Abstract

Many initiatives intended to improve safety in nuclear facilities have used the concept of “safety culture,” which focuses on human and organizational factors and emphasizes the importance of the perceptions, interpretations, and behaviors of the individuals and groups within organizations.

Particularly when it comes to risk management, it is widely believed that safety culture can be a used as a lever to strengthen a company’s overall structure and organization. But how is it possible to ensure that a new safety policy or organizational infrastructure really will promote safe and reliable operations without unforeseen and undesired cultural consequences? Once recommendations have been issued, how is it possible to assess the extent to which safety culture has (or has not) improved?

This paper argues that using what we call a “cultural analysis framework” can be a powerful way to identify and understand cultural elements that have an impact on reliability and safety within organizations. We will use a case study of the introduction of a safety management system in a nuclear facility to present this original approach. Because safety culture is a highly complex topic that can be challenging to address directly, our cultural analysis framework approaches a system at three levels, which, when explored together, can help to develop a comprehensive understanding of the cultural aspects of safety in an organization. First, at the macro level this approach examines the cultural background of a system and how it is integrated into an existing organizational culture. Second, at the meso level it looks at the collective aspects of a given system within an organization. Third, at the micro level it investigates collective and social life (modes of socialization, relationships, trust, practice sharing), as well as the symbolic and identity-related aspects of a system.

Based on the findings of our study, this paper concludes that a socio-comprehensive approach to safety can be an effective means to identify “reasonable” actions to be taken in any organization seeking to improve risk management.

摘要

许多旨在改善核设施安全的举措都使用了“安全文化”的概念，该概念侧重于人和组织因素，并强调组织内个人和团体的看法、解释和行为的重要性。

特别是在风险管理方面，人们普遍认为安全文化可以用作加强公司整体结构和组织的杠杆。但是，如何才能确保新的安全政策或组织基础设施真正促进安全可靠的运营，而不会产生不可预见和不希望的文化后果？一旦发布了建议，如何评估安全文化已（或未）改进的程度？

本文认为，使用我们所说的“文化分析框架”可以成为识别和理解对组织内的可靠性和安全性有影响的文化元素的有效方法。我们将使用在核设施中引入安全管理系统的案例研究来介绍这种原始方法。由于安全文化是一个高度复杂的话题，很难直接解决，我们的文化分析框架在三个层次上处理一个系统，当一起探索时，可以帮助全面了解组织中安全的文化方面。首先，在宏观层面，这种方法检查系统的文化背景以及它如何融入现有的组织文化。第二，在中观层面，它着眼于组织内给定系统的集体方面。第三，在微观层面，它研究集体和社会生活（社会化模式、关系、信任、实践分享），以及系统的象征和身份相关方面。

根据我们的研究结果，本文得出的结论是，社会综合安全方法可以成为确定任何寻求改进风险管理的组织要采取的“合理”行动的有效手段。