An oryginal model of shaping safety culture in rail transport

The process of shaping safety culture in rail transport is complex. Building a positive climate and safety culture in railway enterprises requires enormous effort of their managers and the full commitment of staff at all levels of management. The mechanisms for shaping a positive safety culture will be all applied concepts, methods, techniques and technical and organizational solutions, which will contribute to shaping such a safety culture and enable its identification and assessment. Figure shows the model of shaping safety culture in rail transport, which is the result of this monograph. It indicates numerous solutions which, when used jointly in railway enterprises, should contribute to shaping a positive climate and safety culture.

^{Figure: A. Jabłoński, M. Jabłoński, The model of shaping the safety culture in rail transport, Railway Safety Culture Model. Theory and Practical Implications, Cedewu, 2021}

The presented model consists of several key interconnected components. On the left side of the model, the extremely important role of the leadership of the management of companies and their managerial intentions are indicated. They give stakeholders an impulse to act according to the established rules using a system of values and a high level of responsibility. Risk and uncertainty management takes into account a working environment that is relevant for recognizing railway enterprises as high reliability organizations. The environment is complex, unsafe and uncertain, and the enterprise, aware of this, conducts a process of looking for errors to avoid disasters. In addition, it is necessary to ensure a balance between mindfulness and mindlessness. Additionally, it detects anomalies, introduces alerts and responds to them. The safety management system is applied and improved by the enterprise taking into account the context of the organization, which corresponds to the business model, applied strategy, processes and projects. The technologies and technical systems used play an important role. The key role in shaping safety culture is taking into account human and organizational factors as a priority. Within this area of knowledge and activities, the leading role is played by the issues of Human Reliability Analysis, Behavioral-Based-Safety, workplace ergonomics standards, including the ergonomics of human-system interaction. Here it is important to ensure the expected competencies of personnel performing safety-critical tasks, and to provide criteria for the selection of such personnel, taking into account areas such as physical and mental health and vocational training. It is important to analyze the impact of potential human errors on the risk of a negative scenario, analyze the impact of mental workload on the operator’s reaction as well as his or her fatigue and stress. Additionally, the ergonomics of human-system interaction should be analyzed. The issues of human and organizational factors should also be covered by the requirements of the OHS management system standards. Within the framework of such defined areas of railway traffic safety management, the principles of employee behavior in the context of the safety culture being shaped should be implemented. Rules for reporting occurrences understood as a reporting culture, and rules for informing about safety issues understood as an informed culture should be developed. In addition, the principles of the learning culture and just culture should be defined. In order to effectively and efficiently manage resources for the needs of shaping safety culture and achieve ambitious goals in this regard, safety culture should be measured and monitored.

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