Measuring Safety Culture Using an Integrative Approach: The Development of a Comprehensive Conceptual Framework and...

Area of Science:

• Safety Science
• Organizational Psychology
• Human Factors Engineering

Background:

• Existing safety culture research lacks a unified definition and interdisciplinary approach.
• Current models often oversimplify the complex and multifaceted nature of safety culture.
• There is a need for a comprehensive framework to assess safety culture effectively in organizations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an integrative and comprehensive conceptual framework for assessing organizational safety culture.
• To address the limitations of existing reductionist models in safety culture research.
• To provide a practical tool for mapping and improving safety culture within organizations.

Main Methods:

• Developed the Integrated Safety Culture Assessment (ISCA) framework.
• Incorporated insights from multiple academic disciplines within a safety science perspective.
• Ensured comprehensiveness by including technological, organizational, and human factors, as well as objective and subjective aspects.

Main Results:

• The ISCA framework offers a holistic and integrative approach to safety culture assessment.
• ISCA considers the interaction of technological, organizational, and human factors.
• The framework accounts for both observable and non-observable safety-related aspects within an organization.

Conclusions:

• The Integrated Safety Culture Assessment (ISCA) provides a robust and practical method for evaluating organizational safety.
• ISCA's integrative approach facilitates a deeper understanding of safety culture's complexity.
• Implementation of ISCA can guide organizations toward positive safety culture transformation.