Safety Culture - a Multi-Level Approach

"I came to see… that culture isn't just one aspect of the game – it is the game." Lewis V. Gerstner, Jr., CEO, IBM

In my last post “What is Your Vision?,” I discussed the challenges of a leader’s need to understand the fundamental elements of communication and how to align yourself with the primary goals of an organization.

The premise to accomplish this, as I discussed, is the need to induce others to buy into and support your vision and mission of what is necessary to develop and maintain a strong safety culture.

In this post, I want to expand on the thought process of an organizational culture and how the culture can be considered the essence of an organization in determining how it makes decisions, maintains direction, and meets its objectives. 

Leadership Role

Unless the leadership team and the safety professional understands the structure of how a Safety Management System and safety culture are developed, linked, and maintained, the probability for long term success of the safety culture will be restricted. It is important that the leadership team and safety professional work together as a team solving problems as they occur.

One of the initial perceptions, as discussed in my post, “What is Your Vision?” that must be overcome is the idea that a safety process is permanent. The intent must not only be incorporated into the fundamental principles of the Safety Management System, but the environment in which they are used.

One must remember from my previous discussion that the environment is ever-changing, for example:

• People change.
• Conditions change.
• Budgets change.
• Management direction changes.
• etc.

At the same time, under these conditions, a safety culture changes slowly. If the safety process does not take into account what culture is, safety efforts, while well intended, will be resisted just as a body resists a virus. To combat this, a multi-level approach can be used to help sustain the safety culture.

As stated in my previous post, “What is Your Vision?” the number 1 goal is to first accept, as a safety professional, the fact that you have been given the responsibility for managing the safety process for your organization or have been tasked with assisting in building a safety process. Your goal is to get others to buy into your vision of a strong safety culture.

It is not in asking for "management commitment" per se, it is your obligation as a safety professional to take a leadership role in this specialized area of the organization. The key concept is to keep the leadership team advised of the progress and continue to work on the essential elements of the safety process.

Building a Network

The key to success is building a network of support and communication that extends throughout the entire organization. 

This network should allow you to quickly respond to issues and concerns. In this network, you as a professional must recognize and learn how to deal with the politics found in any human endeavor. To be successful one must work to increase influence by assisting other individual departments in their endeavors.

One of the important facts to consider is you may be considered the memory of the organization, the "go to" professional for any type of issue, where your position may be charged with gathering risk data to support your efforts in injury prevention.

To be successful in this endeavor, you should develop a network of individuals that can help you gather the appropriate data, analyze the results, and prioritize corrective actions in a format that is presentable to your leadership team for review and consideration.

Another important key is to you need to develop skills that will help you work effectively with the leadership team to define, develop, and implement the safety management system structure for the organization. This structure must be complimentary to the entire organization.

In my next post I will discuss how the safety profession can be considered a Multi-Discipline Profession as it relates to the size and scope of an organization, where a safety professional may be tasked with a wide range of responsibilities, wearing many hats.

Other Resources

Safety Culture: An Innovative Leadership Approach

Job Hazard Analysis, A Guide for Voluntary Compliance

Safety Culture Training module @ Safety Culture Academy

Why is it Important to Understand the Perception of Safety?