Managing safety culture in design activities: Evidence from the Nordic nuclear power domain

Safe and functional design is a topic of growing interest because currently there are many new nuclear builds and plant modernizations. In fact, the functional requirements can be met in many different ways. The existing literature on design emphasises typical tensions of design activity but pays little attention to the culture of design and its relation to safety. This paper provides new insights on managing overall system safety by identifying cultural features that drives and affects the quality of design activities in the nuclear domain. To identify the features, assumptions and norms that guide designers' work processes, we carried out a grounded theory analysis of interview data with designers in the Nordic nuclear domain. These cultural features of design are discussed with relation to a safety culture framework. Managing the overall design project and understanding the big picture is seen as one of the main issues as the networked aspects of the design work are gradually acknowledged.