Safety culture information > What is safety culture?
What is safety culture?
The term ‘safety culture’ first emerged following the International Atomic Energy Agency’s initial report into the Chernobyl disaster (IAEA, 1986). Despite a wealth of information, articles and reports relating to safety culture, there remains no universal definition or model.
Safety culture has been defined in a variety of ways, including:
• ‘The way we do things around here’ (Confederation of British Industry (CBI) 1990);
• ‘A set of attitudes, beliefs or norms’ (Turner, 1989);
• ‘A constructed system of meaning (or shared understanding) through which the hazards of the world are understood’ (Pidgeon, 1998);
• ‘A safety ethic’ (Wert, 1986).