organization learns from them.
Incidents and failures are seen as valuable opportunities to improve operations, learn lessons, and rectify flaws in the safety management system. This includes in-depth analysis of underlying causes and learning from accidents, incidents, and near misses.
The lessons learned from investigations should be communicated widely, and recommendations should be implemented swiftly. A learning culture propagates information about improvements in risk control upwards, downwards, and across management structures. Processes exist to encourage staff participation, and staff involvement leads to increased competence and confidence amongst individuals in their ability to change outcomes. This, in turn, increases their motivation to participate further. Involving staff is recognized as key.
Source: https://www.orr.gov.uk/managing-rail-staff-fatigue/11-appendix-b-features-positive-safety-culture
