“Safety Culture: An Integrative Review” AVIA3710 AVIATION SAFETY MANAGEMENT 2 Presentation Critical Review of Refereed Paper: “Safety Culture: An Integrative Review” Presented by Dickson Chan (3132079) Thursday, 26 October 2006

OUTLINE - Structure of Presentation Introduction Summary & Key Points Critique Conclusion References

INTRODUCTION - The Paper… Summary Critique Conclusion INTRODUCTION - The Paper… Title: “Safety Culture: An Integrative Review” Authors: Wiegmann, Zhang, von Thaden, Sharma & Gibbons Aviation Human Factors Division (University of Illinois) International Journal of Aviation Psychology Vol 14 No. 2, pp. 117-134

INTRODUCTION - Background Summary Critique Conclusion INTRODUCTION - Background Importance of Safety Culture High-risk systems Catastrophic Consequences What has been done? Question: How do you define Safety Culture?

SUMMARY - Aim / Purpose The Problem: Lack of Consensus! Introduction Summary Critique Conclusion SUMMARY - Aim / Purpose The Problem: Lack of Consensus! How to define? How to access / measure? What are the indicators & How many? AIM: Compare and synthesise various literature on Safety Culture Establish commonalities and Identify the critical features Issues when assessing safety culture

SUMMARY – Method / Approach Introduction Summary Critique Conclusion SUMMARY – Method / Approach Qualitative Research… why qualitative? Review numerous reports relating to Safety Culture from various industries Comparative study on definitions, indicators of safety culture and assessment methods Examining differences and similarities

SUMMARY - Safety Culture Definitions Introduction Summary Critique Conclusion SUMMARY - Safety Culture Definitions Compared 19 definitions from various sources (Method / Approach) Definitions from Aviation (4), Other Transportation Industry (3), Nuclear Power (3), mining (1), Oil & Gas (3) and Theoretical (5) Differences exist both within and across Industries Example “Safety Culture: A group of individuals guided in their behaviour by their joint belief in the importance of safety, and their shared understanding that every member willingly upholds the group’s safety norms and will support other members to that common end.” Helmreich & Merritt (1998); Aviation “Safety Culture is defined as the attitudes, values, norms and beliefs that a particular group of people share with respect to risk and safety” Mearns, Flin, Gordon & Fleming (1998); Offshore oil and gas

SUMMARY - Safety Culture Critical Features Introduction Summary Critique Conclusion SUMMARY - Safety Culture Critical Features Safety Culture is a concept defined at the group level or higher that refers to the shared values among all the group or organisation members Safety Culture is concerned with formal safety issues in an organisation and closely related to, but not restricted to, the management and supervisory systems Safety Culture emphasises the contribution from everyone at every level of an organisation The safety culture of an organisation has an impact on its members’ behaviour at work Safety culture is reflected in an organisation’s willingness to develop and learn from errors, incidents and accidents Safety Culture is relatively enduring, stable, and resistant to change

SUMMARY - Indicators of Safety Culture Introduction Summary Critique Conclusion SUMMARY - Indicators of Safety Culture Organisational Commitment Management Involvement “Extent to which higher level managers get personally involved in critical safety initiatives” Employee Empowerment “Empowered attitude can lead to increased motivation” Reward Systems Reporting Systems Slightly different to those listed by Hudson (1999)

SUMMARY – Assessing Safety Culture Introduction Summary Critique Conclusion SUMMARY – Assessing Safety Culture Many different methods used to access safety culture No standardised tools that can be used across domains Authors proposed method of assessing safety culture Main issues: Methods of Measurements Level of Assessment Assessment Procedures and Implementation Interaction Among Factors Validating Measurement Tools

Adapted from Helmreich and Merritt, 1998, p.134 Introduction Summary Critique Conclusion CRITIQUE – Strengths / Weakness & Validity Weakness: Lack of quantitative data to support key points No mention of Westrum’s Reactive to Proactive model (Hudson, 1999) Failed to mention about effects of some ‘factors’ on safety culture: e.g. Professional Culture, Training, National Culture (Helmreich & Merritt, 1998) Adapted from Helmreich and Merritt, 1998, p.134 The evolution of Safety Cultures Adapted from Hudson, 1999, p.96

CRITIQUE – Strengths / Weakness & Validity Introduction Summary Critique Conclusion CRITIQUE – Strengths / Weakness & Validity Strengths Use of ‘authoritative’ literature by well-known academics in the field Dealt with the key areas of Safety Culture Recognised other industry’s development on Safety Culture theory Validity Referred to existing literatures; represents existing knowledge Subjectivity in selection of literature?

CRITIQUE – Importance / Significance Introduction Summary Critique Conclusion CRITIQUE – Importance / Significance Comprehensive Study / Review on Safety Culture Literature Referred to different industries (creation of a multi-modal definition?) Focus on the contentious areas of Safety Culture: Definition Indicators (that reflect safety culture) Assessing / Measuring Safety Culture

CRITIQUE – Implications & Generalisability Introduction Summary Critique Conclusion CRITIQUE – Implications & Generalisability Relevance and applicable to ‘high-risk’ industries Improvement / enhancement on the definition of safety culture Enable better understanding of safety culture Potential developments on analysis techniques on safety culture Establishing common grounds between ‘high-risk’ industries May lead to development of strategies for improving safety culture across industries Future researches could be taken in this area to test the frameworks

CONCLUSION Solid and comprehensive review of safety culture Introduction Summary Critique Conclusion CONCLUSION Solid and comprehensive review of safety culture Research applicable to “high-risk” industries, not only within Aviation Identifying commonalities to develop frameworks for all industries Study represents existing knowledge in Safety Culture

REFERENCES Braithwaite, G. (2001). Attitude or lattitude?: Australian aviation safety, Aldershot, England: Ashgate. Cox, S. & Flin, R. (1998). Safety culture: philosopher’s stone or man of straw. Work & Stress. 12 (3), 189-201. Helmreich, R. & Merritt, A. (1998). Culture at Work in Aviation and Medicine, Aldershot, England: Ashgate. Hudson, P. (1999). Safety Culture – The Way ahead? Theory and Practical Principles. Proceedings of the inaugural International Aviation Safety Management Conference "Profiting through safety", Perth, 17-21 October 1999. Hudson, P. (2001). Aviation Safety Culture. Proceedings of the Safeskies 2001 Conference, Canberra, 1-2 November 2001.