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Safety Climate: A dimensionSafety Climate: A dimensionof Safety Culture in Aviationof Safety Culture in Aviation
John Flannery, Civil Aviation Safety Authority, Canberra Australia.
Kirstie Carrick, The University of Newcastle, Australia.
Michael Nendick, Civil Aviation Safety Authority, Canberra Australia
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Safety - why measure
• Accidents in Aviation can havecatastrophic results.
• Accidents are rare events and not a goodindicator of safety performance
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Safety - why measure
• “A low accident rate, even over a period ofyears, is no guarantee that risks are beingeffectively controlled…This is particularly true inorganizations where here is a low probability ofaccidents but where major hazards are present.Here the historical record can be an unreliableor even deceptive indicator of safetyperformance”. (Thomas, 2001)
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Safety - why measure
• In Aviation there is a need to proactivelymeasure safety performance to avoidaccidents.
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Safety – what is it?
• Difficult to define and measure
• “Just make sure people don’t get hurt” (Hudson,2001)
• Must include acceptability of risk (Wood, 1996)
• The quality of a system (Systems SafetyEngineering & Management)
• A characteristic of a system?
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Safety – A definition
• A characteristic of a system with the goalof injury free operations that does not
permit unacceptable risks to beundertaken.
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Safety Culture - What is itCULTURE
Values, beliefs, rituals, symbols andbehaviours we share with othersthat help define us a group (Merrit& Helmreich, 1996)
The collective programming of themind which distinguishes themembers of one group fromanother (Hofstede, 1980)
Culture
Organisationalculture
Safety culture
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Safety Culture - What is it
ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE
A system of shared values,assumptions, beliefs and normsthat join organisational members(Smircich, 1988)
Culture
Organisationalculture
Safety culture
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Safety Culture - What is it
SAFETY CULTURE
The product of individual andgroup values, attitudes,competencies, and patternsof behaviour that determinethe commitment to, and thestyle and efficiency of anorganisation’s Health andSafety program (UK Health &Safety Commission, 1993)
Culture
Organisationalculture
Safety culture
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Safety Culture - What is it
SAFETY CULTURE
Organisations with a positive safetyculture are characterised bycommunication founded on mutualtrust, by shared perceptions of theimportance of safety, and byconfidence in the efficacymeasures (UK Health& Safety Commission,1993)
Culture
Organisationalculture
Safety culture
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Culture
Nationalculture
Organisationalculture Vocational
culture
Safety culture
Values
Beliefs Rituals
Symbols
Norms
Assumptions
Behaviours
Defined or manifestedH
eira
rchy
Intrinsic elements Extrinsic elements
The individual The group
Sum
Figure 2: Traditional Concept of Safety Culture
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Pathlogical
Bureaucratic
Generative
Negative (-)
Safety culture
(+) Positive
Figure 1: Organisational evolution tied to its Safety Culture, adapted from Hudson 2001, ShamRao 1999 & Westrum 1995.
Passivecompliance
ActiveCompliance
Behavioural
Reactive
Proactive
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Fleming (2000) Zohar (1980) INEEL (2001) ICAO (1992)
Management commitment andvisibility
Strong management commitment toSafety
Management commitment toSafety
Senior management placing a strongemphasis on safety
Communication The existence of open communicationlinks and frequent contacts betweenworkers and management
Senior management’s willingness toaccept criticism and an openness toopposing viewsEmphasising the importance ofcommunicating relevant safetyinformation
Industrial relations and jobsatisfaction
A stable workforce and older workers Job satisfaction
Training Emphasis on Safety training Training, equipment, Physicalenvironment
Ensuring staff are well educated andtrained so that they understand theconsequences of unsafe acts
General environment control and goodhousekeeping
Staff having an understanding ofhazards within the workplace.
Learning organisation Distinctive ways of promoting Safety Organisational commitment Senior managements fostering aclimate that encourages feedback.
Participation Worker Involvement
Shared perceptions about Safety Co-worker support
Safety resources Performance management
Trust Personal accountability
Productivity versus Safety The promotion of realistic andworkable safety rules.
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PERSONPersonal-commitment
Perceived RiskJob-Induced Stress
Role AmbiguityCompetenciesSocial Status
Safety KnowledgeAttributions of Blame
Committment to OrganisationJob-satisfaction
PERSONPersonnel-selection
Person-Job FitTask Training
Safety TrainingCompetencies
Health AssessmentsCommittment to Organisation
Job-satisfaction
PERSONGoal-commitment
Organisational PositionSocial Status
Safety KnowledgeDisposition/Personality
Job-satisfaction
JOBRequired Workplace
Standard Operating ProceduresInvolvement in Decision-making
Man-Machine InterfacingWorking environment
Working PatternsHousekeeping
JOBRisk Assessments
Required WorkplaceStandard Operating Procedures
Team-WorkingInvolvement in Decision-making
Man-Machine InterfacingWorking environment
Working PatternsHousekeeping
JOBTeam-Working
Task-ComplexityTask StrategiesGoal-Conflict
Involvement in Decision-makingWorking environment
Working Patterns
ORGANISATIONManagement Commitment
Management ActionsCommunications
Allocation of ResourcesEmergency Preparedness
Status of Safety Personnel
ORGANISATIONManagement Commitment
Management ActionsCommunications
Allocation of ResourcesEmergency Preparedness
Status of Safety PersonnelPolicy/Strategy Development
PlanningStandards
MonitoringControls
Co-operation
ORGANISATIONManagement Commitment
Management ActionsCommunications
Performance IndicatorsRecruiting Observers
MonitoringGoal-Setting
FeedbackSafety Champion
Safety Climate Dimensions
Safety Management System Dimension Behavioural Dimensions
Context
Person
Situation Behaviour
Reciprocal Model of Safety Culture (Cooper 1999)
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Reciprocal Model of Safety Culture(Cooper, 1999)
Safety ClimateDimension
Safety ManagementSystems Dimension
BehaviouralDimension
Context
Person
Situation Behaviour
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Comparison of Cooper (1999) and Zohar (2000) regarding the threemajor dimensions of Safety Culture.
Cooper (1999) Zohar (2000)
Safety Climate (broad definition)
Safety Climate(narrow definition)
Behaviours Assumption that perceptionstranslate into behaviours
Safety ManagementSystems
Acknowledged in the paper notingthe work by James and Jones
(1994) but not the focus of thepaper
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Comparison of Cooper (1999) and UK HSE Safety ClimateMeasurement User Guide and Toolkit regarding the three majordimensions of Safety Culture .
Cooper (1999) Safety Climate Measurement User Guide and Toolkit
Safety Climate Manifestation: Employee,Contractor and External
perceptions.
Behaviours Manifestation: Employeecommitment, attitudes,
responsibility, behaviour etc.
Safety ManagementSystems
Manifestation: Safety Policy,Systems and Processes, Structures,
Reports.
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Safety Climate - what is it?
• The general attitude and prevailingopinions of a group of people (MacquarieDictionary)
• A summary of molar perceptions thatemployees share about their workenvironments (Zohar, 1980)
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Perception – is it important?
• Academics are impractical fools thatwouldn’t know how to apply butter tobread.
• Perception is reality for the individual andwill influence their behaviour.
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Are employees perceptions regarding howtheir organisation views safety, important?
YES
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Is an organisation’s safetyclimate shaped by it’s polices,practices and procedures?
YES
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Can organisational policy, practices &procedures get one bent out of shape?
YES
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The distinction - climate vculture
• Safety Climate encompasses theperceptions of employees about thesafety management of their organisation.
• Safety Culture encompasses not onlyperceptions but the behaviours and thephysical systems of the organisation
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Safety Climate is an elementof Safety Culture
• Recall that we want to measure SafetyCulture as a predictive indicator ofpotential safety performance.
• The best Safety Culture measurementwould be multi-modal and assessorganisations systems, behaviours andperceptions.
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Safety Climate is an elementof Safety Culture
• Practicalities dictate that multi-modalmeasurement will not readily occur.
• A resource efficient measurement is theSafety Climate survey.
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Who uses Safety Climatesurveys?
UK Health and Safety Executive Safety Climate Measurement UserGuide and Tool kit.
NASA’s Safety Performance Survey (management and employee).(NASA, 1998)
Johns Hopkins University Safety-Climate Questionnaire (Moore, 2000).
USA Nuclear Regulatory Commission Safety Culture and ClimateSurvey (NRC, 1998).
Operators Flight Safety Handbook Safety Surveys (GAIN, 2000).
National Safety Council of Australia Safety Climate survey (NSCA,1997).
Airline Safety Culture Index (Edkins, 1999).
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What sort of questions doclimate surveys ask?
• Employees are given enough training todo their work tasks safely.
• Safety within this company is generallywell controlled.
• Employees usually report any dangerouswork practices they notice.
Airline Safety Culture Index (Edkins, 1999)
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Summary so far
• Safety Culture is an important predictorof potential safety performance.
• Safety Culture has 3 key dimensions:
• Systems
• Behaviours
• Perceptions
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Summary so far
• Best measurement of Safety Culture is multi-modal.
• Safety Climate measures employees (andmanagements) perceptions regardingorganisational safety.
• Perceptions are important and influencebehaviour.
• Safety Climate is a dimension of Safety Culture
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Summary so far
• Safety Climate measurement will give anindication of Safety Culture
• Safety Climate is measurable by survey
• Safety Climate Surveys are relativelyresource efficient.
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From Theory to research
• Developed a Safety Climate Survey– Management Commitment– Training– Communication– Safety rules and procedures– Hazard Identification and analysis– Personal responsibility/employee commitment
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From Theory to research
• Weighted the factors in the AviationSafety Climate Survey– Using a panel of industry experts.– Using the Delphi technique– Over three rounds
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From Theory to research
• Invited organisations to participate– 5 orgs participated.– A organisation using the BASI indicate
system supplied a previous survey that wasnormalised to fit into the set.
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What were we testing
• Hypothesis 1 – The organisations havinga strong safety culture would have scoreslower (better Safety Climate) than theaverage safety climate
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What were we testing
• Hypothesis 2 – As safety climate scores moveaway from a positive\good Safety Climate thegap between the scores of management andemployees would increase
• Hypothesis 2a - As Safety Climate scores moveaway from a positive/good Safety Climate scorethe gap between the factors of ManagementCommitment and Personal Responsibility, asviewed from the perspective of the employee,increases.
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100
200
300
400
500
Score
Organisation
Total weighted scores by organisation
Score 197.35 201.94 214.514 228.79 244.55 268.428
A B C E2002 D E2001
Forward
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100-199
Collectively respondents strongly agree that the organisation has a positive/good Safety Climate
200-299
Collectively respondents agree that the organisation has a positive/good Safety Climate
301-
400
401-
500
Collectively respondents strongly disagree that the organisation has a positive/good Safety Climate
Collectively respondents disagree that the organisation has a positive/good Safety Climate
Collectively respondents neither agree nor disagree that the organisation has a positive/good Safety Climate
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Total scores
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Figure 8. Difference between Management Commitmentand Personal Responsibility scores (Gap) from theemployee perspective.
Gap increase
-0.20
0.20.40.60.8
1
A B CE20
02 DE20
01
Organisation
Gap Difference
Linear (Difference)
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Figure 9. Scatter diagram depicting the relationshipbetween Safety Climate score and the gap between thefactors of Management Commitment and PersonalResponsibility.
Score to Gap
180190200210220230240250260270280
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8Gap
Scor
e
ScoreLinear (Score)
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Research conclusions• There is support for the position from the literature
review that Safety Climate is a dimension of SafetyCulture and a measure of Safety Climate, that via asurvey, will give an indication of an organisation’sSafety Culture and therefore have predictive valuein avoiding organisational mishaps. The supporthowever is not conclusive.
• There is support for the hypothesis that as SafetyClimate scores move away from a positive/goodSafety Climate score the gap between the factors ofManagement Commitment and PersonalResponsibility, as viewed from the perspective ofthe employee, increases. Again the support is notconclusive.
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Research Conclusions• There were two significant negative
findings in the survey. They werethat employees perceived:– Managers do not often praise
employees they see working safely(2.9), and
– Managers fail to recognise whenemployees are working unsafely (3.0).
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Research Conclusions• There were significant positive findings in the survey. They
were that employees perceived:– Employees do all they can to prevent accidents (1.74).– Everyone is given sufficient opportunities to make
suggestions regarding safety issues (1.79).– After an accident has occurred, appropriate actions are
usually taken to reduce the chances that a similar eventwill occur in the future (1.86).
– In my work area, there are mechanisms in place for meto report safety deficiencies (1.89).
– Employees often encourage each other to work safely(1.94).
– In my work area, there are procedures to follow in theevent of an emergency (1.96).
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Overall conclusion• The positive findings in the survey
suggest that organisations areadopting safety mechanisms such asreporting systems and are takingpositive actions after events.Additionally employees perceive theyhave a proactive safety approach.The negative findings suggest thatmanagers may need to do more toreinforce safety practices andimprove their organisation’s SafetyCulture.
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Take Home Chiasmus
• Don’t ask how your organisation definessafety but rather how safety defines yourorganisation.