Safety Culture and process enhancement in aviation
Safety culture is the collection of the beliefs, perceptions and values that employees share in relation to risks within an organization, such as a workplace or community. Safety culture is a part of organizational culture and has been described in a variety of ways.
Safety culture reflects individual, group and organisational attitudes, norms and behaviours.
Safety culture is not just a reflection of the individuals that make up an organisation; an organisationās safety culture is more than the sum of its parts.
Secondly, a safety culture must recognise that safety culture is reflected in the value of, priority of and commitment to safety. An organisation with a strong safety culture values the importance of safety; it recognises that safety is a business imperative. Safety is also afforded the highest priority over commercial, operating, environmental and social pressures.
Ways to introduce safety management to the aviation industry
An element of safety culture that promotes safety in aviation is listed below –
1. Just Culture
Informed culture relies on a reporting culture which in turn relies on a Just Culture. All employees must clearly understand and recognise that it is unacceptable to punish all errors and unsafe acts regardless of their origins and circumstances while it is equally unacceptable to give blanket immunity from sanctions to all actions that could, or did, contribute to organisational accidents. A prerequisite for engineering a just culture is an agreed set of principles.
2. Reporting Culture
Most of the time in aviation safety, the issue is not whether the organisation has a reporting system; it is whether, as a matter of practice, errors, near misses, hazards and risks are reported. A reporting culture depends, in turn, on how the organisation handles blame and punishment. If blame is the routine response to error, then reports will not be forthcoming. If, on the other hand, blame is reserved for truly egregious behaviour, involving recklessness or malice, reporting in general will not be discouraged. Instead of a blanket no-blame approach, what is required? The reason, the argument argues, is a just culture.
3. Informed Culture
Management fosters a culture where people understand the hazards and risks inherent in their areas of operation.
Personnel are provided with the necessary knowledge, skills and job experience to work safely, and they are encouraged to identify the threats to safety and to seek the changes necessary to overcome them. An informed culture relies on having a strong reporting culture.
4. Learning Culture
Reports are only effective if an organisation learns from them.
Learning will occur from both reactive and proactive safety assessments and is promoted by an inherent organisational willingness to adapt and improve.
5. Flexible Cultures
A culture of safety is flexible, in the sense that decision-making processes vary, depending on the urgency of the decision and the expertise of the people involved.
Risk Mis-perception
This is been found as that mis-perceptions of the seriousness of risks occur frequently at all levels. The perception of risk or peopleās judgments of riskiness is influenced by different attributes of hazards, e.g., controllable-uncontrollable. Misjudgments of risks may cause risky behavior and inappropriate decisions with regard to safety measures and ordinary occupational accidents as well as large-scale accidents. Associations between risk perception and safety. Safety Science Attitudes to Safety Attitudes (especially managementās) in relation to safety, risk and production. Having accurate risk perceptions does not necessarily result in correct risk and safety-related behaviours. Ignorance or deliberate violations of safety rules and procedures are often due to employee attitudes towards risk and safety (HSC, 1993). Hale (2003) advances the shared purpose in safety performance, i.e., the involvement felt by all parties in the organisation, especially the workforce, in the process of defining, prioritising and controlling risk.
