Introduction to Fire Safety Management

4.2.2 The 
benefi ts of a positive safety culture
The importance of creating a positive safety culture can-
not be overstated. In extreme cases a positive safety 
culture can make the difference between the success or 
failure of an organisation’s survival.
individual losses will be minimised. Table 4.1 summarises 
some of the more obvious benefi ts of a positive safety 
culture, for both the organisation as a whole and the indi-
viduals working within it.
4.3
Tangible indicators of safety culture
It is never simple to discern the state of the safety cul-
ture within organisations. Some say that one can get a 
‘feel’ for a positive or negative safety culture by visiting 
the workplace or in some cases reviewing the products 
or documentation of an organisation. These subjective 
assessments are of limited value and rarely allow the situ-
ation at any one time to be quantifi ed, e.g. is the safety 
culture worse now than it was last year?
Without quantifi able measures safety culture (as is 
the case with all aspects of an organisation) cannot be 
effectively managed. It is therefore vital for managers 
to have some idea of the culture within their organisa-
tions. Moreover, safety culture is critical to the success 
or failure of risk management within an organisation; it is 
important to attempt to understand whether the safety 
culture is working for or against the aims of manage-
ment. Quantifi able data is available to assist managers 
assess the safety culture, from the following indicators:
➤
Accident/incident occurrence and reporting rates
➤
Sickness and absenteeism
➤
Staff 
turnover
➤
Compliance with safety rules
➤
Complaints
➤
Output 
quality
➤
Staff 
involvement.
When attempting to determine the nature of an organisa-
tion’s safety culture, is it vital not to draw too fi rm a con-
clusion from one single indicator. Astute managers will 
recognise that there are a number of variable factors that 
may infl uence any one of the indicators. More confi dence 
can be placed in conclusions that are drawn from a clus-
ter of indicators, tending to suggest a similar picture.