Talk:Safety culture

Proposed merge - safety culture and safety climate

I am proposing merging the safety climate page (that requires clean-up) with the safety culture page. Safety climate appears to be the American term for safety culture, which is certainly used in the European OSH field. timtregenza 07:13, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

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I don't think the two terms should be merged. While similar, there are enough differences to warrant a mention of both.

Whether a Safety Culture or Safety Climate? Putting semantics aside, the intent is to arrive at a phrase to describe an integrated pattern of knowledge, beliefs, and behaviors regarding safe work practices that can be passed on to new workers. It hints at the collective beliefs, behaviors, and traits peculiar to safety-conscious workers. Included in the inference would be the set of values, conventions, or social practices associated with the safety-savvy worker.

A “culture” would conjure up the thought of a set of characteristics that define a whole group, such as “Western Culture” or the “American Culture.” Using “climate” reflects a prevailing influence or environmental conditions characterizing a group or period such as “a climate of fear” or “a hostile climate.”

Either phrase is effective depending on context and audience. What health and safety officers in modern organizations hope to communicate is that “safety” must become a natural part of the worker: instinctive and automatic. One would not think twice about whether to come to work without wearing shoes – it is unthinkable to arrive for work bare footed. As it should be with safety – it should be unthinkable to perform a task unsafely. It is only through a attitudinal change, a mind-set if you will, that workers develop a safety “culture” or “climate” in which safety becomes the most important aspect of the job.

JoeSeven (talk) 16:15, 21 November 2007 (UTC)Joel McPherson, City of Titusville, Florida

Safey culture - removed text

(I removed these additions by User:Firebird from the article. I do not think if they are relevant. -- Petri Krohn 21:45, 31 December 2006 (UTC))

Safety culture, from a logical point of view, is that part of culture that relates to safety. Safety culture can be good safety culture or bad safety culture. Safety culture can be functional or dysfunctional, as determined by the extent to which it supports a specified function. Safety culture can be managed safety culture, i.e., safety culture that is actively affected by deliberate management actions. Also safety culture can be default safety culture, i.e., just the way it turns out to be without deliberate management actions.

A useful definition of safety culture will include all aspects of culture that affect safety and will exclude everything else.

Every attribute of a given safety culture will be a part of the larger culture and will relate to safety.

RE: Proposed Merge - Safety culture and safety climate

I don't think that it is appropriate to merge the two topics together. They are two different concepts. Safety culture refers to the underlying beliefs and values of a group of people in relation to risk and safety. On the other hand, safety climate refers to workers perceptions of how they think safety is being managed in the workplace. Safety culture occurs at a much deeper level than safety climate and will not change on a day to day basis. Worker's perception of how OHS is managed in the workplace can change on a day to day basis. I am currently writing a thesis on the topic and will try to post something in the coming months. Tjfrench 6:00, August 15 2007

RE proposed merger with Safety Culture

I don't think it should be merged, but there are definite links. An example of a paper where a comparison is made is in

Mearns and Flin, "Assessing the state of organizational safety—culture or climate?", Journal Current Psychology, v18, March 1999, pp5-17, Springer.

They write in that paper that "...although the two terms are often interchangeable, they are actually distinct but related concepts and should be treated accordingly. The term “safety climate” best describes employees' perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs about risk and safety, typically measured by questionnaire surveys and providing a “snapshot” of the current state of safety. “Safety culture” is a more complex and enduring trait reflecting fundamental values, norms, assumptions and expectations, which to some extent reside in societal culture. The expression of these “cultural” elements, perhaps, can be seen through safety management practices which are reflected in the safety climate. Basically, measurement of safety culture requires in-depth investigation including an analysis of how organizational members interact to form a shared view of safety."

ob cite.

Note that i am quoting text here, not claiming it to be my own. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.176.83.171 (talk) 10:41, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

Difference between safety climate and safety culture

Safety Climate refers to the 'atmosphere' surrounding safety in an organization at a particular moment in time. Safety culture refers to the 'culture of safety' embedded in the organization, that has developed over the lifetime of the organization. Some (usually academics) argue that 'safety culture' naturally arises from the way the company / organization goes about its business. In other words it is a natural phenomonen. Others (usually managers and practitioners)argue that is is something that you create, by deliberately manipulating various factors related to safety. ie behavioral, attitudinal and systemic factors. It is summarized as 'its the way we do safety around here'. Spinning out of the latter, an atmosphere of safety is created that is called the 'safety climate' that is constantly affected by competing demands related to management practices surrounding production, quality, sales, etc. For example, short-term production goals might be met by 'putting best safety practices' to one side to meet short-term production pressures. Once met, safety practices again become more important. This shows that safety climate is highly susceptible to 'local' pressures. Safety culture is much more stable and enduring and less affected by the actions of a few managers or individuals. Safety Culture comprises of behavioral, attitudinal and safety management system factors that permeate the whole organization (See Cooper, M.D. 'Towards a model of safety culture', Safety Science 36 (2000), pp 111-136). In other words, safety culture is affected by, and affects, everyone in an organization. Indysafe (talk) 23:57, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Safety culture safety climate

There is no single definition of what is safety culture HSE (2006) although it has been variously described as The way we do things around here. (CBI 1990) Set of attitudes, beliefs or norms. (Turner 1989) A constructed system of meaning though which the hazards of the world are understood. (Pidgeon 1998).

The definition widely used in OHS literature is that shown below.

Safety Culture is the product of individual and group values, attitudes, perceptions, competencies and patterns of behaviour that can determine the commitment to, and the style and proficiency of an organisation’s health and safety management system. Health and Safety Commission (HSC 1993)

The HSC noted that the terms “safety culture” and “safety climate” were often used interchangeably supporting the findings of Cox (1998).

Cooper (2000) described “safety culture” as a term that is used to describe what people do, “their behaviour” and what the organisation has or its “situational aspects” see figure 1. The term “safety climate” is best used to describe the psychological characteristics of employees, i.e. how they feel about safety within their organisations which are based on attitudes, values and perceptions. HSE (2005).

There are several reports relating to safety climate toolkits and their evaluation. 
 

Figure 1 Three aspect approach to safety culture based upon Cooper (2000) by the HSE (2005)

There are several indicators which reflect organisational maturity and a good safety culture within an organisation. HSE (A review of the safety culture and safety climate literature for the development of the safety culture inspection toolkit. 2005)

(i) Leadership (ii) Two way communication (iii) Employee involvement (iv) Learning culture (v) Attitude towards blame.

Martincrea (talk) 17:24, 15 January 2008 (UTC) --Martincrea (talk) 17:24, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

"uncertainty and ambiguity"

I should think this part sums it up nicely. It very much sounds like a breeding ground for fashionable nonsense more than anything else. --Kku 12:00, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

"Dupont Safety Culture Model"

I think the discussion should include the Dupont Bradley Curve. Although its a subjective model, the descriptions of the various states of the culture (Reactive, Dependent, Independent, and Interdependent) are extremely useful to managers and workers alike in framing discussions of their culture, and identifying where their efforts are best spent in improving that culture. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 205.254.147.8 (talk) 12:25, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

Safety Culture - is about what - major hazards or the routine injury rate ?

At the start of the article, safety culture appears in the context of control of major hazards; by the end of the page the test of safety culture is being taken to be the reportable accident rate. That doesn't seem right if safety culture is concerned primarily with control of major hazards; these days the significant precursors to serious accidents are more likely to be non-injurious near-misses than minor injuries. (The number of slips trips and falls on British railway premises has little bearing on the likelihood of a repeat of Ladbroke Grove: what is much more relevant is the number of SPADs (Signal Passed at Danger)) Rjccumbria (talk) 23:54, 7 April 2015 (UTC)