Searching for Safety Culture - European Union Agency for ... · • The meaning of ‘safety...
Transcript of Searching for Safety Culture - European Union Agency for ... · • The meaning of ‘safety...
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Searching for Safety CultureEuropean Rail Human and Organisational Factors Seminar 2018
Dr. Frank Guldenmund, Safety & Security Science Group,
Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands
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Menu
• Introduction: searching for safety culture
• Four (plus one) safety culture metaphors
• Safety culture as a football game
• Remarks, questions?
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Introduction: searching for safety culture
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Nobody really ‘owns’ or has the ultimate ‘key’
to safety culture. Really! Nobody.
(Well, at least as far as I know).
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First of all, does it make sense to look at culture at all?
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First of all, does it make sense to look at culture at all?
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Safety culture…
Safety culture… Safety
culture…
Safety culture…
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Safety culture…
• As something you have or you haven’t
• As something that is good or bad
• As something you can put a number on
• As something you can benchmark or compare
• As something managers can control and improve
• As something that is the cause of incidents or accidents (or various other issues)
• As something that is obvious from the outside
• As something that can be derived directly from behaviors, or translates into behaviors
• And on and on
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‘We are convinced that
regulations alone cannot assure
safety. Indeed, once regulations
become as voluminous and
complex as those regulations
now in place, they can serve as
a negative factor in nuclear
safety. This Commission
believes that it is an absorbing
concern with safety that will
bring about safety – not just the
meeting of narrowly prescribed
and complex regulations’
(Kemeny, 1979)
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Furthermore, safety culture…
• Started out as an explanation for large-
scale disasters (‘external safety’)
• But became a tool for influencing
occupational safety (‘internal safety’)
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Searching for safety culture
1. Measuring (or assessing) safety culture
2. Understanding safety culture
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4 + 1 safety culture metaphors
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Safety culture metaphors
• Safety culture as a convenient truth
• Safety culture as a grading system
• Safety culture as a liaison
• Safety culture as a mirror
• Safety culture as a football game
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Safety culture as football game
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The development of culture
SENSEMAKING EXCHANGING FORMALIZING
TRANSMITTING
REINFORCINGINTERNAL
EXTERNAL, NEWCOMERS
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Surprise! > sensemaking
SENSEMAKING EXCHANGING FORMALIZING
REINFORCING
Surprise: what is happening here?
SENSEMAKING
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Exchanging
SENSEMAKING EXCHANGING FORMALIZING
REINFORCING
What do wethink is happening here?
EXCHANGING
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Naive realism
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Formalizing (SOP’s for the group)
SENSEMAKING EXCHANGING FORMALIZING
REINFORCING
This is the way we should understand and/or do things
FORMALIZING
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Reinforcing ( by behaving the way we always do)
SENSEMAKING EXCHANGING FORMALIZING
REINFORCING
We reinforce ourshared under-standing by repe-tition
REINFORCING
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The development of culture
SENSEMAKING EXCHANGING FORMALIZING
TRANSMITTING
REINFORCINGINTERNAL
EXTERNAL, NEWCOMERS
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Business as usual, so no surprises
SENSEMAKING
REINFORCINGINTERNAL
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New members have to learn the culture first
SENSEMAKING
TRANSMITTING
REINFORCING
EXTERNAL, NEWCOMERS
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Culture formation is a two-way process
SENSEMAKING EXCHANGING FORMALIZING
TRANSMITTING
REINFORCINGINTERNAL
EXTERNAL, NEWCOMERS
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Safety culture as football game
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Rules of the game
• We play football, so various rules are therefore given (>this is the playing field on which we work)
• We score (as much as possible) (>we’re here to produce, to deliver, etc.)
• We avoid goals by the opponent (>we avoid incidents or accidents)
• We need to adapt our game to the circumstances (opponent, weather, field) (>we’re free to choose our way of working, as long as we’re safe)
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Frank Guldenmund: [email protected]
Searching for Safety CultureEuropean Rail Human and Organisational Factors Seminar 2018
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reports
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Safety culture as a convenient truth
• Purpose: not pointing the finger to somebody in particular > might be for political or diplomatic reasons
• Typical quote: “This disaster is the result of a bad safety culture”
• Holistic view: everything and everybody is to blame (hence, nobody is to blame)
• Used with disasters and (subsequent) inquiries, inspections
• The meaning of ‘safety culture’ might differ between and within inquiries, though
• Although a concept with substantial depth and meaning (= sensitizing concept), it often defaults to shallow fuzziness (= convenient truth)
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Safety culture as a grading system
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Safety culture as a grading system
• Purpose: (measuring and) improving
• Pragmatic point of view
• Typical quote: “How are we doing compared to x?”
• Safety culture as something an organization ‘has’, and which should be ‘improved’
• ‘Hearts and Minds’, ‘Safety culture maturity’, ‘How to improve your safety culture in x steps’
• Grades represent ranks or levels but are often also used as benchmarks
• Actual proof? Whose grade? Grade relates to what?
• Popular with bureaucrats and technocrats
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Safety culture as a liaison (a construct of constructs)
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Safety culture as a liaison (a construct
of constructs)• Purpose: measuring and modelling
• Research point of view > primarily an academic exercise
• Typical quote: “Safety motivation mediates the relationship between safety climate and safety performance”.
• ‘The measurable (objective?) aspect of safety culture’ (Zohar): safety climate (= workforce’s perceived priority of safety)
• Espoused values? Context?
• Many journal papers abound, but what does it all mean?
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Safety culture as a mirror
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Safety culture as a mirror
• Purpose: understanding, reflecting
• Value free point of view (well…)
• DIY: safety culture self-assessment
• Typical quote: “Let’s try to figure out why we do the things the way we do”
• Gradually understand your own culture (shared symbols and meanings)
• IAEA-approach (SCSA, ISCA)
• Watch out! People often express dissatisfaction, or state the obvious