Defining and Assessing Safety Culture in High Reliability Systems

Thacker, J. (1994). Organizational cultures: How to identify and understand them.
Educational and Child Psychology, 11(3), 11-21.
The author explores the meaning of organizational culture as it applies to education, specifically,
guiding beliefs and expectations in operations particularly how people relate or fail to relate to
each other. Culture resides mainly in the taken for granted. One way to access a culture is to
study its symbols through such means as language, paperwork (or lack thereof), relationships.
Culture is seen as composed of different interacting layers (based on Schein, 1985):
(1) Artifacts and creations which are visible but often at the level of espoused theories (outward
manifestations, high profile symbols),
(2) Values shown through behavior which have some awareness, but at the level of theories in
action (routine responses, values, norms),
(3) Mind sets – basic assumptions which are taken for granted and largely invisible, though they
can be articulated (nature of reality, time , space, relationships), and
(4) Heart sets which are mostly unconscious (emotional states and needs).
Cultures are also likened to Greek gods (based on the work of Charles Handy, 1991), such as
Zeus (a spider web) a patriarchal culture where the key to the organization sits in the center, or
Dionysius (a constellation of stars loosely gathered in a circle) where people describe themselves
as doctors or lawyers, rather than where they work. The dual nature of culture is discussed as
simultaneously being a force for stability and an impediment to change. However, when
managed properly, culture can be a force for change. Thacker discusses the process of “surfacing
the culture” by facilitating a series of cycles of group activity through introducing ideas of
organizational culture, generating data on the culture, making sense of the data and identifying
key themes, and planning further data collection. Thacker then outlines what he calls a three way
analysis to help groups wanting to move toward change:
(1) Re-affirm and safeguard core values
(2) Discard no longer relevant practices
(3) Create a window of opportunity for change. Expand the range of possibilities by
brainstorming or other ideas-producing methods.
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