Is Safety Culture Misleading?

April 01 2018
By: Terry L. Mathis

A recent article in the Harvard Business Review proposes that the term "safety culture" is misleading in that it suggests an organization has multiple cultures rather than just one. The point has some merit, and we mentioned that fact in our book on safety culture. However, the idea that an organizational culture is not multi-dimensional is equally misleading. Most organizations have many sub-cultures - by location, business unit, department, job description or other distinction. In many instances, the sub-cultures are much stronger than the overall organizational culture. This is especially true in organizations formed through mergers and acquisitions, which is a growing percentage of organizations.

It is helpful to examine and perfect the safety elements of the overall organizational culture, and the term "safety culture" helps to clarify exactly what to look for. Yes, theoretically, cultures form around groups of people, not specific themes or issues. However, simply defining the overall idea of safety culture as a priority or focus is equally limited. A strong safety culture involves the leaders who set the priorities, as well as the workers who are impacted by those priorities.