Rolling up our sleeves and pulling up our socks: a critical review of safety culture definitions and measures, and innovative ways to move the field forward

Abstract

No other concept in safety science is as studied, yet poorly understood (or measured) as safety culture. In this chapter, we aim to bring conceptual and methodological clarity to this field. Our proposition is that to effectively measure safety culture, one must firstly clearly define it, and align the research design and method with the definition. Drawing on recent theoretical development in organizational culture and safety science, we critically review safety culture research published in the past two decades. We then present an argument to encourage researchers to adopt closer definitional-methodological alignment. A safety culture 'manifesto' is also shown, which we hope will guide future research on safety culture by advancing commitments that researchers can uphold. Finally, we look towards the future and summarize emerging measurement methods from the organizational culture literature to explore how technology and innovative tools and techniques can be used to take the safety culture field forward."Culture belongs to people...not to something as amorphous as the concept of safety." -Edgar Schein

In Search of Differences in the Perception of Safety Climate by Employees of an International Manufacturing Company

“…The evaluative perspective of safety culture aligns with the idea that culture is what an organisation should have to maintain safety—in particular, a fundamental commitment to the importance of safety and joint responsibility across all employees. Key contributions to safety culture as a concept include: (a) it is comprised of a fundamental sense of safety’s value and importance, which elevates safety issues above other competing priorities; (b) this value can be taught/conveyed to others either through specific human resource practices or leadership; and (c) it can be operationalised as a series of dimensions to reflect the values that organisational and leadership practices convey ([ 5 ]: p. 293). One of the basic conditions for an effective and desirable change in the level of workplace health and safety culture is, above all, its examination and description.…”

“…One of the basic conditions for an effective and desirable change in the level of workplace health and safety culture is, above all, its examination and description. Experts [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ] dealing with the issue of diagnosing and shaping safety culture emphasise the possibility of taking into account the existence of two dimensions of safety culture in the conducted analyses. One is visible and related to safety management in the organisation Its analysis is associated with the assessment of the procedures used and the workplace itself in terms of its safety, inspections, causes and consequences of accidents, as well as the introduced remedial mechanisms.…”

Transport and mining machines operators' behavioral attitudes in safety climate context

“…[21]- [24]. Also, there is an attitude in the literature that the safety climate is a reflection of the prevailing safety culture within the organization [25]. Safety climate is a key indicator of accidents and injuries at work [26], and the mechanism through which this is achieved is the impact of safety climate on employee motivation, as well as their knowledge and ability to perform work activities in a safe manner [24].…”