The safety culture of the nuclear organization can be addressed at the three levels of culture proposed by Edgar Schein. The industry literature provides a great deal of insight at the artefact and espoused value levels, although as yet it remains somewhat disorganized. There is, however, an overall lack of understanding of the assumption level of safety culture. This paper describes a possible framework for conceptualizing the assumption level, suggesting that safety culture is grounded in unconscious beliefs about the nature of the safety problem, its solution and how to organize to achieve the solution. Using this framework, the organization can begin to uncover the assumptions at play in its normal operation, decisions and events and, if necessary, engage in a process to shift them towards assumptions more supportive of a strong safety culture. (author)
President, Cherrystone Management, Inc. Newcastle, ON (Canada)
Publication Date:
Jul 01, 2002
Product Type:
Conference
Report Number:
IAEA-CN-97; IAEA-CN-97/15
Resource Relation:
Conference: International conference on safety culture in nuclear installations, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), 2-6 Dec 2002; Other Information: 7 refs; Related Information: In: International conference on safety culture in nuclear installations. Contributed papers, 247 pages.
Subject:
22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS; ATTITUDES; BEHAVIOR; DECISION MAKING; HUMAN FACTORS; REACTOR OPERATION; REACTOR SAFETY; SAFETY CULTURE; STEADY-STATE CONDITIONS; TRAINING
OSTI ID:
20315947
Research Organizations:
International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (Austria); Eletrobras Termonuclear SA (Brazil); Industrias Nucleares do Brasil (INB) (Brazil)
Packer, Charles.A framework for the organizational assumptions underlying safety culture.IAEA: N. p.,2002.Web.
Packer, Charles.A framework for the organizational assumptions underlying safety culture.IAEA.
Packer, Charles.2002."A framework for the organizational assumptions underlying safety culture."IAEA.
@misc{etde_20315947, title = {A framework for the organizational assumptions underlying safety culture} author = {Packer, Charles} abstractNote = {The safety culture of the nuclear organization can be addressed at the three levels of culture proposed by Edgar Schein. The industry literature provides a great deal of insight at the artefact and espoused value levels, although as yet it remains somewhat disorganized. There is, however, an overall lack of understanding of the assumption level of safety culture. This paper describes a possible framework for conceptualizing the assumption level, suggesting that safety culture is grounded in unconscious beliefs about the nature of the safety problem, its solution and how to organize to achieve the solution. Using this framework, the organization can begin to uncover the assumptions at play in its normal operation, decisions and events and, if necessary, engage in a process to shift them towards assumptions more supportive of a strong safety culture. (author)} place = {IAEA} year = {2002} month = {Jul} }