The word “culture” is thrown around a lot these days, particularly when it comes to the workplace environment. We often hear reference to workplace culture as a contributing or underlying factor in safety-related incidents but what does this really mean and how does the culture of an organisation contribute to its overall performance?

The Miriam Webster Dictionary defines culture as it relates to a business, as “a way of thinking, behaving, or working that exists in a place or organisation”. Clearly then, culture is about people, what they think and do, how they behave and what is important to them – i.e. their values. In the context of the workplace, this can be translated to:

  1. The way the people within an organisation (or within a Division/Department of the organisation) proactively and reactively act to internal and external stimulus. One example of this could be that workers are encouraged to report all safety incidents as these are recognised as opportunities for learning and to prevent recurrence rather than to apportion blame.
  2. Which behaviours are accepted, and which are not. An example of this might be a site that has a mandatory requirement to wear hearing protection when using grinding equipment but where some workers choose not to wear this and the requirement is not enforced.
  3. What deliverables are determined to be important. For example, where an organisation prioritises production over safety talking about how many widgets have to be made in the hour and how efficiently these need to be turned out, and then either neglects to talk about safety or relegates it to a passing comment like ‘work safe guys!’

From the three examples above, an organisation’s culture can either positively or negatively impact its overall safety performance. But how? Thousands of books have been written on this subject but in short, the core link between culture and performance is in how engaged workers are with the organisation. What drives this engagement can be decidedly varied and is different from person to person. Of course, there are factors like pay and workplace conditions, how stressful or busy the role is (or isn’t), how an individual relates to their work group, how much control and flexibility they have over their work and even how well they get on with their direct boss. However, there is a commonality between the worker’s level of engagement and how strongly (or not) an individual’s personal values align with those of the organisation, and also how valued they feel their work is by the organisation.

For many, equality and justice are personal values. Where these are not present at a workplace, many people find it challenging to support the organisation’s objectives. How engaged are these individuals likely to be? What sort of workplace culture does this drive? Additionally, if a worker feels that their contributions and outputs are not valued (i.e. recognised or appreciated) by the organisation, they are also less likely to be engaged with the organisation and unlikely to want to contribute to the organisation’s success.

The good news is that the reverse is also true. A workplace where people are recognised for their contributions and where their personal values align with that of their organisation are more likely to have a higher level of engagement and desire to contribute to that organisation’s success. Why? Because they work in an environment in which this is encouraged and supported. Engaged people want to come to work, want to do their work safely and want to contribute to a workplace and safety culture that reflects their own values and beliefs.

We will continue this discussion in 2022 in Part 2 of this series, where we will look at some of the key activities that organisations can implement to foster worker engagement with safety and how this leads to a positive workplace safety culture where people feel valued and where their attitudes, beliefs and contributions are embraced.

Please contact QRMC for more information.