HUMAN

factors no9
briefing notes

For background information on this series of publications, please see Briefing Note 1 - Introduction
SAFETY CULTURE: Any group of people develops shared attitudes, beliefs, and ways of behaving. These
form a culture. In a safe organisation, the pattern of shared assumptions puts safety high in its priorities.
Source: reference 2. Note that culture applies throughout companies to all grades of staff.

safety culture

Case studies

1. Four contractors were cleaning the inside of a floating roof

crude oil storage tank. The roof had been lowered and three
of its manhole covers opened. This produced a flammable
vapour. A fire broke out inside the tank and developed
quickly. Two of the employees escaped, the third died. It
was apparently common practice for the workers to remove
their breathing apparatus while inside the tank, with some
workers choosing to smoke while the supervisor was not
looking. On this occasion a dropped cigarette ignited the
crude oil.
Source: Case studies at www.hse.gov.uk/hid/land/comah/level3/

2. An accident led to an operator being struck in the face

by equipment used to lift drill pipes (bales). The conclusions of the incident investigation state, among other
things: It is important that everyone feels empowered to
stop a job for safety reasons [and] that supervisors respect
this and encourage it. We should constantly challenge one
another to further improve safety culture. .If you feel that
procedures are inadequate then bring it to your supervisors
attention and it can be changed if necessary. No task that
we do is so important that we need to rush into it and hurt
someone.
Source: Step Change SADIE record number 155:
www.stepchangeinsafety.net

3. While laying the forecourt of a new service station, the

site foreman illegally drove a road roller. He struck a
contractor working on the job, who died from his injuries
four days later. The accident arose from a poor safety
culture, for example: lack of communication (e.g. briefings),
a paper based safety management system that was
not followed, lack of concern for the consequences of
rule violation, poorly defined roles and responsibilities,
inadequate management of change and work planning, no
auditing of safety, and lack of standards.
Source: UKPIA Safety Information Exchange Report No 3/00

Whats the problem?

You could probably say without too much thought whether

or not your company has a good safety culture. But you
might find it difficult to explain why you think so. This is
because, although safety culture is a powerful influence on
safety performance, culture itself is not directly visible. If your
colleagues and managers generally show a positive attitude
to safety in what they say and how they act, this would
be evidence of a good safety culture. Having a good safety
management system that employees believe in, and especially,
if they were involved in building it, is a sign that the company
has a good safety culture.

How is your companys safety culture?

1. Do managers generally involve the workforce in

discussions about safety related matters and consult them
before introducing new safety procedures or systems?
2. Does the company listen and try to solve problems raised
by the people closest to the hazards?
3. Do managers visit site regularly and do things the
workforce would regard as helpful when theyre there?
4. If there is an incident or accident, does the organisation
seem interested in solving the problem rather than finding
out whose fault it was?
5. Are incidents always investigated and given the right level
of attention according to how serious they were?
6. Does the company actively look outside itself and keep up
to date on information and new ideas in safety?
7. Do operators avoid risks and behave as if they are
genuinely concerned about their own safety and that of
other people?
8. Do people seem aware of the hazards in their work and
how to control them?
9. Do management and safety representatives generally trust
and respect each other?
10. Are people who blatantly break rules generally found out
and disciplined?
If the answer to any of the above is no, then you need
to take action!

The blame-free culture

One problem in trying to improve a safety culture is that employees might fear being blamed for accidents or incidents they
were involved in and so withold information on what really happened. In the long run, a company will make more and better
improvements by gathering information on such occurrences than by taking action against an individual. Many companies now
adopt the blame-free principle, with the reservation that blatant disregard for safety (eg. horseplay) is not acceptable. This
is termed the just culture. Some have confidential reporting systems to make it easier to get the information they need to
improve safety.

What can I do about It?

Safety culture may be difficult to measure, but it is possible

to determine whether your company has a good or bad safety
culture. Ask people, either face to face, or by giving out a
question sheet to find out about attitudes, perceptions and
behaviours. You could base some questions on points 1 to 10
above, or there are ideas for questions in reference 1.
i. Find out whether anyone feels that:

- management or colleagues are generally not particularly

concerned about safety issues
- they are not sufficiently consulted and involved in
decisions about safety matters
- the company operates a blame culture so that safety
concerns cannot be communicated upwards.
ii. Draw the information to the attention of company
management.

Copyright 2003 by The Institute of Petroleum, London: A charitable company limited by guarantee. Registered No. 135273, England

What should my company do about it?

The culture in a company is strongly influenced by management attitudes and behaviours, that is, the management culture,
and also by the management systems in place. A culture cannot be changed quickly, but management can fairly easily find
out if there is a problem in their company culture, and therefore a need for change. Various questionnaire and interview-based
methods are available for measuring a companys safety culture and indicating where changes should be made.

Management responsibility

HSEs Successful health and safety management (HSG 65) (reference 3) describes the four main activities necessary to form
a good safety culture as: control, cooperation, communication and competence. Managements responsibility, then, is to ensure
that these activities are carried out and to continually improve the means of carrying them out.

In a good safety culture, management will:

Develop practical safety policies and standards to
measure safety achievements
Provide employees with clear job descriptions that
emphasise safety responsibilities
Review individuals against health and safety objectives
and reward or correct as necessary
Adopt a democratic style - consult employees and
encourage them to participate in decision-making about
safety
Support a blame free culture
Show their visible commitment to safety by making site
visits and discussing issues
Clearly support safety over production issues
Have a good safety management system
Generally aim for excellence in management
Have contingency plans
Be flexible (prepared to change) when faced with new
situations and problems
Learn from mistakes
Encourage a team spirit and trust between employees
and management
Have a good relationship with Regulators

How would you describe your companys

safety culture?

An OGP workshop developed a five level description of

company safety cultures from worst to best. These are
described as:
Pathological: No-one knows or cares about safety.
Reactive:
Improvements are only made following a
serious incident.
Calculative: Management systems are used to
encourage and monitor safe working.
Proactive:
People try to avoid problems occurring and
exist in a constant state of awareness.
Generative: Safety is integral to everything we do.
Where does your company fit on this scale?
Source: reference 1

Communications and competence

Management will also:

Listen to concerns and ideas raised by employees
Actively seek out information and ideas from outside the
company and from different business units about safety
issues and new methods and initiatives
Ensure that communications within the organisation are
relevant and effective (not too much or too little)
Provide communications in the most appropriate form, for
example: bulletins, letters, notices, meetings, presentations,
shift logs and face-to-face discussions
Give employees information on health and safety policy
and procedures, lessons from incidents and feedback on
performance
Provide good information to those outside the organisation:
Regulators, trade associations, others in the industry and
the public
Select, train and assess employees to ensure that they are
competent in their work and in health and safety matters
Provide competent safety representatives and safety
advisors
Ensure that there are sufficient numbers of employees to
carry out all foreseeable tasks, including fault recovery and
emergency tasks.

5 Steps: HSE Culture

GENERATIVE
safety is how we do
business round here

PROACTIVE

Increasingly
informed

we work on the problems that

we still find

CALCULATIVE
we have systems in place to
manage all hazards

REACTIVE
Safety is important, we do a lot
every time we have an accident

Increasing Trust
PATHOLOGICAL
who cares as long as were
not caught

Useful reference information

1. International Association of Oil and Gas Producers website: http://info.ogp.org.uk/hf/20Elements.asp
2. Organising for safety: 3rd report of ACSNI study group on human factors HSC, HSE Books (1993) ISBN 0 7176 0865 4.
3. Successful health and safety management HSE HSG65 HSE Books (2000) ISBN 0 7176 1276 7.
4. Changing minds - A practical guide for behavioural change in the oil and gas industry. A Step Change in Safety website:
www.stepchangeinsafety.net
5. Controlling the controllable Groeneweg, J. Fourth Edition DSWO Press, Leiden University, the Netherlands (1998).
6. Managing the risks of organizational accidents Reason, J. Ashgate (1997) ISBN 1 8401 4105 0.
7. Safety culture International Atomic Energy Agency International Nuclear Safety Advisory Group Safety Series
No 75-INSAG-4 (1991) ISBN 9 2012 3091 5.
Crown copyright material is reprodued with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and Queens Printer for Scotland

Courtesy: OGP

Control and cooperation