Identifying leading safety culture improvement practices to drive innovation to assist in the prevention of workplace injuries

When safety critical organizations develop safety culture improvement strategies they are rarely shared widely outside the organization as there is limited benefit in sharing with others. In contrast to healthcare there is not a tradition of publishing safety improvements in journals or professional magazines. When innovations are shared externally, the description is often sanitized and does not contain then challenges encountered and missteps. In addition, consultancy companies provide a large proportion of the widely shared safety innovations, as they wish to promote their services. Since many safety critical companies struggle with similar challenges in promoting a positive safety culture, it is likely that they are independently developing solutions to the same problems. Phase 1 of this research will address this gap by conducting a series of case studies on safety culture improvement initiatives. These case studies will provide insight into how safety critical companies are trying to improve safety culture. This information will assist organizations in identifying strategies to improve.
Safety leadership is key driver of safety culture, as leaders set the tone for safety. While organizations commit significant resources to safety leadership training, there is less evidence of its effectiveness.

Faculty Supervisor:

Mark Fleming

Student:

Gregory Anderson

Partner:

Emera

Discipline:

Psychology

Sector:

Energy

University:

Saint Mary's University