George Robotham Safety Culture

Safety Culture and How to Improve it

ByGeorge Robotham
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Safety Culture and How to Improve it

EXTRACT:

Management summary

Safety culture is said to be an underlying construct that influences the effectiveness of an organisation’s Safety Management System. Culture is often defined as “The way we do things around here”.

A positive safety culture is one that, among other things:

  • Encourages and retains learning
  • Promotes open & honest reporting
  • Is just and is prepared to identify its own shortcomings as easily as it seeks to address any violation of orders or instructions
  • Rewards innovation and accepts willingly constructive suggestions for continuous improvement of itself. (Di Pietro,2005)

Introduction

The author has been asked how to improve safety culture a number of times in recent years. This paper is the result of research into how to best respond to this question. He has turned to the Organisational Behavior literature as well as the Health & Safety literature in his quest for answers.

Definition of culture

Culture is often defined as “The way we do things around here”. Schein (1990) defines organisational culture as the system of shared beliefs and values that develops within an organisation and guides the behavior of its members. Culture (Woods) consists of observable culture, shared values and common assumptions. Culture is often reinforced by stories, rites, rituals and symbols.

Safety Culture

The safety culture of an enterprise comprises the beliefs, attitudes, norms and work practices of management & employees. Safety culture refers to what an organisation is like in terms of safety and health, it includes aspects such as managements attitude and actions about safety and, in particular, the attitudes and beliefs of individuals and groups at work concerning the perceived magnitude of risks and the necessity and practicality of preventative measures (Safetyline Institute)

  • A positive safety culture is one that, among other things
  • Encourages and retains learning
  • Promotes open & honest reporting
  • Is just and is prepared to identify its own shortcomings as easily as it seeks to address any violation of orders or instructions
  • Rewards innovation and accepts willingly constructive suggestions for continuous improvement of itself.(Di Pietro,2005)

Senior managers are the key to a successful safety culture. A true safety culture is established when safety is valued as highly as productivity. Managers and supervisors need to be held accountable for safety in the same manner as production.

Safety culture is about good safety attitudes in people but it is also good safety management established by organisations. Good safety culture means giving the highest priority to safety. Good safety culture implies a constant assessment of the safety significance of events, and issues, in order that the appropriate level of attention can be given. (Bastin,2003)

 

George Robotham

George Robotham

George was a Legend in the Safety World who passed away in Sept 2013 but left us with a great legacy
George Robotham
I have worked in OHS for most of my working life, many years in the mining industry including over 10 years in a corporate OHS role with BHP. Since leaving the mining industry I have worked in a variety of safety roles with a variety of employers, large & small, in a variety of industries. I was associated with my first workplace fatality at age 21, the girl involved was young, intelligent, vivacious and friendly. Such a waste! I was the first on the scene and tried to comfort her and tend to her injuries. She said to me “George, please do not let me die” We put her on the aerial ambulance to Rockhampton base hospital where she died the next day. I do not mind telling you that knocked me around for awhile. Since then I have helped my employers cope with the aftermath of 12 fatalities and 2 other life-altering events. The section "Why do Occupational Health & Safety" provides further detail but in summary, poor safety is simply very expensive and also has a massive humanitarian cost. My qualifications include a certificate I.V. in Workplace Training and Assessment, a Diploma in Frontline Management, a Diploma in Training & Assessment Systems, a Bachelor of Education (Adult & Workplace Education) , a Grad. Cert. in Management of Organisational Change and a Graduate Diploma in Occupational Hazard Management. I am currently studying towards a Masters in Business Leadership. Up until recently I had been a Chartered Fellow of the Safety Institute of Australia for 10 years and a member for about 30 years. My interest is in non-traditional methods of driving organisational change in OHS and I have what I believe is a healthy dis-respect for many common approaches to OHS Management and OHS Training. I hold what I believe is a well-founded perception that many of the things safety people and management do in safety are “displacement activities” (Displacement activities are things we do, things we put a lot of energy into, but which when we examine them closely there is no valid reason for doing them). My managerial and leadership roles in OHS have exposed me to a range of management techniques that are relevant to Business Improvement. In particular I am a strong supporter of continuous improvement and quality management approaches to business. I believe leadership is the often forgotten key to excellence in most aspects of life. I hold the Australian Defence Medal and am a J.P.(Qualified). I have many fond memories of my time playing Rugby Union when I was a young bloke.

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