Assessing safety culture in offshore environments

This paper discusses a joint industry and UK Health and Safety Executive research project on the assessment of safety culture in offshore environments. It particularly describes the development of a safety culture assessment methodology which is based on a systems approach to organisational culture. This approach combines a number of assessment methods, such as: questionnaires, focus groups, behavioural observations and situational audits, to describe and explore the efficacy of health and safety management systems. The evidence produced by these methods are complementary rather than alternatives and provide different views of organisational health and safety culture by tapping many aspects of the organisation's structure, function and behaviour. The assessment techniques have been piloted within collaborating organisations, both within the UK and the Gulf of Mexico. The culmination of the work is the “Safety Climate Assessment Toolkit” which is now published and available for use by managers and safety professionals within the offshore oil extraction industry.