Safety culture blame

As discussed earlier in this chapter, the main requirements to ensure an appropriate safety culture are similar to those which are advocated in quality management systems. These include active participation by the workforce in error and safety management initiatives, a blame-free culture which fosters the free flow of information, and an explicit policy which ensures that safety considerations will always be primary. In addition both operations and management staff need feedback which indicates that participation in error reduction programs has a real impact on the way in which the plant is operated and systems are designed. 

How individuals within an organisation are expected to prioritise safety in then-day to day work as part of a safety culture and how concerns can be raised in a blame-free, non-prejudicial manner. 

These four historic defenses were the beginning of the shirking of, and excuses for, safety responsibility. By putting the blame on the worker, the safety burden is shifted to the employees, and statements such as The majority of injuries are as a result of the unsafe behavior of the worker reinforce this incorrect assumption and misdirect well-intended safety efforts. Safety culture shift involves recognizing the principle of multiple causes and forces employers to look beyond the injured worker to seek root causes of accidents. 

For a safety culture change intervention to be successful, there must be a climate of trust between employees and management. This includes declaring a truce and moving the focus away from injury blame fixing and fault finding to a safe space where injuries can be reported without fear of reprimand—a space where employees safety concerns can be freely expressed. This amnesty is the only way to create a climate in which old embedded safety habits and beliefs can change. 

This discipline is seemingly all that managers know about accident cause rectification. Once again, in a culture of blame for accidents this would seem to be a normal course of action. No safety culture can be built as long as such a situation exists. 

Because of the safety fear factor there is almost invariably a cover-up after an accident. This most certainly happens after a fatal accident, where employees are terrified of becoming involved in the investigation, especially if legal agencies are involved. This cover-up is another spin-off of the fear factor in industry that hampers the process of creating a positive safety culture. It is a result of years and years of blaming the worker for accidents and will not be changed in a hurry. 

A positive safety culture requires strong, dynamic, and proactive management leadership. Poor or weak management cannot manage a good safety culture and is often the reason for a poor cnltnre despite the blame put on employees for this. 

Dr. Mark A. Friend (2012) also mentions creating a blame-free environment as a prerequisite for safety culture change ... 

Safety culture is one aspect of the wider culture of the organization. In this section, we will define safety culture and consider some of the most important aspects, those relating to openness, blame, reporting and learning. 

Partial resnlts in the Japanese snrvey are shown in Table 4.2 in terms of the percentage of positive respondents for each factor of safety culture as well as significance levels across fom professional groups - although every factor was significantly different. As an overall trend, almost all Japanese healthcare professionals have a strong awareness of communication as well as strong respect for seniority and senior members. There is a small power distance as well as a blame-free atmosphere within a hospital. 

From these resrrlts, it can be seen that a positive safety culture contributes to favorrrable staff attitudes related to patierrt safety. In particular, small power distance arrd blame-free atmosphere appeared as the most effective elements of safety crrlture for positive staff attitrrdes and behaviours to error reporting and interaction with the patierrt after the adverse event. 

Many factors have been highlighted as supporting the development of an effective patient safety culture. Some of the important ones are management (i.e., management commitment, ability, leadership, coordination, and flexibility), immediate supervisors (i.e., open-door policy, participation, and support correct behavior), reporting system (i.e., reporting near-miss, no-blame culture, analysis of error, open-door policy, confidentiality, and feedback). 

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