Safety management and organisatorial learning (MANOR): Safety culture and organizational learning

System safety is an emergent property of the entire sociotechnical system. Safety management requires the management of the organization. For that an action-oriented model of organizational safety culture is needed. In this article safety culture is defined as the ability and willingness of the organization to understand safety, hazards and means of preventing them, as well as ability and willingness to act safely, prevent hazards from actualising and promote safety. A model of safety culture is presented. The main elements of an organizational safety culture are defined as organizational dimensions, psychological states and social processes. The influence of safety culture on organizational learning is illustrated. It is concluded that effective safety management requires utilizing and steering the organizational dimensions, controlling the social processes, and monitoring and influencing the psychological states of the personnel. The safety culture model can be used in evaluating the safety culture at various organizational levels from units and departments to network of organizations.