The Definitive Guide To Leveraging Culture For Safer Programming & Operations

Defining the use of culture in safety science and strategies to employ these concepts.

 

In April 2011, I first stepped foot in South Korea. I was part of an inaugural group of staff starting an outdoor education program at a new international school, in a new city that was being built on new, freshly reclaimed land from the bottom of the Yellow Sea.

Little did I know at the time that I would return year after year and eventually call this place home. My purpose in Korea was to implement an American-influenced, school-based outdoor education program in the Korean context for students from all corners of the globe.

After that first course, I became fascinated by culture and cultural clashes– it was apparent everywhere, and it drove me to question everything I thought I knew.

 

What is Culture?

Let’s define culture. There are an infinite number of definitions posted on the internet, and this one from an academic paper resonates particularly well with me:

 

Culture refers to the values, assumptions, norms, beliefs, knowledge, preferences, and perceptions held by a group of people. Culture evolves over multiple generations and once acquired, cultural factors manifest themselves unconsciously. “As a result, most people are not aware of their own culture until they experience some form of ‘culture clash’” (p. 608).

 

– HODGSON, SIEMIENUICH, & HUBBARD. (2013, PG 608)

 

A Range of Culture-Types Influence Risk Management

What exactly do we mean when we use the word, culture? Academia recognizes several types and facets of culture, which can, unfortunately, be confusing for the everyday practitioner.

Here are a few ways culture is used in risk management:

  • National culture refers to a group of people’s values, and their shared expectations or preferences about how those values are carried out.

    National culture is a group phenomenon (as opposed to an individual’s personality or personality trait) and is only apparent when compared to another group of people’s values. In this cultural measurement, people can be grouped by the country or region in which they grew up.

  • Organizational culture encompasses the shared attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that define how members of an organization interact with one another, approach their work, and engage with others beyond their organization.

    Organizational culture is evidenced in the practices carried out by the organization’s members, and how those practices differ from those of other organizations.

  • Safety culture is generally described as an element of organizational culture. It specifically refers to the shared risk values among an organization’s members, including beliefs about and attitudes toward risk and safety practices. The safety culture of an organization is developed over time, and once established, its traits can persist.

  • Safety climate represents the front-line staff’s perceptions of the organization’s risk values and approaches (like policy and procedure) and is most apparent through the staff’s real-world application of the organization’s risk management systems.

    Safety climate varies from group to group and among different departments. It is a snapshot of safety perceptions at a point in time and can change quickly.

  • Individual social & self-identity is perhaps the concept that readily comes to mind for many folks when they think about culture. Social identity refers to the various characteristics a person may exhibit that align with others who share the same characteristics. Self-identity is how a person defines themself.

    Social and self-identity are present and are influencing factors in all these cultural constructs.

 

Organizational Culture Trumps National Culture (Helmreich & Merritt, 1998)

Practically speaking, org culture is more important and impactful. This is great news for international programs and organizations with diverse staff groups. It gives the organization the power to create the culture they want and need to achieve their mission, rather than being beholden to external forces beyond their control.

Safety Culture and Safety Climate Are Similar to Personality and Mood (Zohar, 2010)

Safety culture is a broad concept and encompasses overall organizational culture and values; it’s akin to personality. Although a person’s personality can change, it is ever-present and influences a range of intra- and inter-personal interactions, it evolves slowly and over time.

Safety climate, on the other hand, is more similar to mood. Your mood fluctuates and changes easily and often. A snapshot of your mood might represent a summary of your experience throughout the day.

Safety climate, then, is a narrower term that focuses on staff’s current perceptions about safety and safety practices, such as supervision, decisions, resources, and policy. Gathering safety climate snapshots helps managers improve monitoring and management through trust and transparency.

National Culture Influences Safety Culture (Reader et al., 2015)

Although not causal, aspects of safety culture and national culture are positively correlated. This means that national culture influences the development of safety culture, but doesn’t directly inform or establish it (the two are not synonymous).

For example, researchers correlated the following aspects, among others, of safety culture and national culture:

  • Willing/unwillingness to challenge superiors

  • Challenging/not challenging unsafe group activity

  • Overreliance/underreliance on established practices

  • Focus on competition and immediate gains over long-term interests (like increasing production or income over safety).

 

Strategies to Wield Culture for More Effective Risk Management

Establish an intentional organizational culture around your desired safety values and practices. Drive what you want it to be in a way that helps achieve your mission and programmatic goals– don’t let your culture evolve haphazardly (see my post on 5 commonly held myths about group process).

For international programs and those with diverse staff groups, the science tells us to prioritize organizational culture over national culture differences. National cultural influences are strong, and therefore, it is unlikely (or at least very difficult) for groups of people to alter their core values and beliefs. Organizational culture (think: practices) is a better indicator of performance and behavior than national culture (e.g., values).  

AND,

national culture does matter and can’t be overlooked. The science also tells us that national culture influences the development of an organization’s safety culture.

Although an organization will establish its own practices and expectations, the way staff respond to these practices is shaped by their national culture. For example, do staff strictly adhere to expectations and protocols? Or do they loosely follow and define for themselves their own ways of working?

Over time, people usually resist or avoid working in ways that conflict with their values.

To effectively establish your desired safety culture, it is essential to take into account the influences of staff and participants’ national cultures. Hofstede Insights is my go-to resource to learn more about these influences.

Safety culture and climate are leading indicators of safety performance. This means that understanding your organization’s safety culture gives insight into future trends and outcomes, and safety climate insights provide clear guidance to improve safety performance.

The best way to understand your safety culture is to establish a baseline. Numerous scales and surveys exist, and Jeff Jackson does one specific to outdoor programs.

 

Cultural factors are indirect contributing factors to incidents; they help describe the context for risk. Awareness of these factors and their influences helps to understand why a decision or action made sense at the time (see my post about putting systems thinking into practice).

If I had been equipped with this framework when I first stepped off the plane in Korea, I would have been smarter about getting started and we would have reached our program design goals for a values-driven outdoor program a lot sooner.

 

References

Helmreich, R., L., & Merritt, A. C. (2001). Culture at Work in Aviation and Medicine: National, Organizational and Professional Influences (2nd ed.). Ashgate. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315258690

Hodgson, A., Siemieniuch, C. E., & Hubbard, E. (2013). Culture and the safety of complex automated sociotechnical systems. IEEE Transactions on Human-Machine Systems, 43(6), 608–619. http://doi.org/10.1109/thms.2013.2285048

Jackson, J., Harper, N., & McLean, S. (2021). Trust, Workload, Outdoor Adventure Leadership, and Organizational Safety Climate. Journal of Outdoor Recreation, Education, and Leadership, 13(4). https://doi.org/10.18666/JOREL-2020-V13-I4-10529

Reader, T. W., Noort, M. C., Shorrock, S., & Kirwan, B. (2015). Safety sans Frontières: An International Safety Culture Model. Risk Analysis, 35(5), 770–789. https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.12327

Zohar, D. (2010). Thirty years of safety climate research: Reflections and future directions. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 42(5), 1517–1522. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2009.12.019

 

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Stuart Slay

Stuart Slay is an independent risk management advisor and safety educator working with schools and outdoor activity programs. He is based in Taipei, Taiwan, and Seattle, Washington.

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