Executive Education - Specialist Areas
CHaRM - Human Factors and Safety Culture
The concept of organisational culture is currently important in theories of organisations, and the more particular concept of safety culture is equally important for our understanding of occupational health and safety management.
Definitions of safety culture place special emphasis on the "shared values and beliefs, perceptions of hazards and risks and behavioural norms" which are seen to characterise organisations. These are often framed within vision statements, which are communicated to organisational members through the vehicle of policy and safety management systems (SMSs) and reinforced by management actions.
The Centre for Hazard and Risk Management has carried out research into safety culture and climate in various organisations and numerous industrial sectors. Much of this work has involved the development of cultural assessment techniques and the profiling of organisational safety culture.
A recent project funded jointly by the Health and Safety Executive and a number of offshore oil production companies has resulted in the Safety Climate Assessment Toolkit, which allows organisations to make their own assessments of current safety climate and associated culture.
For further information on work in this area contact Alistair Cheyne (tel: +44 (0)1509 222162; Email: a.j.t.cheyne@lboro.ac.uk).
Bibliography
Cheyne, A.J., Cox, S.J., Oliver, A. and Tomas, J.M., (1998) 'Modelling Safety Climate in the Prediction of Levels of Safety Activity', Work & Stress, 12(3), pp 255-271.
Cheyne, A.J., Tomas, J.M., Cox, S.J. and Oliver, A., (1999) 'Modelling Employee Attitudes to Safety: A Comparison Across Sectors', European Psychologist, 4(1), March, pp 1-10.
Cox, S.J. and Cheyne, A.J. (2000) 'Assessing Safety Culture in Offshore Environments', Safety Science, 34, pp 111-129.
Cox, S., Tomas, J.M., Cheyne, A. and Oliver, A. (1997) 'Safety Culture: The Prediction of Commitment to Safety in the Manufacturing Industry'. British Academy of Management Annual Conference, pp121-128.
Cox, S.J., Tomas, J.M., Cheyne, A.J. and Oliver, A., (1998) 'Safety Culture: The Prediction of Commitment to Safety in the Manufacturing Industry', British Journal of Management, 9, Special Issue, September, pp S3-S11.
Ferguson, E. and Cheyne, A.J. (1995) 'Organizational Change: Main and Interactive Effects', Journal of Occupational and Organisational Psychology, 68, pp101-107.
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