ASSESSMENT OF HEALTH AND SAFETY CULTURE

Assessment of Health and Safety Culture

Abstract

This article reports a qualitative interview study of 31 employees, with and without leadership responsibility, employed in a British petroleum company. Health, safety and environment (HSE) culture was a new concept and the aim of this study was to gain insight into how the workers conceptualized the concept, different aspects of HSE culture and differences between the informants. The informants used the concept HSE culture in three ways. The most common way was descriptive, and the informants gave both positive and negative descriptions. Also a causal way of using the concept and a systemic way was used. Safety was the topic mentioned most, especially by informants from the operational units. However, occupational health and the working environment were also mentioned as important. Managers and employees differed little in the use of the concept of HSE culture and their opinions about the HSE challenges. Management was frequently mentioned as being important by all. Behaviour, competence, collaboration, procedures and the physical environment were found to be important in a sound HSE culture. These results are illustrated as an HSE culture umbrella in the discussion for further communication on the topic.

Assessment of Health and Safety Culture

Part I

Executive summary

Combining the term health, safety and environment (HSE) with the concept of culture has become common in the petroleum industry in UK since 2002. Safety culture has been used since the 1980s and failings in safety culture have been attributed to a series of major disasters (INSAG, 2008, 54-67). In the scientific field the safety culture concept is not yet established and its validity and content is still highly debated. However, a fuller and more comprehensive concept combining health, working environment and environment with safety was required to address the holistic mindset of companies striving to achieve a high level of social responsibility and show care and concern for “people”, “plant” and “the environment”. This article outlines the concept of HSE culture and focuses on how this concept is interpreted in a large petroleum company, with onshore and offshore process workers and office workers. It also discusses the relationship between safety culture and HSE culture. The aims of the study are to explore the various ways the HSE concept is used and understood by managers and employees in one company and from this knowledge to build up an illustration useful for communication within the organisation. We believe this knowledge will be useful for other companies and industries as well and help to develop strategies, methods, and actions that will improve the HSE performance. (INSAG, 2008, 54-67)

Chapter I

Part II Introduction

Background and industry context

The petroleum sector is the largest industry in UK and employed in 2005 approximately 80,000 people in petroleum-based activities (Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, 2005 Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, 2005.Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, 2005). The Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) UK is an independent regulatory body under the Ministry of Labour and Government Administration. Its task is to stipulate premises and follow ...