Safety Culture: Measuring the Unmeasurable

Safety Culture: Measuring the Unmeasurable

Safety culture is one of the most provocative topics in the profession. But what is safety culture exactly? And, maybe even more importantly, what isn’t safety culture? With seemingly endless definitions, proprietary assessment tools, and maturity models, the field of safety culture has become confusing and controversial. At the same time, regulators have recently begun to require organizations to describe, measure, and report safety culture.

In this study we will attempt to create a useful scientific definition by exploring which dimensions of safety culture may be empirically observed, and which cannot. We will then seek to measure the empirical dimensions using validated scientific criteria, ensuring that we at least measure what we think we are measuring. By underpinning safety culture with logic and evidence, we may begin to understand where we stand and how we can measurably improve.

Peer-reviewed publications

Sherratt, F., Szabo, E., & Hallowell, M. R. (2025). Seeking a scientific and pragmatic approach to safety culture in the North American construction industry. Safety Science, 181, 106658. [ACCESS HERE]

Szabo, E, Hansen, H and Sherratt, F (2023) Making the Complicated Simple? The Case of Construction Safety Culture. In: Tutesigensi, A and Neilson, C J (Eds.), Proceedings 39th Annual ARCOM Conference, 4-6 September 2023, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK. Association of Researchers in Construction Management, 324-333. [ACCESS HERE]

Szabo, E and Sherratt, F (2024) Consistency in Its Inconsistency: Safety Culture in the US Construction Industry. In: Thomson, C (Ed.) and Neilson, C J (Ed.), Proceedings 40th Annual ARCOM Conference, 2-4 September 2024, London South Bank University, UK. Association of Researchers in Construction Management, 389-398. [ACCESS HERE]

Recommended Additional Literature

Alruqi, W.M., Hallowell, M.R. and Techera, U. (2018) Safety climate dimensions and their relationship to construction safety performance: A meta-analytic review, Safety Science, 109, 165-173, [ACCESS HERE]

Bautista-Bernal, I., Quintana-GarcÍa, C. and Marchante-Lara, M. (2024) Safety culture, safety performance and financial performance. A longitudinal study, Safety Science, 172, [ACCESS HERE]

Oswald, D., Sherratt, F., Smith, S. and Dainty, A.R.J. (2018) An exploration into the implications of the ‘compensation culture’ on construction safety, Safety Science, 109, 294-302, [ACCESS HERE]

CSRA 2024 Safety Summit: Near Miss

CSRA 2024 Safety Summit: Safety Culture

Team

Caleb Scheve (Chair)
Price Gregory

Bob Rodriguez (Vice Chair)
OTIS

Angela Kimball
TC Energy

Christopher Roy
Sempra

Jason Castro
Entergy

Leslie Geiger
SoCalGas

Matt Carlquist
ONE Gas

Tony Abbott
OTIS Minnesota

Reese Fortin
Sundt

Matthew Hallowell
CU Boulder

Bryan Adams
NiSource

Gabriel Guimte
CRC

Mark Henderson
McCarthy Holdings

Jim Foley
MYR Group

Nate Eluellen
Ames

Patty Carrig
Ameren

Scott Shuey
Terracon

Fred Sherratt
CU Boulder

Alan Parker
Ergon

Chris Downs
Martin Marietta

Gordon Walsh
Energy Safety Canada

Jenny Keene
Eversource

John Hogan
DPR

O'Brien Mills
Aldridge Electric

Paul Duke
Holder

Peter Lineen
Bird

Emi Szabo
CU Boulder