EditorialCulture's confusions
Section snippets
The papers
This Special Issue is based on a selection of papers presented in workshops at two conferences in 1998 — the International Injury Prevention Conference in Amsterdam, and the International Association of Applied Psychology Conference in California. I was the convenor of the Amsterdam workshop, Ian Glendon and Neville Stanton of the Californian workshop. The two meetings brought together two rather different groups of researchers, with little overlap in papers. We therefore decided to combine the
Issues and questions
It would be nice to be able to conclude that this Special Issue will give the reader a consensual picture, which would make clear an agreed framework within which we could conduct research for the next 10 years to tidy up our understanding. It is clear that this is far from the case, as the reviews at the end of the issue demonstrate. In fact, one of the few things on which all the papers agree is the call to do more research to clarify the field and try to reach that consensus. The issues
Definitions and models
A first question is whether there is such a thing as ‘a safety culture’. Is it some sort of entity or aspect, which if present or well developed is good, but which may be largely absent and hence bad? Or is it an output variable, which refers to the result which an organisational culture with particular characteristics has on safety performance. Most definitions, including that used by the International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA 1991) or ACSNI (1993), quoted in a number of the papers, treat
Levels of aggregation
This leads us to the issue of the level at which measurement and validation needs to take place in the study of safety culture.
If culture is a phenomenon which only has meaning at the group or organisational level, we must always ask whether the group which we have defined for the purpose of study is truly a group. Is it a meaningful entity, whose members would recognise it as such, and would differentiate it from other entities? This can be seen as an empirical question. Measure the attitudes
Identification and measuring tools and their application
All of the above adds up to a major problem for the design of tools to identify and measure cultural factors and climate scales. If we look back from incidents and major accidents to try to identify the relevant cultural factors, as Pidgeon and van Vuuren do in this issue, and as all the pioneering work in this area has done in the past, we are open to a hindsight bias. We can only see as far as our theories and models can shine their searchlights, and we will be inclined to see the factors we
So what is safety culture?
Having said at the beginning of this editorial that this Special Issue does not reveal a clear picture, and having given it the title of “culture's confusions1”, it would be foolhardy of me to come to any firm conclusions here. However, I would not want to end this editorial on too negative a note. I have had a great many critical things to say about the poor state of our knowledge and proof about what is important in safety
References (22)
- et al.
Overview of the relationship between organisational and workplace factors and injury rates
Safety Science
(1997) - ACSNI, 1993. Organising for safety. Third report of the Human Factors Study Group of the Advisory Committee on Safety...
Certification of occupational health & safety management systems
- Guldenmund, F., Arntzen, K., Vriends, S., 1998. Meting veiligheidsbeleving personeel Oxystaalfabriek 1. (Measuring the...
- Hale, A.R., Baram, M. (Eds.), 1998. Safety Management: the Challenge of Change. Pergamon,...
- Hale, A.R., Guldenmund, F., Bellamy, L., 1999. Annex 2: management model. In: I-Risk: development of an integrated...
- Hale, A.R., Hale, M., 1972. A review of the industrial accident research literature (Research paper to the Committee on...
- et al.
Management and culture: the third age of safety
- Hofstede, G., 1980. Culture's Consequences. Sage Publications,...
Cited by (264)
The design of experimental courses in safety culture
2022, HeliyonCreation of satisfactory safety culture by developing its key dimensions
2022, Safety ScienceSelecting flight mode – Risk factors associated with presenteeism among commercial pilots and the role of depressive symptoms
2022, Journal of Air Transport Management