"Workshop on Global Safety Culture — National Factors Relevant to Safety Culture“

IAEA, Vienna, April 8-11, 2014

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Waddah T. ALHANAI

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Integrated Management System Mission, Vision, Strategy, Processes, Procedures, Policies, Rules, Regulations, Guides, …etc.

Skilled Manpower

Education, T&D,

Core Skills, Support Skills, Soft Skills,

Safety Culture

Up-to-date Technology Tools, Techniques, IS&T, Workplace,

Work environment, Safety Culture

Success of

Organization

What are the Pillars of Success of an Organization? The MTO Concept

Evolution Process

Data

Information

Knowledge

Decision

Chaos

Order

Order

Understanding

Understanding

Prediction

Prediction

Measure Action

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Why MTO?

Learning Organization; with Knowledge-based Decision Making

Learn

CULTURES & Sub-cultures

• National Culture

• Organizational Culture

• Professional Culture

• Safety Culture

• Security Culture

• Business Culture

• Religious Culture

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Multi-cultural Organizational Barriers

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Multi-cultural Organizational Barriers

• There seems to be a strong correlation between an Organization’s multi-culture (environment of history, norms & expectations in the organization) and the decision-making style(s) of its managers & supervisors in the workplace: • Some of the “variables” influencing decision-making

are personal-culture (age, education, job level, cultural background), while others are organizational variables (BU size, ownership, type/ nature of activities, level of technology)

• At least some of the barriers to “creative” decision-making & management can be attributed to the decision-making style characterizing an Organization’s multi-cultural managers, supervisors (a style of caution, fear and doubt generated by the national cultures).

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Multi-cultural Organizational Barriers ….

Cont’d

Some of such multi-cultural barriers are generated by the existence of: • Win-lose climate; caused by job-insecurity (fear of losing

job), cynicism, fear, power-plays, hidden agendas, conflict of interests

• Unwillingness to challenge the “obvious”; the inherited/ destructive “norms”/history of the work environment

• Over-conformity of managers/employees (hostility to change, silent members/dominant members, avoidance of sharing feelings/values, low commitment, no listening, no focus, ….)

• Misperception of the problem/issue (wittingly or unwittingly)

• Existence of Paradigm (belief in one “right” answer)

• Rigidity (sticking to inappropriate methods)

Requirements of Multi-cultural Workforce Safety

Culture

Alignment & Ownership

Training & Development

Processes & Procedures

Work Environment

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"Faith in the Role of Safety Culture" What is “Faith” in the Workplace? Adherence to a particular way of thinking about self, work, and the Organization: RESPONSIBILITY; UNITY RESPECT; DISCIPLINE; TRUST WISDOM; PRUDENCE; DIGNITY; COURAGE SINCERITY; FRANKNESS; HONESTY / FAIRNESS; JUSTICE; RIGHTEOUSNESS GENEROSITY; PURITY; FRUGALITY GRATITUDE; CONTENTMENT; HUMILITY; KINDNESS; MERCY; COURTESY GOOD SPEECH; TOLERANCE; REPENTANCE HOPE; PATIENCE / PERSEVERANCE; SELF-RESTRAINT; BALANCE / MODERATION

Faith is a very human aspect, and very profound in many cultures.

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"Faith in the Role of Safety Culture" Does ”Faith” in a multi-cultural Workplace lead to more Safety Culture Values Contribution? Respect for others? Acceptance of the “whole person” at work? Inclusion of all at work? Partnership at work? Larger “shared space”? Better communication at work? Ethical Managers and Leaders? With more ethical decision-making in their multi-cultural workforce?

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"Faith in the Role of Safety Culture" What are the Values of “Faith” to SC? - Purpose-before-self programs are promoted.

- Wellness information displayed and distributed. - Employee Assistance Programs. - Programs that integrate work & family. - Management systems that encourage personal and spiritual transformation. - Servant leadership – the desire to serve others first in preference to self. - Stewardship – leadership practices that support growth and well-being of others. - Diversity programs that create inclusive cultures. - Integration of core values and core business decisions and practices. - Leadership practices that support the growth and development of all employees.

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