TABLE OF CONTENTS The culture of an organisation is said to have a significant impact upon performance. Organisational culture is manifested in behaviours and attitudes of both workforce and management. Often difficult to define and measure it is widely accepted that the prevailing culture within an organisation is an important factor in order to achieve successful management of any safety issues.
The safety culture of an organisation is a concept that describes the attitudes and beliefs of an organisation in terms of its safety performance. It must be recognised that the so-called safety culture within which a company operates is driven by the pervading culture within the wider organisation. The safety culture will impact upon the effectiveness of all safety functions including the management of fire safety matters.
This chapter explores safety culture and examines key factors that affect the culture, both positive and negative, in order to understand how better to manage both general safety and fire safety within the workplace.
In terms of safety culture, there is a range of definitions cited by public enquires and research bodies. These definitions invariably cite poor management control as a key factor leading directly to serious accidents or disasters. For example, the absence of a safety culture is said to have played a major part in the nuclear reactor disaster at Chernobyl in 1986.
The team in control of the reactor, being influenced by the need to complete...
