Putting Culture in to Practise
Norway’s petroleum regulations of 1 January 2002 specify that enterprises must have a sound HSE culture. Such a demand has never previously been expressed so directly in either Norwegian or international regulations. The aim is to ensure a further improvement in HSE standards. However, the regulations do not specifically define what the concept of an HSE culture entails.
Among other considerations, it requires that efforts to improve HSE are not viewed in isolation from each other. Similarly, a good balance must be maintained between the independent responsibility of each person in HSE work and the responsibility of the enterprise to provide good working conditions.
Important considerations include taking an integrated view of different HSE measures, and maintaining a systematic and critical focus on one’s own HSE activities. Paying greater attention to the ‘H’ and ‘E’ components is also important, along with working continuously to improve the level of HSE, and not simply relying on spasmodic efforts.
Requirements in the HSE regulations for the NCS are largely formulated in functional terms. If no recommendations are provided on how these requirements should be met, each company is required to set its own standards for meeting them – specifying what constitutes a sound HSE culture, for instance.
Characterise
A culture can be defined as the knowledge, values, norms, ideas and attitudes that characterise a group of people. An insight into this culture can be gained by listening to what people say and by looking at the way they behave. The relationship between words and deeds is precisely the point at which an understanding of the HSE culture in an enterprise can be gained – they must correspond.
Culture is not only a matter of knowledge, values and attitudes. It is also about technology, economics, law and regulations, and other conditions that influence daily life.
Fundamental
It is often the case that cultures regard their own culture as ‘correct’ and defend what they think of as its good and fundamental values. The technical term for this is ‘ethnocentricity’, or the tendency to assess, judge or analyse ways of behaviour in other cultures in relation to traditions or concepts from the observer’s own culture.
It is only through our meeting with people from other cultures that it becomes easy to detect what is distinctive between the different cultures. Understanding how people’s knowledge, values, ideas, attitudes and frame conditions interact is important in building an HSE culture. All these aspects will influence the way HSE is thought of and collaborated over.
Category:
Environment
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