What is Safety Culture?

Theory, Research, Challenges

Valerie Barnes, PhD

Senior Technical Adviser in Human Factor

Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research
Overview

• History of safety culture theory• Definitions of safety culture • What safety culture is not• Why do we care?• Challenges for a common definition• Common definition goals
Roots of the Safety Culture Con

• Anthropology• Sociology• Organizational psychology
History: Anthropology• “Culture...is that complex whole wh

includes knowledge, belief, art, morlaw, custom, and any other capabilitand habits acquired by man as a meof society.”

• “More or less” consistent patterns o

thinking, feeling and behaving

• Observable in myths, symbols, artifa
History: Sociology

• Focus on social structures and instit• Introduced concepts of

– Roles– Status– Norms– Values
History: Organizational Psycho

• Focus on human performance in the 

environment

• Different levels of analysis

– Individual differences– Intra- and inter-group interactions– Leadership (and management)– Organizational/corporate behavior– External influences 
Schein: Organizational Culture

• “A pattern of shared basic assumpti

that the group learned as it solved it

problems of external adaptation and internal integration, that has worked enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new membas the correct way you perceive, thi

and feel in relation to those problem
Many Definitions of Safety Cult

• INSAG (1991) - That assembly of 

characteristics and attitudes in organizations and individuals which establishes that, as an overriding prnuclear plant safety issues receive tattention warranted by their significa
UK Health & Safety Executive (

• The product of individual and group 

values, attitudes, perceptions, competencies, and patterns of behathat determine the commitment to, athe style and proficiency of, an organization’s health and safety management.
Guldenmund (2000)

• Those aspects of the organisational 

culture which will impact on attitudebehaviour related to increasing or decreasing risk.

• Lists 16 additional definitions from o

research studies
Mearns, et al (2003)

• Safety culture ... forms the environm

within which individual safety attituddevelop and persist and safety behaviours are promoted.
Von Thaden and Gibbons (2008

• Safety culture is defined as the end

value and prioritization of worker anpublic safety by each member of eagroup and in every level of an organization.
Barnes (2009)

• The values, attitudes, motivations a

knowledge that affect the extent to wsafety is emphasized over competingoals in decisions and behavior.
What Safety Culture is Not

• It’s not separate or different from 

organizational culture

• It’s not a “thing” with an objective 

existence

• It’s not a policy, program or procedu
Why Do We Care?

• Safety culture affects safety perform

– Injury rates– Accident rates– Patient safety

• Reasonable support across industri

– Aerospace, healthcare, manufacturing

construction, agriculture, off-shore oil gas, highway safety, maritime
Challenges to a Common Defin

• Not all NRC-regulated activities occ

“organizations”

• NRC-regulated activities are perform

across a wide range of industries

• Definition of safety performance/goa

differ across industries
Challenges We Face

• Majority of NRC-regulated activities 

not occur in large, stable organizatioSome are performed by –

– individuals working independently– very small groups– a single unit within a larger organizatio

otherwise performs few or no nuclear related activities

– a rapidly changing workforce
Goals for Common Definition

• High level of detail (one sentence)• Easy to understand• Applicable across range of contexts 

which NRC-regulated activities are performed
Discussion