Review study of the evidence underpinning ‘safety culture’ maturity models. 17 studies were included. Tl;dr: the evidence supporting that they actually do what they purport to do, is limited. Note: I’m not a fan of SC maturity models, but good to see efforts to describe the empirical landscape. Extracts: · “The vast majority of included studies… Continue reading Safety culture maturity models in occupational safety and health: An updated scoping review
Tag: safety culture
From transcript to insights: Summarizing safety culture interviews with LLMs
From transcript to insights: summarizing safety culture interviews with LLMs How well does OpenAI o1 work for summarising ‘safety culture’ interviews, and how does it compare to human notes? This study did just that. Extracts: · They assessed correctness via exhaustiveness (comparison of LLM claims vs human interviewer notes), consistency (comparison of LLM claims between subsequent… Continue reading From transcript to insights: Summarizing safety culture interviews with LLMs
‘Organisational safety culture principles’: In Patient safety culture
Some extracts from Guldenmund’s interesting article ‘Organisational safety culture principles’: · Culture can be studied via different aggregated levels, with many authors relating it as “consisting of a core surrounded by one or more layers, not unlike the anatomy of an onion” · “Whereas the core is something (deeply) hidden, the culture projects itself gradually through and… Continue reading ‘Organisational safety culture principles’: In Patient safety culture
Compendium: Cultural approaches to safety / Safety Culture / Safety Climate / Org Culture
It’s no secret that I’m relatively cautious of ‘Safety Culture’. (** At least, I fall more into the interpretative, than functionalist, camp). Nevertheless, I get the question of evidence often, so here it is. A compendium of studies focused on organisational culture, culture of safety, safety culture and safety climate. Because there’s so many studies… Continue reading Compendium: Cultural approaches to safety / Safety Culture / Safety Climate / Org Culture
Achieving a safe culture: theory and practice
A 1998 paper from James Reason discussing complex system failures and cultures of safety (which he calls safety cultures, SC—note he often, but not always, says cultures as plural). Way too much to cover, so worth checking out the original paper. First Reason points out the lack of a single definition of SC, but one… Continue reading Achieving a safe culture: theory and practice
Counteracting the Cultural Causes of Disaster
This 1999 article from Andrew Hopkins talks about the cultural factors that helped to incubate the 1994 Moura mine disaster in Australia. He starts by saying that Turner’s work demonstrated that “all socio-technical disasters involve an information or communication failure of some kind, in that they are preceded by a series of `discrepant events’ which… Continue reading Counteracting the Cultural Causes of Disaster
Organizational structure and safety culture: Conceptual and practical challenges
Organizational structure and safety culture: Conceptual and practical challenges A banger read (as Schulman’s work often is) exploring some links and challenges about safety culture and organising/structuring for culture. Not a summary as I can’t do it justice, so just read the paper (full link below). This comes from an upcoming mini-compendium on safety culture… Continue reading Organizational structure and safety culture: Conceptual and practical challenges
Studying organisational cultures and their effects on safety
Hopkins in this discussion paper explores organisational cultures, and how they effect safety. You’ll note he writes cultures, plural, rather than culture as a monolithic construct. Way too much to cover in this paper, so just a few points. Check out the full paper if the topic interests you. Hopkins starts with “Despite all that… Continue reading Studying organisational cultures and their effects on safety
Mini-Compendium: Psychological Safety
Given the prominence of Psychological Safety (PS), it’s worth sharing some research. It’s likely among the most studied modern concepts in organisational theory – so I can barely scratch the surface. Focus first is articles I’ve summarised, and then on any other full-text items I can find. In my haste, I’ve probably included some psychological… Continue reading Mini-Compendium: Psychological Safety
Safety culture and power dynamics in organizations
Not much to say here. This article briefly touched upon the interactions of power dynamics and safety culture. Some really cool stuff has been written about power in safety (check out my site). This only really briefly touches on a few points: · Starting with safety culture (SC), they say it has “even been abandoned by… Continue reading Safety culture and power dynamics in organizations
SafetyInsights.org 