Safety Culture, Advice and Performance

Abstract

Preventing work-related injury and illness is of crucial importance to employees, industry and wider society. Corporate safety culture - which describes shared values in an organisation that influence its members' attitudes, values and beliefs in relation to safety - is now generally accepted as having a strong influence over workplace accidents and injuries. Occupational safety and health practitioners also have a significant role to play in improving health and safety at work, yet their specific contribution to safety performance has rarely been studied. The aim of this study, therefore, was to consider associations between corporate safety performance and both safety culture and occupational safety and health advice. UK organisations from various sectors of industry were recruited to take part in three questionnaire surveys measuring: safety climate, to give a snapshot of underlying safety culture; occupational safety and health practitioners' experiences; and safety performance. The results showed that the perception of organisational safety culture was consistently and independently associated with corporate safety performance. In addition, there were some independent associations between corporate safety performance and both the level of occupational safety and health practitioners' training and qualifications, and organisational receptiveness to advice. Overall, the study suggests that corporate safety culture is independently associated with corporate safety performance, and this association is apparent among organisations from a variety of industrial sectors. In addition, it points to safety advice in relation to safety performance as an area for further study.