Defining and Assessing Safety Culture in High Reliability Systems

Cooper, M. D. (2000). Towards a model of safety culture. Safety Science, 36(2), 111-136.
Various definitions of organizational safety culture were reviewed. It was argued that most
research conceptualized this construct solely on internal psychological aspects, ignoring
situational constraints and people’s actual behavior. In this article, a conceptualization of the
safety culture ‘product’ is offered, with which to provide a dependent variable that can be used to
evaluate the effectiveness of the many goal-directed manipulations that may be adopted when
examining safety culture.
Based on goal-setting paradigm and Social Cognitive Theory, a reciprocal model of safety
culture, which takes into account subjective internal psychological factors, observable ongoing
safety-related behaviors and objective situational features, is offered, to provide both a
theoretical and practical framework with which to measure and analyze safety culture. The
presented model was compared with other existing safety culture models. Measurement tools and
quantification strategies were offered. Levels of measurement and analysis were discussed.
Supporting evidence for this model was reviewed. And finally, implications for future research
to establish the model’s utility and validity are addressed.
Cox, S., & Cox, T. (1991). The structure of employee attitudes to safety: A European
example. Work & Stress, 5(2), 93-106.
Research on safety culture has focused on two main issues: objects and subjects of attitudes to
safety. Objects include safety hardware and physical hazards; safety software and concept;
people; and risk. Subjects include workers, management, safety specialist advisers, and trade
union officials. In this study, an attitude survey was developed focusing on attitudes to aspects of
safety, software, people, and risk, and administered in a European company. Factor analysis
suggested that employees’ attitudes to safety could be mapped by 5 orthogonal factors:
(1) Personal skepticism,
(2) Individual responsibility,
(3) “Safeness” of the work environment,
(4) Effectiveness of arrangements for safety, and
(5) Personal immunity.
Building on this model, it is suggested that strategies for enhancing an organization’s safety
culture through attitude change should consider both the reinforcement of constructive beliefs
and the extinction of unconstructive and negative beliefs.
8