Cultural Maturity for High Reliability Organisations

The characteristics of High Reliability Organisations (HRO) provide a sound basis for the positive development of organisational maturity and for consolidation of advanced safety and reliability cultures.

It is Silcar’s experience that a high reliability organisation (HRO) culture is the critical foundation for the commitment and persistence needed to achieve the advanced organisational safety and asset reliability required of a modern and competitive asset intensive enterprise.

The principles of HRO provide a sound basis for the establishment of the required culture. HRO also provides a proven model backed by solid academic research with practical case studies to help people understand what an HRO looks like. Becoming a HRO implies moving from a Reactive or Planned domain shown in the diagram and table below towards the Proactive and Generative domains. The cultural domains identified in the diagram and table below are based on a synthesis of independent models of safety culture and asset reliability cultural domains.

Organisational Cultural Domains of Safety and Reliability




Characteristics of Cultural Domains of Safety and Reliability