Synthesis of Safety and Asset Reliability Cultural Maturity Models

Silcar uses a framework for addressing organisational culture based on synthesis of two independent research lines on (a) the evolution of safety culture modes and (b) process plant cultural domains.

Research in safety culture has identified five modes in the evolution of safety culture:
1. Pathological - Who cares about safety, so long as we don’t get caught
2. Reactive -Safety is important, we do a lot every time we have an accident
3. Calculative - We have safety systems in place to manage the hazards
4. Proactive - We work on the safety problems that we still find
5. Generative - Safety is how we do business around here.

Source: Patrick Hudson – “Safety Management and Safety Culture The Long, Hard and Winding Road”. First National Conference on Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems, University of Western Sydney, Australia 2000

Parallel research into cultural domains for process plant operations and maintenance has identified five domains that parallel the safety culture modes as set out in the diagram below.
1. Regressive - Short term savings to meet available cash
2. Reactive - Heroes respond rapidly to breakdowns
3. Planned  - No surprises – plan to avoid failure
4. Precision - Uptime and the value of production drive our competitive advantage
5. World Class - Innovate to become the best.

Source: Winston Ledet – “Making the Move Toward a Learning Organization – A Classic Journey of Change”, 2002

Safety Culture Modes and Plant Operating Cultural Domains