Quality Safety Edge: Behavior Based Safety -- Values and Behavior: Building a Culture that Promotes Safety

To talk more precisely about value, we need to operationally define the term. Values are primarily beliefs and statements that describe practices, or established sets of behavior, that are supported by a community. Typically, value statements describe behaviors that the members of a community “feel good about.” Value statements also describe or imply behaviors that are likely to be sanctioned or punished by other members of a group or culture. In talking about values, we refer generally to principles or ideals. For example, most members of our society learn at an early age to respect the property of others. Part of this training usually involves the rule, “Thou shalt not steal” – a practice that when violated is typically punished by family members or other authorities in the community. So when we talk about wanting safety to be a basic value in an organization, we mean we want members of the organization to observe the rule, “Thou shalt not place safety at risk” – i.e., to be uncompromising in following safety rules and sanctioning safe practices.

We also typically talk about two types of values: personal and cultural. With regard to personal values, we refer to people's personal standards and rules of behavior. These rules deal with behaviors they feel good about and find reinforcing as proper kinds of conduct. In talking about cultural values, on the other hand, we refer to norms and rules thought best for activities and behaviors by the prevailing community or society generally and hence reinforced in their observance or punished for their disregard by others in the community where one lives or works.

Both of these types of values are critical to our work in safety. Talking about which comes first or which is more important makes little sense and is, in fact, little more than another example of the chicken or the egg debate. One simply does not exist without the other.

This paper is scheduled to be presented at the American Society of Engineers annual Professional Development Conference in Nashville, TX, June 9 - 12, 2002. The paper will be included in the Proceedings of the Conference.

What are Values?