Safety management systems and safety culture in aircraft maintenance organisations

A self-regulatory model was proposed to examine how different organisations manage safety, with particular emphasis on the human and organisational as pects. The relationships of different aspects of safety culture and safety management systems were explored through the deployment of different resear ch measures and methods. Studies of four aircraft maintenance organisations included analysis of documentation and qualitative interviews, surveys of safety climate and attitudes, expected response to incidents and compliance with task procedures. The model was effective in analysing the salient fea tures of each organisation's safety management system, though it underestim ated the roles of planning and change. The data from management inter Views ,the incidents survey and safety climate survey exhibited a large measure o f agreement in differentiating between the different safety management syst ems and safety climate of the four organisations. The measures of complianc e with task procedures and safety attitudes did not differentiate between t he four organisations (though one organisation did differ from the others i n safety attitudes). This suggests a strong, relatively homogeneous profess ional sub-culture of aircraft technicians spanning the different organisati ons. Differences in safely attitudes and climate were found between occupat ional groups, though in the case of climate the differences between occupat ional groups were a function of the organisation, suggesting a differentiat ed notion of safety culture. The professional sub-culture of technicians is likely to mediate between the organisation's safely management system and safety outcomes. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights res erved.