Safety culture in the Aviation Industry

Introduction

Culture is a phenomenon that surrounds us all and it is the personality, assumptions, values, norms and tangible signs of organization members and their behaviors. Culture is a term that is difficult to express distinctly, but the feeling of knowing it is coupled with the feeling of sensing it. By contrast, the culture of a for-profit corporation is quite different than that of a non-profit organization. Corporate culture could also be viewed at as a system. Inputs include feedback from, for example, the social order, laws, and ideals on competition or service. The process is based on an individual’s assumptions, values and norms and the outputs of culture are, for example, organizational behaviors, technologies, strategies, products, services and the list goes on.

The concept of culture is particularly important when attempting to manage organizational change. Culture provides cues and clues on how to behave in normal and novel situations, thereby making the aviat...