What Is Safety Culture?: Theory, Research, Challenges
What Is Safety Culture?: Theory, Research, Challenges
What Is Safety Culture?: Theory, Research, Challenges
Overview
History of safety culture theory Definitions of safety culture What safety culture is not Why do we care? Challenges for a common definition Common definition goals
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History: Anthropology
Cultureis that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society. More or less consistent patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving Observable in myths, symbols, artifacts
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History: Sociology
Focus on social structures and institutions Introduced concepts of
Roles Status Norms Values
Guldenmund (2000)
Those aspects of the organisational culture which will impact on attitudes and behaviour related to increasing or decreasing risk. Lists 16 additional definitions from other research studies
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Mearns, et al (2003)
Safety culture forms the environment within which individual safety attitudes develop and persist and safety behaviours are promoted.
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Barnes (2009)
The values, attitudes, motivations and knowledge that affect the extent to which safety is emphasized over competing goals in decisions and behavior.
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Why Do We Care?
Safety culture affects safety performance
Injury rates Accident rates Patient safety
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Challenges We Face
Majority of NRC-regulated activities do not occur in large, stable organizations. Some are performed by
individuals working independently very small groups a single unit within a larger organization that otherwise performs few or no nuclear safetyrelated activities a rapidly changing workforce
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Discussion
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