14 Safety Culture

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Safety Management System

Safety Culture

Presented by:

Jari NISULAMgr, Airline Safety Mgt Systems

ICAO / IAC

Pro ject RER 01/901


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SMS 2007 Page 2

Safety Culture


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Contents

What is Organizational Culture?

What is SafetyCulture?

Why is good Safety Culture so important?

How to build and maintain a good SafetyCulture?


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Ingredients of Organizational Culture:!Beliefs, values, and assumptions of founders

!Accumulated shared learning from shared history.

!New beliefs, values, and assumptions brought by newmembers (everybody brings in his own baggage)

Corporate cultures are unique to their organizations andcan vary significantly even in identical cultural

surroundings


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What is Organizational Culture: practical examples

Go-around culture: real pilots do not make go-arounds? Power gradient in the cockpit: can the copilot challenge the

captain?

Are problems reported? Reaction to problems: Suppression? Limited corrections?

Renewal?

Blame culture focusing on blaming individuals?Adherence to rules and agreed practices, e.g. SoPs What is respected more: hierarchical position or knowledge? Documentation culture: do real goodmechanics need

documentation? Meeting culture: timeliness, talking/listening, decisions, Trust and cooperation with other departments

Overall can do approach? Overall cautious approach?


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The Challenge

Resistance to change:

!Organizational culture is extremely difficult and time-taking to

change

!Even with a strong push, may take 10 years Sub-cultures:!There may be local sub-cultures, sometimes in conflict with the

overall corporate culture

Managements role:!Management has an important role in keeping alive an existing

culture, or trying to change it

!Even the management cannot change the culture easily

!Culture reflects management act ions, more than words


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Contents






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What is Safety Culture?

All aspects of the organizational culture which:

! influence how safety is valued in the organization

! influence the organizations capability to functionsafely


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Safety Culture

NationalCulture

OrganisationalCulture

ProfessionalCulture

Safety

Culture


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What is Safety Culture?

You cant no thave a safety

culture.

Usto Schulz

*Usto Schulz is Vice President of safety (retired) of JetBlue


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What is a goodSafety Culture?

An informed culture! People understand the hazards and risks involved in their

own operation

! Staff work continuously to identify and overcome threats tosafety and Communicate!

A just culture! Errors must be understood but reckless violations cannot be

tolerated

! The workforce knows and agrees on what is acceptable and

unacceptable

Source: Transport Canada


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What is a goodSafety Culture?

A reporting culture! People are encouraged to voice safety concerns

! When safety concerns are reported they are analyzed and

appropriate action is taken

A learning culture! People are encouraged to develop and apply their own skills

and knowledge to enhance organizational safety

! Staff are updated on safety issues by management

! Safety reports are fed back to staff so that everyone learns

the lessons

A wary culture! Expecting the unexpected Sources: Transport

Canada & P.Hudson


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Reporting culture / Learning culture

The response to safety concerns, findings andrecommendations:

!Denial! suppression or encapsulation

!Repair actions! local repairs & public relations

!Reform actions! dissemination & global reforms


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Contents






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Being safe is an organizat ionalachievement!

The highest levels of safety cannot be achieved if the

Safety Culture is poor

D k h S f C l i lik ?


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Do you know what your Safety Culture is like?

Average Airways

?

?

C t t


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Contents





H t b ild d i t i d S f t C lt ?


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How to build and maintain a good Safety Culture?

Your safety culture is defined by the collectiveexperiences and expectations of your crewmembers, in the

same way that your brand is defined by the collective

experiences and expectations of your customers. Programs, policies, and technology may get you started,

but they cannot sustain an effective safety culture.

Steve Predmore, JetBlue

Safety Culture is more an outcomethan something that

you could implement directly Many other components of SMS are pre-requisitesfor a

good Safety Culture

H t b ild d i t i d S f t C lt ?


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True and consistent Top Management commitment is apre-requisite

Engineer the elements of a good Safety Culture:

!An informed culture

!A just culture

!A reporting culture

!A learning & wary culture

Non-reprisal policies, correctly

Implemented reporting systems

Well defined and consistently

Implemented policy

Effective Safety Management

System, open communication

Effective SMS, open mindset

Ho to b ild and maintain a good Safet C lt re?


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But the machine is more than a sum of its parts!


Non-reprisal policies, correctly

Implemented reporting systems

Well defined and consistently

Implemented policy

Effective Safety Management

System, open communication

Effective SMS, open mindset

Flexibility

Face-to-facecommunication

Policies,procedures

Showinggoodexample

Innova

tive,dedica

tedpeople

Training

Chronicunease



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Putting in place the framework, i.e. reporting andcommunication channels, policies, etc (not so difficult)

Management respecting the principles themselves, showinggood example and will to improve the S.C (not so easy)

Achieving overall high responsiveness to safety matters(challenging)

People changing their habits, and having high level of trust(not easy)

Polling your Safety Culture


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Polling your Safety Culture

Dilemma:!Safety Culture may be difficult to change

!Safety Culture is relatively easy to measure through simple

(confidential) surveys / questionnaires

It is recommended to run such surveys regularly and use

the results to guide the future safety work

Evolving Safety Culture


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Evolving Safety Culture

GENERATIVEGENERATIVESafety is how we doSafety is how we do

business around herebusiness around here

PROACTIVEWe work on the

problems that we find

CALCULATIVEWe have systems in place

to manage hazards

REACTIVESafety is important when we

have an accident

PATHOLOGICALWho cares as long as werenot caught

INCREASINGLY

INFORMED

INCREASING

TRUST

Substandard even undernormal conditions

Adequate undernormal conditions

using by-the-bookmethods, often failunder unforeseen

circumstances

Beyondexpectations,

unconventionalways to furtherthe safety goals

Contents


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Contents





Conclusions


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Conclusions

Safety Culture is the cream on your safety cake

Building/maintaining/improving a good Safety Culture is

challenging

Safety Culture can be polled regularly to guide its evolution

Documents

14 Safety Culture