Beyond the organisation: identifying further contributors to Railway Safety Culture Bart Accou

Safety Culture

The development of (Safety) Culture Institutional context (national culture, economy, politics, regulation, technological development) Organisational context Group context Sensemaking Individual context Internalising meanings Internalising formal structure Formalising (structure) (culture) Disseminating (training) Enculturalising Enforcing Interacting Adapted after Antonsen (2009) & Guldenmund (2015)

The development of (Safety) Culture Patterns of thinking and acting (on safety), largely shared by a group Developing when people interact and have to accomplish something together Produced and reproduced through daily interactions of individuals and highly influenced by local as well as external conditions Should not be seen in isolation from the structural (SMS) nor interactional aspects of an organisation Could be influenced through its ‘growing conditions’: ‘interacting’, ‘formalising’, ‘disseminating’ and ‘enforcing’

The development of (Safety) Culture Not something that can be agreed based on a norm or standard… … between management and workers … between safety authority and regulated company Not something that can be prescribed or shaped at will by managers, regulating authorities or legislators Not only about complience to rules and procedures by workers Not only about the positioning by management of safety against other, competing goals No palliative measure when no further improvement can be made to safety barriers and procedures No one (« good ») culture No « quick fixes »

Regulating (Safety) Culture Can external/instituational factors influence a company’s culture? Shape the ‘growing conditions’ (‘interacting’, ‘formalising’, ‘disseminating’ and ‘enforcing’) through legislations and regulatory practices Interacting: from « command and control » towards dialogue and discussion to make sense of safety culture requirements, … Formalising: shaping framework conditions, setting values and norms, … Disseminating: intention vs interpretation, … Enforcing: depth and focus of accident investigations, …

Safety Culture Fundamentals Goal: create set of “Fundamentals” (and attributes explaining their intent) to make in-depth comparisons with day-to-day practices throughout the railway system, and use any differences as a basis for improvements. Safety must be created continuously Safety management combines structural and cultural aspects Cultures develop when people interact and have to accomplish something together Behaviour is the product of the environment in which it occurs Making errors is inevitable in all human activities Safety must facilitate business …

Creating sustainable Safety Safety Management System as the best mean to plan activities and anticipate adverse situations that can be expected Human flexibility and creativity needed to counter unexpected situations and to keep functioning Aimed result Working conditions Specified functioning Understand workplace reality: why do certain types of behaviour and decisions stand out as ‘the right thing to do’? Every deviation from a prescribed safety process is an opportunity to understand how working conditions influence actual work practice Continuously measure these « tensions » Create and maintain those conditions that allow work to succeed

The overspeeding example system designed communication of speed restrictions (LS/ETCS) driver training route knowledge monitoring of (critical) overspeeding => identify influencing conditions manage influencing conditions

The overspeeding example

Conclusions Safety Culture is complex, difficult to measure (objectively) and without the possibility of direct regulation Legislations and regulatory practices set values and norms and produce framework conditions that influence the growing conditions of safety culture (for good and for bad!) Joint efforts needed throughout the railway sector to make sense of the concept of Safety Culture – keep it simple, without over-simplification! New thinking (and new practices) needed, not only from industry but also from regulatory authorities/legislator : From « command and control » towards dialogue Asking new questions related to organisational properties Increased emphasis on the role of top management

mail: bart.accou@era.europa.eu