Safety Culture State Review

The term ‘𝗦𝗮𝗳𝗲𝘁𝘆 𝗖𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲’ is very commonly used today to describe the behavior patterns, habits and practices within an organization in relation to occupational safety. It is assumed that an “improvement” in the safety culture will lead to a reduction of accidents at work.

The concept of the 𝗦𝗮𝗳𝗲𝘁𝘆 𝗖𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 forms the core element for determining the current state, but also a desired future state of your company-specific safety culture. This review enables every safety professional to find a common and simplified language to discuss occupational safety with senior and operational management and to determine clear goals for future development. One of the most important aspects here is that the respective safety culture must fit the company and not be imposed from outside.

The concept of the Safety Culture State Review to determine the maturity level of a company-specific safety culture is based on Covey’s categorization of high-performance teams (Covey, S., The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. London, 2020) into the maturity levels “dependent“, “independent” and “interdependent“. Basically, this categorization is about the way in which employees and managers working together. This type of interaction reflects the specific company culture, which is based on unwritten rules, behaviours, values and historical experiences. Bradley (Dupont) added the category “reactive” and drew a connection between the degree of maturity of a safety culture and occupational safety performance. Furthermore, the Safety Culture State Review assumes that the number of accidents in a company correlates with the current status of the company’s internal safety culture.