Leadership and safety culture are deeply related.
As INPO says:
“Safety culture is defined as the core values and behaviors
resulting from a collective commitment by leaders and individuals
in order to focus on safety over other factors.”
In order to achieve this, we must work on three different features.
Individual commitment to the safety of any worker,
especially regarding personal accountability, as well as having a questioning attitude
and always promoting effective safe communication.
On the management side, we have to feature
this management commitment to safety, where leaders have to promote safety values
and actions through their leadership.
They should promote as well a respectful work environment
and take safety as the maximum priority when making any decision.
And finally, the management systems take into account the continuous training,
promote the identification and the resolution of challenges
and support a healthy environment where concerns can be risen
and where the work processes are completely clear.
Leadership and safety culture are deeply related.
According to the IAEA glossary, we can say that:
“Safety culture is that assembly of characteristics and attitudes
in organizations and individuals which establishes that,
as an overriding priority, protection and safety issues receive
the attention warranted by their significance.”
Remembering the IAEA model which has 5 safety culture characteristics,
we can see that one of them states that “Leadership for safety is clear.”
Leadership in safety matters has to be shown at the highest levels
in an organization.
And thus, management would help modeling the desired behaviors.
As we have said before, safety culture is all about managing
the attitudes and behaviors regarding the safety
of any given organization
and workers concerned.
And thus, there is the need to integrate it in the organization´s management.
So, Safety culture according IAEA includes:
what is called “Leadership for safety”.
This part is achieved when the organization´s objectives, goals,
visions, strategies and needs are clearly established and integrated.
Also by upholding the individual commitment to the safety of people
and the protection of the environment from any dangerous exposure to radiation.
And finally, by defending the safety principles
and by working in the behaviors, the expectations and by being able
to nurture a positive, strong and healthy safety culture.
Finally, we have a set of different principles that you can read after this video.