OFFSHORE TECHNOLOGY REPORT 2000/049

1 Safety culture maturity modelPrepared byThe Keil Centrefor the Health and Safety ExecutiveOFFSHORE TECHNOLOGY REPORT2000/049 Safety culture maturity modelDr Mark FlemingChartered PsychologistThe Keil Centre5 South Lauder RoadEdinburghEH9 9 LJii Crown copyright 2001 Applications for reproduction should be made in writing to:Copyright Unit, Her Majesty s Stationery Office,St Clements House, 2-16 Colegate, Norwich NR3 1 BQFirst published 2001 ISBN 0 7176 1919 2 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may bereproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmittedin any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical,photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the priorwritten permission of the copyright REPORT is made available by the Health and SafetyExecutive as part of a series of reports of work which hasbeen supported by funds provided by the the Executive, nor the contractors concernedassume any liability for the reports nor do theynecessarily reflect the views or policy of the of A DRAFT SAFETY CULTURE MATURITY MODEL(SCMM)

2 OF AN ORGANISATION S SAFETY elements of the safety culture maturity of the safety cultural maturity LEVELS OF SAFETY CULTURE IntroductionThis REPORT describes the development of a draft Safety Culture Maturity Model(SCMM) and the process involved in developing this model. The safety culturematurity concept is new and therefore it was important to explore the potential utilityof a SCMM to safety improvement in the OFFSHORE oil and gas industry. The draftmodel produced has not been validated, as this was beyond the scope of thispreliminary investigation.

3 It is therefore important to note that the model is providedto illustrate the concept and it is not intended to be used as a diagnostic maturity model concept was initially developed by the Software EngineeringInstitute (SEI) as a mechanism to improve the way software is built and model provides organisations with a five level process to assist them indeveloping their software engineering practices. The five levels are Initial,Repeatable, Defined, Managed and Optimising. The capability maturity modelframework has been adapted to be used in other domains and to address issues, suchas project management2, human resources3, usability4 and quality5.

4 The capabilitymaturity model concept is useful because it enables organisations to establish theircurrent level of maturity and the actions required to reach the next maturity model concept appears to be appropriate to safety culture developmentwithin the OFFSHORE oil and gas industry. The industry is currently trying to achieve anoverall step change improvement in safety and it is perceived that behavioural andcultural issues need to be addressed to achieve this improvement. The OFFSHORE oiland gas industry are currently putting a considerable amount of effort into establishingbest practice and identifying tools and techniques that are proven to be effective inimproving safety.

5 Whilst this approach is logical, its effectiveness may be limited bythe heterogeneity in the safety culture across the industry. It is likely that companiesor installations in the early stages of developing their safety culture will requiredifferent improvement techniques from those with strong safety a safety culture maturity model has been developed to assistorganisations in (a) establishing their current level of safety culture maturity and (b)identifying the actions required to improve their Developing a draft Safety Culture Maturity Model (SCMM)

6 A review of publications describing capability maturity models used in other domainssuch as software engineering and usability was carried out in order to base the SCMM within an existing framework. HSE documents describing safety culture in generaland specifically in the OFFSHORE oil and gas industry were reviewed to establish theprincipal components of an organisation s safety culture. A safety maturity modeldeveloped by DuPont6 was also examined. The information obtained from the abovesources, was used to develop an initial draft of a model was further developed and tested by interviewing and holding groupdiscussions with safety experts, operational managers, safety representatives andfrontline staff.

7 Initially, two group discussions were held with senior managers andfrontline staff from a petrochemical plant, recognised as best in class in terms of3safety performance. These sessions focused on describing the different levels of theSCMM. This organisation was selected because they appeared to have reached a highlevel of maturity and therefore could provide information about the different levelsthey had passed through and how they have achieved there current level of results of these focus groups were used to produce descriptors for the five levelsfor each of the ten safety culture were held with senior managers, safety specialists and safetyrepresentatives from OFFSHORE oil and gas companies.

8 The interviewer initiallyexplained the SCMM concept and gave a brief outline of the terms and described thesafety culture at each level. The interviewee was asked to describe their current levelof safety culture maturity and to review the validity of the ten descriptors for aspecific level of maturity, the terms used and the SCMM concept. The SCMM wasrevised in light of the results of these Elements of an organisation s safety cultureThe elements that form the safety culture maturity model have been adapted from thesafety culture components listed by the HSE in HSG487.

9 It is unlikely that theseelements will map exactly onto the factors that companies have previously measuredin safety culture or climate surveys, because there is considerable variation in theproposed elements of an organisation s safety culture. Some researchers argue thatsafety culture is composed of the safety attitudes of an organisation s employees andothers propose that it is much wider incorporating systems, attitudes, values, beliefsand organisational symbols. Safety climate tools tend to measure slightly differentelements of safety culture.

10 The elements used in the safety culture maturity modelcontain the most common components of both theoretical and measurement safety culture maturity of an organisation consists of ten elements, which aredescribed below. An organisation s or installation s level of maturity is determinedon the basis of their maturity on these elements. It is likely that an organisation willbe at different levels on the ten components of the SCMM. Deciding which level ismost appropriate will need to be based on the average level achieved by theorganisation or installation being Ten elements of the safety culture maturity model Management commitment and visibility Communication Productivity versus safety Learning organisation Safety resources Participation Shared perceptions about safety Trust Industrial relations and job satisfaction Assumptions of the safety cultural maturity modelCultural or behavioural approaches to safety improvement are at their most effectivewhen