Successful Approaches For The Development Of An Organization-Wide Safety Culture In Transportation Agencies

Organizations need to establish safety programs that reinforce behavioral compliance with existing safety policies, procedures, and regulatory requirements (i.e., compliance safety programs) and motivate spontaneous and innovative behaviors that proactively support the safety of others within the organization (i.e., proactive safety programs). However, the success of implementing such programs is dependent on the organization’s safety culture. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the factors that support strong safety cultures within organizations. For this scan, the scan team has adopted a simplified version of the definition of organization safety culture proposed by the US Department of Transportation: Safety culture within an organization is exemplified by “the shared values and behaviors that demonstrate a commitment to safety over competing goals.” Based on this definition, safety programs can strengthen (i.e. transform) the culture of an organization by several means, including increasing the valuation of safety and expanding behavioral strategies to achieve safety goals. In addition, the scan team suggests that a strong safety culture is also evident from the use of strategies that recognize the role that local culture plays in the engagement of protective or risky behaviors. Specifically, the focus of this scan was on the organization conditions in which successful programs emerged and the process by which successful programs were implemented. This scan used a case study methodology whereby the scan team obtained detailed data about safety programs from a select group of safety-related organizations. Specifically, the team selected these organizations because of their reputation for demonstrating strong safety cultures. The presumption was that factors common to these organizations should be related to their shared ability to establish successful safety programs. The data collection method involved two phases. In the first phase, representatives of each organization completed a comprehensive questionnaire. In the second phase of data collection, a representative from each organization made a presentation to the scan team about their implemented safety programs.

• Record URL:
  http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/nchrp/docs/NCHRP20-68A_14-03.pdf
• Corporate Authors:

  Arora and Associates, P.C.

  3120 Princeton Pike, 3rd Floor
  Lawrenceville, NJ  United States  08648-2372

  American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO)

  444 North Capitol Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  National Cooperative Highway Research Program

  Transportation Research Board
  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Malfabon, Rudy
  • Barnett, Timothy E
  • 0000-0002-7073-8751
  • Buckley, Steven A
  • Fleming, Katie
  • Milton, John C
  • Ngo, Chimai
  • Shelton, Mark
  • Tooley, Mike
  • Ward, Nicholas J
• Publication Date: 2015-8

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Edition: Domestic Scan Team Report
• Features: Appendices; Figures; Photos; Tables;
• Pagination: 65p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Case studies; Compliance; Data collection; Methodology; Organizations; Safety culture; Safety programs; Transportation departments; Transportation safety
• Subject Areas: Safety and Human Factors; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01604585
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: NCHRP Project 20-68A, Scan 14-03
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 6 2016 1:14PM