Healthy,
safe and
productive lives
and enterprises

Safety Culture

"The way we do things around here"

A positive safety culture is characterised by a tendency to act safely at work, leaning towards doing things the safer way. Making decisions and taking actions with health and safety as the priority, consistently, clearly. No matter what.

Safety culture at work matters and will impact individuals, teams and organisational health and safety performance, and therefore business outcomes and productivity.

Every organisation has its’ own safety culture. It is how these beliefs and assumptions manifest in everyday worker practices to act safely or unsafely that is important. In an organisation with a positive health and safety culture everyone puts health and safety high on the list.

Safety Culture “The product of individual and group values, attitudes, perceptions, competencies and patterns of behaviour that can determine the commitment to, and the style and proficiency of an organisation’s health and safety management system.” Health and Safety Advisory Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (1993) How people feel Pyschological aspects Can be described as the ‘safety climate’ of an organisation, which is concerned with individual and group values, attitudes and perceptions What people do Behavioural aspects Safety-related actions and behaviours What the organisation has Situational aspects Policies, procedures, regulation, organisational structures and the management systems

(based on Health and Safety Executive, 2005; Cooper, 2000)

Safety culture, often described as "the way we do things around here" (CBI, 1990) is dependent on three aspects:

  • How people feel (psychological aspects): individual and group values and attitudes towards safety;
  • What people do (behavioural aspects): safety-related actions and behaviours;
  • What the organisation has (situational aspects): the health and safety policies, procedures and management structures in place.

There can be a tendency to see safety culture as something that is ‘wrong’ with the workforce However repeated studies show that management commitment and management style is significant. In particular, the development of a positive safety culture is dependent on visible senior management commitment to safety and consistent messages that safety is a priority demonstrated in management decisions and actions.

A positive safety culture is influenced by

  • Management commitment and style;
  • Worker involvement;
  • Communications;
  • Organisational learning;
  • Training and competence;
  • Usability of procedures

References and Resources