Week 9

Question 1

SMS functions only fulfil promises if a facilitating environment is in place where

Answer 1

All levels of organisation advocate safety
Positive safety culture promoted
Atmosphere of trust created across organisation

Question 2

The design of nuclear power plants and operations has changed since Chernobyl with law enforcement and inspection systems. Why did Chernobyl happen?

Answer 2

Poor to non existing SMS
Poor design and technical process - inherently unsafe

Question 3

Chernobyl arguably led to the creation of safety culture. What was the key lesson?

Answer 3

To involve employees in safety through education, information, and participation, with cooperation between employers and operators

Question 4

Safety culture is a concept with roots in organisational culture and anthropological literature. What five factors influence employee behaviour in an organisation

Answer 4

Values
Norms
Activities
Management
History

Question 5

Safety culture represents employee attitudes about an organisations approach to

Answer 5

Safety
Risk perception
Responding to and controlling risk
Engagement to safety culture activities

Question 6

What are the five key elements to safety culture?

Answer 6

Informed culture
Reporting culture
Learning culture
Just culture
Flexible culture

Question 7

How is an informed culture made?

Answer 7

data from accidents and near misses are collated and combined with data from safety audits and climate surveys

Question 8

How is a reporting culture created ?

Answer 8

the workforce engage in near miss reporting, safety surveys and safety initiatives

Question 9

Why is a learning culture needed?

Answer 9

needed to draw appropriate conclusions and implement necessary changes (e.g. to procedures).

Question 10

How is a flexible safety culture made ?

Answer 10

there must be flexibility to respond in novel ways to system or environmental perturbations or threats

Question 11

LWhat approaches are there to studying safety culture ?

Answer 11

Psychological approach
Engineering approach
Organisational theory

Question 12

The psychological approach refers more to the term safety climate than safety culture. What does it focus on?

Answer 12

How workers feel about and perceive safety/safety management
Attitudes and behaviour regarding risk and safety

Question 13

What is the engineering approach interested in?

Answer 13

Managerial aspects and systems which influence safety like management systems, policies, procedures
Oriented towards improving safety performance

Question 14

Organisational (culture) theory, anthropology and sociology focuses on…

Answer 14

How safety culture fits within the organisational structure as a way to manage risks
Allows analysis and description on organisational culture influence on safety

Question 15

How can safety culture be studied ?

Answer 15

Questionnaires, checklists, audits, interviews, workshops, ethnographic research (observing those at work), and accident enquiries

Question 16

Safety culture is predominantly assessed by questionnaires. What is the aim of these?

Answer 16

To determine employee attitudes to values and work issues within safety, focusing on key themes - determine psychological tendency to agree/disagree with the themes questioned.

Question 17

What are common questionnaire questions and how are they assessed ?

Answer 17

Questions touch on blame and punishment and incident reporting.
Questions are positive or negative with yes and no options. I.e. ‘we have a just culture’

Question 18

Why is safety promotion vital?

Answer 18

It ensures safety issues openly discussed at all levels of organisation
Safety recommendations, info, and best practises disseminated to involve all staff

Question 19

In safety culture, SMSs recognise that human activity is prone to errors and so for an organisation to dedicate a commitment to safety …

Answer 19

The system should support each individual member to accommodate errors without systemic blame

Question 20

SMS functions can only effectively fulfill their promises if a facilitative environment is in place, where:

Answer 20

All levels of organisation advocate safety
Positive organisational safety culture implemented
Safety promoted with an atmosphere of trust

Question 21

A non punitive environment needs to ensure that…

Answer 21

Employees are protected from prosecution if they report a safety occurrence or error they’ve been involved in
Employees who come forward can even be rewarded for providing safety information

Question 22

A line in the sand needs to be drawn for just culture. How is this ensured?

Answer 22

By differentiating between acceptable and unacceptable (wilful violations or gross negligence) behaviour

Question 23

To make employees feel comfortable about coming forward what type of reporting systems should be available?

Answer 23

Confidential and voluntary reporting systems

Question 24

What does success of a just culture rely on ?

Answer 24

social, professional, organisational and national cultures, which represent the values, beliefs and behaviours shared between members of any social group, profession, organisation and country respectively.

Question 25

Safety climate focuses on employee attitudes towards safety and refers to:

Answer 25

How employees perceive the enactment of organisational policies and procedures relating to safety at a given time

Question 26

Safety climate refers to an employees attitude about how an organisation prioritises …
What does this influence?

Answer 26

Safety compared to other organisational goals
Risk taking and safety related behaviours

Question 27

Why is the safety climate important?

Answer 27

It predicts safety performance in nuclear, chemical, offshore, and rail industries
Links between safety climate and safety performance
Association between employee perceptions and health and well-being

Question 28

Safety climate is a good safety performance indicator for occupational accidents but not for

Answer 28

Major accidents

Question 29

How is safety climate measured ?

Answer 29

With a survey to assess perceptions regarding safety, allowing a statistical construction of organisation wide perceptions

Question 30

A survey tool to measure safety climate was made by researchers at HSL. What are the main features?

Answer 30

8 main factors are covered
A five point Likert scale used to answer (agree strongly to disagree strongly)
Responses calculate mean scores for each factor assessed
A good safety climate has a score close to 5, a bad one close to one

Question 31

What factors are assessed in the safety climate?

Answer 31

Accidents and near miss reporting
H+S resources
Peer group attitude
Health and safety engagement
Usability of procedures
Trust
Health and safety behaviour
Organisational commitment

Question 32

What are benefits of the safety climate tool?

Answer 32

Reduced accidents
Higher productivity
More reported near misses
Better communication across all levels of staff

Question 33

Safety climate can rapidly change like a mood while safety culture is more

Answer 33

Long lasting like personality

Question 34

How can safety culture be assessed?

Answer 34

Questionnaire survey for quantitative results
Interviewing staff

Question 35

What is the idea behind triangulation?

Answer 35

a multi-method and holistic approach should be taken towards safety culture.

Question 36

What are the key attributes to a safety leader ?

Answer 36

Someone with commitment to safety
Can exist at any level in organisation
Provide direction to staff in planning and supervision
Motivate staff through offering rewards
Set a good example

Question 37

If safety leaders are consistent they can…

Answer 37

Influence the safety climate, and impact the culture over time leading people to reassess their views towards safety and behaviours

Question 38

What topics are studied in culture questionnaires?

Answer 38

Incident reporting
Blame and punishment
Organisation
Worker conditions/fatigue