cricos no. 00213j the influence of culture on safety : culture, organisational culture and safety...
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CRICOS No. 00213J
The Influence of Culture on Safety : Culture, Organisational Culture and Safety Culture
Jason EdwardsWorkplace Health and Safety Queensland: Program Leaders Group – 4th of August 2011
Acknowledgements
Queensland TransportMain Roads
Workplace Health and Safety
Research Team:Prof. Jeremy DaveyDr Kerry ArmstrongDr Angela Wallace
Background• Transport and Storage Sector
– Identified as one of 4 primary targets in the National Occupational Health and Safety Strategy 2002-2012 (NOHSS)
• The Heavy Vehicle Industry– 80% of the freight task– 29% of the employees in Transport and Storage
• 5 years on: – Transport and Storage - 22% reduction– Heavy Vehicle Industry - only an 11% reduction
• Intervention strategies that aren’t targeted to a specific audience may have differing levels of success due to cultural beliefs and values (McLeroy et al., 1994)
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Research Goal:
To explore the influence of culture on safety in the heavy vehicle industry
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Safety Culture (SC)
• Many different definitions
• Few but vastly different models
• Two ways to look at it– Trace the origins and developments– From a cultural/organisational culture perspective
• Better viewed as a sub-component of organisational culture
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Organisational Culture
• Organisational culture has multiple definitions− Emphasis on shared beliefs and values− Which lead to behavioural norms
− Some definitions include behaviour
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Organisational Culture cont.
• Schein (1990,1992)– Rather than define org. culture, suggested that any group with a
significant shared history may have developed a culture– Culture is:
“(a) a pattern of basic assumptions, (b) invented, discovered, or developed by a given group, (c) as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, (d) that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore (e) is to be taught to new members as the (f) correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems” (Schein, 1990; p111)
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Levels of Culture (Schein,1992)
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So, If organisational culture is just the ‘culture’ held by an organisation, how does
the broader culture literature define culture?
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Culture Defined
• Again there are many definitions (over 100)– Common ground: Shared factors that
“…provide the standards for perceiving, believing, evaluating, communicating, and acting” (Triandis, 1996; p408)
– Three common conceptualisations of culture (Brinkmann, 2001):
• Normative – ‘the cultured’• Anthropological – shared beliefs and values• Pragmatist – practices as key
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Culture is the underlying assumptions, beliefs, values and attitudes shared by members of a
group, which result in a set of external, readily-visible, practices.
Or in the case of an organisation, “shared by members of an organisation”
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The origins of safety culture• Chernobyl – lack of a safety culture nationally and in
nuclear power plants“Safety Culture is that assembly of characteristics and attitudes in organisations and individuals which establishes that, as an overriding priority, ... safety issues receive the attention warranted by their significance.” (p1; INSAG-4, 1991)
• Argued no academic background… academics free to work it out
• From the above discussions on org culture the definition shows:– Org. Culture Safety as overriding priority– Normative Conceptualisation
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Normative conceptualisation of SC
• When using a normative conceptualisation:Absent Create
Present Maintain
• Focus on creating safety culture in literature– INSAG (1992):
“...the need to create and maintain a ‘safety culture’ is a precondition for ensuring nuclear power plant safety” (p22)
– Geller (1994):“...a safety professional’s ultimate goal is to achieve a total safety culture (TSC) within his/her organisation” (p18)
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Models of safety culture
• INSAG (1991): – Process at a policy, management and individual level lead to SC
• Cooper (2000):– Three components (person, situation and behaviour) interact to
produce SC
• Guldenmund (2000):– No generally accepted definition (not even needed)– No satisfying model… which should include Cause, Content and
Consequence– Took Schein but…
• Replaced espoused values with attitudes• Replaced basic underlying assumptions with processes preceding
attitude formation
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Levels of Culture
(Schein,1992)
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Processes Preceding Attitude Formation (Guldenmund, 2000)
Underlying Assumptions
Espoused Values
Artefacts
What’s the problem?• Strong focus on creating SC but they never stop to truly
work out what it is…– Assumption that:
• policies and procedures etc create SC • SC leads to safety outcomes
– Focus on: • policies and procedures • and safety outcomes
– SC becomes an unexplored mediator
• Need to re-conceptualise SC to allow a better understanding of it’s content
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Safety culture re-conceptualised• Agree with Guldenmund that if we use Schein’s definition
(or another suitable organisational culture definition) there is no need for a specific separate definition for SC.– But just for clarity:
Safety culture is the assembly of underlying assumptions, beliefs, values and attitudes shared by members of an organisation, which
result in those external, readily-visible, practices that influence safety.
• Need to create a new model
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Creating a model of safety culture
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Causal Factors Consequence
Safety Culture
• Guldenmund’s Cause, Content and Consequence
Creating a model of safety culture
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Causal Factors Consequence
Safety Culture
• SC as an ill-defined difficult to measure mediator
Creating a model of safety culture
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Causal Factors Consequence
Safety Culture
• Organisational safety models
Creating a model of safety culture
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Causal Factors Consequence
Safety Culture
• Putting the Culture back into Safety Culture
Creating a model of safety culture
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Causal Factors Consequence
Safety Culture
???
• Can you create a culture?
Creating a model of safety culture
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Context Consequence
Safety Culture
• Schein: – Behaviour caused by culture and context
Creating a model of safety culture
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Context
Consequence
Safety Culture
• To create the model we need to know – Context– The nature of safety (Rollenhagen, 2010)– How to operationalise the content of SC
Context
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• Ecological systems model - Bronfenbrenner (1989): 1. Microsystem - The setting in which the individual lives... family, peers,
school, and neighborhood
2. Mesosystem - Relations between microsystems or connections between contexts... E.g. the relation of family experiences to school experiences
3. Exosystem - Links between a social setting in which the individual does not have an active role and the individual's immediate context. E.g. child's experience at home may be influenced by a mother's experiences at work.
4. Macrosystem - Describes the culture in which individuals live
5. Chronosystem - The patterning of environmental events and transitions over the life course
Context
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• Adapted Ecological systems model - Newes-Adeyi et al. (2000): 1. Individual - Beliefs, values, attitudes etc
2. Interpersonal - Family, close colleagues, supervisors
3. Organisational - Structures and processes
4. Community or Cultural – the broader community they are situated within
5. Policy – Different governmental policies etc
Context
Government
Organisation
Interpersonal
Individual
Global influence of National Culture
Road Culture/Industry
Context
• Government– Policy enforcement
• Industry-wide Road Culture• Espoused values and behavioural norms
• Organisation– Policy enforcement– Communication– Training
• Interpersonal– Espoused values and behavioural norms
• The individual– Knowledge, Skills and Motivation (Campbell, Gasser, & Oswald, 1996)
• Is there more? How do they influence safety?
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The Context Surrounding Safety in the Heavy Vehicle Industry
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General public:Electoral Power
Government:Enforcement, Permits and Licensing
Industrial Groups and Affiliations:Accreditation, ATA, TWU, External
Guidelines
Organisations:Policy Enforcement, Pressures, Selection,
Induction, Training and Payment
The Context Surrounding Safety in the Heavy Vehicle industry:
Customers:Policy Enforcement, Demands and
Pressures
Interpersonal:Peer Pressure, Support Family Pressures
The Individual:Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation,
Knowledge and Skills
Safety
• Road Safety (The usual suspects)– Fatigue– Speed– Seatbelts– Drugs and Alcohol– Driver errors
• Workplace Health and Safety– Danish Study: 92.6% of reported incidents occurred off the road– Musculoskeletal– Poor mental health– Obesity– Arthritis and Rheumatism– Lung disease– Cardiac disease– Intestinal problems
• Need to find positive safety measures…
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Operationalising the content of SC
• If the model is to be of any practical use in the industry there is a need for safety culture to be measurable– Doesn’t change what it is i.e. Beliefs, Attitudes, Values
• Culture and Organisational Culture lit– Dimensions
• Power-Distance, Individualism-Collectivism etc
– Syndromes• Beliefs and values centred around a key theme• Cultural Tightness, Collectivism, Individualism etc
• Need to identify them...
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Context
Consequence
Safety Culture
The Content of Safety Culture:Assumptions, Beliefs, Attitudes and Values
Cultural Dimensions:
And/Or Aspects:
Government:Policies and RegulationsInteractions with the Industry
Organisation:Policies and PracticesTraining (Formal and Informal)
Industry-Wide Road Culture:Beliefs, Attitudes, Values and Behavioural Norms
Interpersonal:Beliefs, Attitudes, Values and Behavioural Norms
The Context Within Which the Organisation and Industry is situated:Suggested contextual influences...
Extrinsic Motivation
Knowledge and Skills
Intrinsic Motivation
Intentions
The Heavy Vehicle Operator:
Behaviour
Consequence
Outcomes:
Negative Safety Performance:Injuries/FatalitiesFinancial CostsLost ReputationRisk of Prosecution
Positive Safety Performance:Safe Workplace and WorkforceReduced CostsMaintained Reputation
A Normative Model of Safety Culture in the Heavy Vehicle Industry
Normative Model of Safety Culture in the Heavy Vehicle Industry:
Updated with Study One Preliminary Results
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The Content of Safety Culture:Potential Targets for Underlying Assumptions, Beliefs, Attitudes and Values
Enforcement is insufficiently appliedEnforcement is unequally applied across the industry‘Customers hold all the power’‘We are not as bad as people say’‘We should be able to regulate ourselves’Keeping up a tough image (pride/proving masculinity)Desiring the free lifestyleDesiring AutonomyMoney-Hunger‘Don’t want to let down my friends’Desire to be home earlierFatalism – Invulnerability – Safety
Outcomes:
Negative Safety Performance:Injuries/FatalitiesFinancial CostsLost ReputationRisk of Prosecution
Positive Safety Performance:Safe Workplace and WorkforceReduced CostsMaintained Reputation
Knowledge and Skills
Extrinsic Motivation
Intrinsic Motivation
Intentions
The Heavy Vehicle Operator:
Behaviour
Consequence
Habits
General public:Electoral Power
Government:Enforcement, Permits and Licensing
Industrial Groups and Affiliations:Accreditation, ATA, TWU, External Guidelines
Organisations:Policy Enforcement, Pressures, Selection,
Induction, Training and Payment
The Context Surrounding Safety in the Heavy Vehicle industry:
Customers:Policy Enforcement, Demands and Pressures
Interpersonal:Peer Pressure, Support Family Pressures
Aims
• Research Goal: – To explore the effect of culture on safety in the Heavy
Vehicle Industry
• Aims:1. Explore the cultural context surrounding safety in the
heavy vehicle industrya) Explore the wider context within which the industry and
organisations are situated
b) Explore the industrial and organisational context surrounding heavy vehicle operators
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Aims cont.
2. Determine the nature of safety in the heavy vehicle industry
3. Identify the content of safety culture in the heavy vehicle industry
a) Identify common procedures and practices regarding safety
b) Identify target underlying beliefs, attitudes and values which influence safety
4. Validate the beliefs and values, and identify statistical relationships to behaviour
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Mark your Diaries!
International Council on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety Conference (T2013)
26-29 August 2013, Brisbane