Safety culture: a survey of the state-of-the-art

Abstract

This paper discusses the evolution of the term ‘safety culture’ and the perceived relationship between safety culture and safety of operations in nuclear power generation and other hazardous technologies. There is a widespread belief that safety culture is an important contributor to safety of operations. Empirical evidence that safety culture and other management and organizational factors influence operational safety is more readily available for the chemical process industry than for nuclear power plant operations. The commonly accepted attributes of safety culture include good organizational communications, good organizational learning, and senior management commitment to safety. Safety culture may be particularly important in reducing latent errors in complex, well-defended systems. The role of regulatory bodies in fostering strong safety cultures remains unclear, and additional work is required to define the essential attributes of safety culture and to identify reliable performance indicators.