Despite the role of safety systems and risk management for policy makers around the world, safety culture and the behaviours that drive it are relatively underexplored. In the energy sector, regulators found clear evidence that many high-profile incidents have occurred due – at least in part – to poor organisational behaviour, including poor safety culture. These include major disasters such as the nuclear safety system failure at Fukushima Daiichi plant in 2011, and the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010.
The desire to prevent incidents like these strongly supported further research into safety culture from the perspective both of regulators and of regulated entities. The OECD joined with the Canadian Energy Regulator (CER, formerly the National Energy Board of Canada, NEB); the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU) in Ireland; the Agency for Safety, Energy and Environment (ASEA) in Mexico; and the Authority for Electricity Regulation (AER) in Oman to test the application of BI to safety culture.
The experiments were carried out in two phases and tested 6 insights. Phase 1 tested the effects of various types of safety-related messengers (information sources), feedback and social norms with regulators and large-scale regulated entities in all countries. Phase 2 extended this work to small-scale registered electrical contractors and registered gas installers in Ireland, further testing both the effects of messengers and how to improve inspections through implementation intentions (prompting commitment to a plan of action), primacy (focus attention on areas by placing them first) and personalisation (using information about the recipient).
Some of the key findings are as follows:
The perception of the levels of safety culture was lowest amongst front-line workers in regulated entities and regulators, improving through the middle and senior management chain in regulated entities. This suggests the need to tailor messages to the audience, as a fundamental difference in perception may influence the take-up of the message.
Comparative results were mixed, varying by each national perspective and context. Overall, it was found that messages from someone one step “above” but socially close worked best; some feedback was better than no feedback, though it was not clear what the best type of feedback was; and social norms performed least effectively, except for descriptive norms in Mexico.
Entities under newer regulatory schemes and organisations were most influenced by BI at the small-scale level in Ireland. It was found that inspections could be improved by combining primacy with an implementation intention; personalisation of non-conformity notices improve responsiveness of firms but not of individuals; and trainers were particularly effective messengers in Ireland.