A socio-cultural analysis of building and improving safety culture: A case of the marine industry in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine the influential power of some cultural and social factors which could uplift the safety culture in the Sri Lankan marine industry and to examine the underlying factors which contributed to evolve safety in the marine sector. Such a study is timely as far as current trends developing in this industry are concerned. The researcher used a questionnaire to collect data from 101 employees attached to three key organizations of the Sri Lankan marine industry. The quantitative data collected from the questionnaire were analyzed in order to identify the trends and their significance. The questionnaire consists of five key parameters which were widely used by previous researchers for their safety culture related studies. The analysis of the response to the above factors confirms that the marine industry in Sri Lanka had been able to establish a positive safety culture although there are some areas which need close attention and improvement. Top management commitment to safety is one key area which achieved a higher level of satisfaction while areas like risk communication, employee empowerment, risk perception of employees are some of the areas which are not at par with the required level. It is also noted that trade union support to make the working environment safe is relatively poor and employees' risk acceptance level is high. It is also noted that the peerpressure against unsafe acts and legal framework against Industrial safety also are not in a satisfactory level.