@inbook{6394db19fa1b40a886dfc5dde07b0f86,
title = "Understanding safety culture through models and metaphors",
abstract = "“Few things are so sought after and yet so little understood.” With this pithy statement, psychologist James Reason expressed the potential value but also the elusiveness of this complex social-scientific concept twenty years ago (Reason, Managing the risks of organizational accidents. Ashgate, Aldershot, 1997). Culture had been on the mind of safety scientists since Turner{\textquoteright}s book Man-made disasters from 1978, but the term {\textquoteleft}safety culture{\textquoteright} was only coined nine years later, right after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986. Since then, safety culture has been alluring as a cause—for both occupational accidents and process related events—and as a thing to strive for, although possibly unattainable (Guldenmund, Understanding and exploring safety culture. BOXPress, Oisterwijk, 2010). In this chapter, I will look at various perspectives on (safety) culture, using the metaphor as an illuminative principle, to identify (what seems to be) the essence of some dominating perspectives. Firstly, however, a common understanding of what culture {\textquoteleft}is{\textquoteright}, needs to be established. I will then touch upon the assessment of culture. Afterwards, I will present four metaphors for safety culture, which represent the dominant perspectives on this concept. The chapter ends with suggestions on how safety culture might be influenced.",
keywords = "Safety culture, Culture model, Culture development, Culture assessment, Culture metaphors",
author = "Frank Guldenmund",
year = "2018",
doi = "10.1007/978-3-319-95129-4_3",
language = "English",
isbn = "978-3-319-95128-7",
series = "SpringerBriefs in Applied Sciences and Technology",
publisher = "Springer",
pages = "21--34",
editor = "{ Gilbert}, Claude and { Journ{\'e}}, Beno{\^i}t and { Laroche}, Herv{\'e} and Corinne Bieder",
booktitle = "Safety cultures, safety models. Taking stock and moving forward",
}