Hello again. In the previous unit, we explored the concept of risk.
As we mentioned before, a hazard can evolve and become a risk.
That must be avoided.
Because if not, it can provoke a damage.
Let's say an injury or broken components or similar consequences,
and thus, an unwanted outcome.
We also explained that safety can be defined
as the identification of possible hazards.
And that any risk
can be defined as the sum of all individual hazards
and their possible damage.
So we know how to deal with different risks
and some solutions to improve safety.
Now let's start and we hope you will enjoy this unit 3.
During this unit, we are going to speak about what safety culture is.
The concept of safety culture
has been used in emphasizing that safety in high hazard systems
cannot be reduced to technical reliability.
But rather, safety is a property of the whole socio-technical system.
The organizations that design, manufacture, operate
and oversee high hazard technologies
create safety as they take the decisions and carry out everyday activities.
So we can say that safety culture
is a concept which can be used to analyze and explain
the underlying logic of organizational behavior.
Especially, how the organization behaves in respect to safety.
This kind of view of safety culture
has its roots in organizational culture theories
which share an interesting meaning and beliefs in operations.
Schain defines the organizational culture, sorry.
Schain defines that organizational culture as what a group has learned
as it solves the problems related to internal integration
and adaptation to its environment.
When these learned patterns work well enough,
they are considered to be a valid way of thinking,
feel and act in reaction to those problems.
So the content of this unit is going to be divided
in three different sections.
Let us speak a little bit about them before going more in-depth into each one.
The first one, as you can see here since the beginning,
in general, safety is understood to be a complex and systematic phenomenon.
And we will see that a set of different aspects
will encompass this view
always taking into account that safety is a dynamic property of an activity
and that it will require a constant effort.
But we have to remember that safety doesn't equal a lack of accidents.
And especially, we will see that safety is a sociological
or socio-technical phenomenon
and that it's influenced by different stakeholders.
Let's say individuals, managements or others.
In the second part, we will explain the importance of safety culture
and we will explore new concepts.
And finally, we will have a summary
where we will review all the concepts that we have seen in unit 3.
And we will try to link them to their previous lessons