The achievement of a safe place and system of work that effectively reduces potential liability is explicitly tied to organisational culture.
To say that organisational culture has become the buzz concept is a gross understatement. There is no shortage of supposed experts. That is not to say that culture is not vitally important if success is to be achieved, it is. It is multifaceted and permeates all aspects of the organisation. Those that assert culture by the sole development of policies and procedures imposed on an organisation are, with respect, dreaming.
Culture is born of hearts and minds giving life to the well-known statement “the way we do things around here”. It is top-down. It therefore follows that the executive team not only embrace a culturally appropriate organisation they are the ground upon which culture is built.
Lip service fails. Sooner or later an executive makes a statement or act in a way which is contradictory to the organisations cultural philosophies and in doing so all is lost. Those subject to a mandated cultural ethos realise same is not born of the hearts and minds of the executive. At that moment, espoused by silence, conduct speaks. It is disingenuous. Culture is sacrificed on the altar of expediency.
There is an overriding principle in life “that which you sow, sow shall you reap”.
Culture can be built. It is hard won, easily lost. It is the business of human perception and interaction. At the risk of repetition, culture is built top-down and must be founded, amongst other things, upon the morality of interaction by humans. It must be at the very heart of what the organisation and its people stand for.
An appropriate culture is also a risk mitigation strategy. Accidents happen, it is a fact of life that cannot be avoided, however with the right organisational culture it can be mitigated. Culture and cultural development sits on the asset side of the Balance Sheet. It is worth the investment.
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