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Culture

There is growing pressure on companies to demonstrate proactive management of organisational culture.  CAS can help your organisation shape a best practice response to this challenge which will benefit your business.
 
The CAS Culture Management Model
The CAS Culture Management Model underpins all our organisational and safety culture work.  It shows the logical relationships between an organisation's goals and aspirations (Culture), the attitudes and beliefs held by staff (Climate) and the effects of these in the workplace (Behaviour and Performance). It also identifies the main ways of influencing these relationships - through demonstrating management commitment, ensuring incentives are consistent with culture goals, making sure operational and personal pressures don't lead to unsafe decisions, conditions or acts and that management systems reinforce culture goals and are effective. 
 
CAS Culture Management Model
 
Organisational Safety Culture Analysis (OSCA)
Safety culture is a subset of organisational culture. It is concerned with how people should think about and approach safety. Safety culture is known to exert a significant influence on safety behaviour and performance as numerous major accident inquiry reports have confirmed.
 
Analysis of your organisation's safety culture will enable you to pinpoint what can be done to shape the attitudes and behaviours of the people you depend on.
 
OSCA is a structured process which can help you:
  • Define your organisation's culture goals and aspirations.
  • Assess staff attitudes and beliefs.
  • Specify improvement actions.
  • Identify barriers to progress.

OSCA results give organisations a better understanding of their current and desired safety cultures and the gap between them. They define the short term improvements to safety climate that must be dealt with before longer-term challenges can be addressed. They provide a robust evidence base for behavioural safety strategy.

What does OSCA involve?

The OSCA Process

The main stages of the OSCA process are:

Goals and Aspirations WorkshopThis short workshop helps senior managers define the safety culture they think their organisation needs to achieve its corporate objectives. It takes the form of a structured exercise and is used to develop consensus on current and desired safety culture. The outcome is a description of where senior managers think the organisation is now, where it needs to be and what stands in the way of progress.

OSCA Staff SurveyThis measures staff satisfaction with current culture management arrangements. It focuses on your organisation's safety climate.

OSCA Staff Survey

The staff survey is designed for organisations with large numbers of frontline staff. It contains a set of 43 core statements, a set of demographic questions that can be tailored to the organisation's requirements and space for comments. The survey is written in plain English and takes 10-15 minutes to complete. It is distributed in hard copy, machine readable format and is designed to protect the confidentiality of the respondent. Survey response rates have averaged over 50%. CAS produces the survey and the client distributes it in accordance with a pre-agreed plan. Survey results are analysed and interpreted by CAS and the results presented in the OSCA Final Report.

Safety Performance DataAt an early stage in the process, CAS requests samples of relevant data and information. These help us verify and interpret the results of the OSCA Staff Survey.

Improvements WorkshopThis short workshop is used to review improvement options arising from an analysis of the OSCA Staff Survey results, the performance data provided and the Goals and Aspirations Workshop. Senior managers are put through a structured exercise to rank options according to risk, feasibility and benefit. The overlap between options and current initiatives is also examined. The outcome is a prioritised list of improvement options tailored to the specific needs of your organisation.

OSCA Final ReportThe final report focuses on how close your organisation is to where it needs to be and how its results compare with CAS industry benchmarks.

OSCA Staff Survey results are benchmarked against CAS data and presented graphically using a maturity model approach. The results indicate how satisfied staff are with your organisation's arrangements for managing safety. Your scores are compared to those of other relevant organisations.

OSCA Results Diagram

The final report gives detailed recommendations for improvements based on the conclusions of the Improvements Workshop, including suggestions on what best practice guidance and tools can be used to deliver these.

Scope and Timescales

The OSCA process is the same regardless of whether 5000 staff are involved or 250. We recommend the process is completed in as short a timeframe as possible. Typically this has ranged from 4 - 10 weeks depending on the size and complexity of the target audience and whether suppliers are involved. 
CAS can tailor the OSCA process to explore other (non-safety) aspects of organisational culture if desired.

Benchmarking Safety Culture

The CAS safety culture dataset is the largest dataset of its kind and provides extensive benchmarking opportunities for OSCA clients. It has tens of thousands of OSCA Staff Survey responses from organisations operating in asset intensive, highly regulated industries. Organisations can benchmark their safety culture against industry averages and best practice. 
Sector specific benchmarks are available for Infrastructure Maintenance and Renewal and Civil Engineering (Infrastructure New Build). Rail industry benchmarks include:

  • Rail Infrastructure Maintenance and Renewal.
  • Rail Technical Service Provision.
  • Rail Civil Engineering (Infrastructure New Build).
  • Train Stations and Operations.

All benchmarks can be refined for tailored demographic analysis of staff.