NT Workshop 1- Organisational Culture and Safety

Join us on Wednesday 16 September for a workshop titled: Organisational Culture and Safety presented by Dr. Tristian Casey, Lecturer, Griffith University.

Safety culture is one of the most debated and studied concepts in safety science, yet is still poorly understood. One the one hand, scholars argue to ‘abandon’ it as a concept and move on to other concepts that explain the social forces that shape safety capability in organisations. On the other hand, practitioners and industry, in general, makes extensive use of safety culture, and clearly find some use in it as a concept. How can we reconcile these divergent views and move the debate on safety culture forward in productive directions? This workshop will tackle this ambitious goal.

What will you learn during this workshop?

Practical learning objectives you will achieve during this workshop include the following:

• Ability to critique safety culture initiatives and interventions presented by internal or external consultants.
• Principles to guide the development of a comprehensive safety culture discovery process (how you might go about doing this yourself).
• Understanding of the development of evolution of the safety culture concept.
• Knowledge about emerging safety culture measurement methods and interpretation of findings.
• Insights into how safety culture interfaces with various other safety science theories.

EVENT DETAILS 
Date: Wednesday 18 September
Time: 13:00 - 17:00 ACST
Location: Vibe Hotel Darwin Waterfront. 7 Kitchener Drive, Darwin 0800
Format: Presenters will be live-streamed into the workshop with face to face group activities for participants. 
Cost: Individual Session: AIHS Members $90+GST   |  Non-Members $150+GST
All three sessions: AIHS Members $220+GST | Non-Member: $360+GST
Virtual Attendance: AIHS Member $45+GST ( Individual session) or $110+GST All 3 Workshops | Non-Member $65+GST ( Individual session) or $180+GST All 3 Workshops 

What content will we cover during this workshop?

1. Lay of the land – summary safety culture, grouped into 1) pragmatic/behavioural, 2) normative, and 3) interpretive; we will also briefly cover the philosophy and history of each approach.
2. History of the safety culture concept—chronological overview of how the term has changed meaning and focus over time
3. Roots of culture—an anthropological view, what is culture?
4. Organisational culture—management view on the topic, general organisational culture and its links to performance, Edgar Schein’s model etc.
5. Culture as an explanation for disasters pt1 - Barry Turner and Nick Pidgeon—the birth of the safety culture concept, manmade disasters theory, Chernobyl—unpacking the case study, deep dive into how this event brought safety culture to the mainstream
6. Culture as an explanation for successes—high reliability organising, resilience engineering.
7. The pragmatic approach—Hudson’s culture ladder, Westrum, James Reason etc.
8. The normative approach—safety climate
9. The Interpretive approach—ethnography and case study approaches
10. Innovating and towards the future—alternatives to the safety culture concept

How is this workshop different?

While academics debate rage about the integrity and usefulness of the safety culture term, industry presses on with a menagerie of campaigns, initiatives, and activities all founded on the premise of safety culture. Real-world practitioners are likely to encounter safety culture in the course of their profession, and so need ways of evaluating the credibility of safety culture programs and potentially designing and running their own cultural investigations to improve safety. Rather than confusing attendees with a raft of models and competing explanations, this workshop will describe the varied landscape of safety culture and provide a practical integration to advance understanding and practice forwards.

Tristan will draw on his extensive scholarly and practical network to engage you on a learning journey that draws on key thought leaders. He will also share real case-study and industry examples. Some of the leading scholars and thought leaders who have influenced the design and content of this workshop include:

• Prof Sidney Dekker (thought leader in ‘safety differently’)
• Prof Mark Griffin and Prof Andrew Neal (early pioneers of safety climate in Australia)
• Prof Dov Zohar (creator of the safety climate concept)
• Prof David Borys (critic of traditional safety culture approaches)
• Dr Xiaowen Hu (management scholar and general organisational culture expert)
• Dr David Provan and Dr Drew Rae (institutional logics – an alternative to safety culture)
• Dr Stian Antonsen (proponent for mixed methods investigations of safety culture)

Your Presenter 

Dr Tristan Casey is a Lecturer at Griffith University’s Safety Science Innovation Lab and co-founder of ‘The Culture Effect’—a collaboration between Griffith and QUT that provides commercial research services to industry. Tristan is an experienced and endorsed Organisational Psychologist with extensive experience in work health and safety. He has an interest in teamwork, leadership and organizational culture. Tristan teaches into the Graduate Certificate of Safety Leadership and Bachelor of Social Science at Griffith University. Recently, he completed his second doctorate, this time in safety leadership. Tristan is currently working on research around the management of safety amid COVID19, psychological safety, and safety climate.

Other Workshops in the Series 
 

Workshop 2: The 4 pillars of Contractor Management 
Presented by Sue Bottrell, lawyer, and AIHS Fellow at Contractor Safe

Date: Thursday 24 September 2020
Time: 1pm - 5pm
Venue: Vibe Hotel Darwin Waterfront
CPD Points: 10 Points
Individual Session: AIHS Members $90+GST | Non-members $150+GST 
All three sessions: AIHS Members $220+GST | Non-Member: $360+GST

Workshop 3: What is leading safety?
Presented by Debra Burlington, Enhance Solutions

Date: Tuesday 13 October September 2020
Time: 1pm - 5pm
Venue: Vibe Hotel Darwin Waterfront
CPD Points:10 Points
Individual Session: AIHS Members $90+GST | Non-members $150+GST
All three sessions: AIHS Members $220+GST | Non-Member: $360+GST