Culture Management in the UK Rail Industry

Organisational safety culture matters because it influences the way staff behave and perform at work. The importance of proactive safety culture management is highlighted by the number of major incidents where poor safety culture has been identified as a causal factor (e.g. Piper Alpha, Ladbroke Grove). As awareness of culture management has grown, organisations are increasingly seeking tools to help them ensure that corporate safety objectives are linked to a strategy for encouraging appropriate staff attitudes and beliefs. The CAS Organisational Safety Culture Analysis (OSCA) is a structured process that helps senior management teams define the safety culture that they need, measure how effectively this culture is embedded within their organisation and identify culture development priorities. This paper outlines the OSCA process and includes a case study describing how a UK rail organisation has made use of OSCA.