Defining and Assessing Safety Culture in High Reliability Systems

Wilpert, B., Miller, R., & Wahlstrom, B. (1999). Organizational factors: Their definition
and influence on nuclear safety. Report on needs and methods (AMM-ORFA(99)-R03).
First, general organizational strategies for the assessment of organizational performance were
reviewed, which included quality systems, activity planning, performance appraisals,
organizational restructuring, business process re-engineering within the organization, safety
committees, exchange of good practices, regulatory framework, safety culture, probabilitistic
safety analysis, peer reviews, incident analysis, performance indicators, assessments of the
organizational climate, self-assessments, and certification. This was then followed by a review
on 13 models of organizational factors, including NRC, Swiss, OECD/NEA, HSE, Finnish, SKI,
Rollenhagen, ASCOT, SOL, CREAM, TOR, TRIPOD, and OHN. Then, using the ‘meta-plan’
method, 7 general categories were identified:
(1) Interorganizational relations,
(2) Vision, goals and strategies,
(3) Supervision and control,
(4) Operation management,
(5) Resource allocation,
(6) Performance, and
(7) Technology.
An input-output model was proposed to summarize the potential interrelations among the seven
categories and their influence on nuclear plant outcomes. Finally, a survey on needs and methods
for NPPs and regulators, which consists of 9 questions about assessment of organizational
performance, was drafted.
Yule, S. J., Flin, R., & Murdy, A. J. (2001). Modeling managerial influence on safety
climate. Poster presented at SIOP Conference. San Diego.
Safety climate was conceptualized as the product of employee perceptions and attitudes about
the current state of safety initiatives at their place of work. A review on published models of
safety climate suggested that management has important influence on safety culture. This study
attempted to model the managerial influence on workforce safety climate. Safety climate was
measured by HSE Climate Survey Tool, which is a 71-item, 5-point Likert scale. Factor analysis
of the questionnaire identified eight factors. A model was proposed based on the result of factor
analysis. In this model, two layers of management, team leaders and upper management, were
identified. It was proposed that different levels of management have differential effects on the
other factors of safety climate. The model was tested and re-specified using Structural Equation
Model (SEM). The resulting model supported most hypothetical paths, and added some new
ones as well. The model provided a foundation for identifying and exploring the important
influence on safety climate.
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