As the “safety culture” debate rages on, I came across this 2019 research paper that I found to be spot on. Of course, those are my biases shining through as I believe all organizations have a culture; in fact, they will have multiple cultures. So I am not one who subscribes to the idea that organizations do not have a “safety culture”. I like to use the phrase “culture of safety” as this implies safety is just one of the cultures within an organization.
I think those safety pros who have had the opportunity to work for BOTH, an organization that has a solid culture of safety and one that just talks about safety, can quickly identify the status of an organization’s culture AND MORE IMPORTANTLY the desires of the senior management to improve safety. Although a “culture of safety” is near impossible to measure; it is palpable! Meaning you can get a feel for it (or not) within days, maybe even hours.
A recent “safety culture” research study yielded seven (7) safety culture-enabling factors that explicate how building a culture of safety may take place. I think most of us will agree with all seven, but certainly the vast majority of items. The report does an excellent job of laying out how a “culture of safety” is built within an organization. Here are their seven (7) safety culture-enabling factors:
