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Safety Management and Safety Culture The Long, Hard and Winding Road1


This paper will examine briefly the history of systematic safety management
systems and safety cases, drawing on my personal experience of the petrochemical
industry and Shell in particular. While I attempt a balanced view, my experience has
been constrained to the Oil and Gas industry and, more recently, the commercial
aviation environment. It will take the view that, while safety management has a long
tradition, what has often been lacking was a systematic basis for safety management
that allowed organisations to see if they had any gaps in their coverage. To proceed
further it is necessary to develop organisational cultures that support processes
beyond prescription, such as ‘thinking the unthinkable’ and being intrinsically
motivated to be safe, even when there seems no obvious reason to. The paper will
examine the notion of Safety Cultures and High Reliability Organisations and put
them in a context accessible to small and medium-sized businesses. Finally the paper
concludes with a discussion of how to achieve such a safety culture and of the pitfalls
that await the unwary. This will include a look at the regulatory environment that can
encourage the development of systematic safety management and safety cultures
without burdening those organisations that are supposed to be being helped. The road
to safety may seem long and hard, and appear to wind, but the destination makes it
well worthwhile.
Prof. Patrick Hudson - Personal Name
NONE
Safety Management and Safety Culture The Long, Hard and Winding Road1
Management
English
2014
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