Development of a safety assessment system for promoting a safe organizational climate and culture

The Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI) is developing a safety assessment system to investigate and measure the safety level of industrial factories and plants through the use of a questionnaire survey. This chapter describes the applicability and feasibility of the proposed system by examining the results from an intensive questionnaire survey conducted among 14 Japanese plants. This questionnaire involves 122 items classified into three categories: (a) safety awareness and behavior of plant personnel, (b) safety management, and (c) organizational climate and culture. The results verify the anticipated functions: (a) a comprehensive indicator can be calculated to express total safety status; (b) directions and instructions can then be proposed to prevent labor accidents and facility failures; (c) a safety profile can show the status of several important safety indicators within a factory or plant, thereby enabling actions to be taken for further ensuring safety.