In high-risk industries, we often hear organizations talk about their safety culture. Of course, the culture around safety is critical in our industry, but is it distinct from company culture? Is it really a separate entity, or is it one and the same? Does one drive the other? Most importantly, do the overall company culture and the culture of safety tell the same story? Let’s break this down and take a closer look at the inexorable link between the “two” cultures.
Are company culture and safety culture different things?
Sort of, but not completely.
The messaging around safety in aviation is often precise and targeted at individual groups. Unfortunately, in some organizations, it’s treated as its own, separate, unique environment to the broader culture. Instead of looking at it separately, it’s more accurate to look at it as a key part of your overall company culture. In fact, most frontline employees probably don’t see them as separate, they see them as one. We’ll get to that a bit later.
How do the company culture and safety culture work together?
Employees generally want to know that they’re valued and taken care of by their employer. This could mean everything from interactions about pay and benefits, to how they’re treated by leadership, to how seriously they believe the company takes safety. A poor experience in one area can cloud their opinions of all the other areas. Basically, that mindset is what makes these areas one and the same…even if we treat them differently. People who believe the company doesn’t pull its weight on safety initiatives will likely believe the company, across the board, doesn’t meet their standards.
Messages sent versus messages received
One of the areas where cultures fail is leadership messaging, and it can be completely unintentional. Leaders can privately take safety very seriously yet publicly send the wrong message. Employees know when a safety conversation is “tacked on” to discussions about operational or financial performance. They also notice when safety and compliance go unmentioned in these same conversations. Leaders should weave safety messaging into their communications and presentations naturally and intentionally, not as an afterthought.
What if things are out of balance?
Strong safety messaging, policies, and procedures are critical to creating and maintaining a positive culture. However, if employees experience friction with company processes outside of safety, it can certainly lead to a degradation of their belief in the safety sub-culture. Much like the “two” cultures are linked, so are organizational excellence and safety excellence. The entire culture is lifted by excellence in all areas and is similarly dragged down when an area falls short. Again, this is why they can’t be looked at separately – because most employees simply don’t see it that way.
Bad news travels at the speed of light…
….and good news at the speed of molasses. You’ve probably seen that quote attributed to comedian Tracy Morgan, but it’s no laughing matter. People talk. They talk a lot more about negative experiences. And when they’re confined to a flying metal tube for a few hours, that gives them plenty of time to talk. The safest path is to assume that every interaction you have with an employee will make its way to other employees. And it’ll do so quickly. Employee had an issue with a paycheck? Leadership didn’t back a pilot’s safety call? Individual felt pressure to perform under unsafe conditions? This doesn’t affect one employee, it affects the entire company. It’s wise to treat it that way.
What does good look like?
Organizations that get this right don’t achieve it by accident. In aviation, the companies with the strongest cultures are usually the ones where safety isn’t announced, it’s part of the organizational fabric. It shows in how a chief pilot talks about a schedule change, how a dispatcher responds to a captain’s concern, or how a maintenance supervisor reacts when a pilot writes up the aircraft at an inconvenient time. That consistency, throughout the company, is what employees notice. It builds trust, and trust is the foundation of both a strong safety culture and a strong company culture. When employees trust that leadership means what it says across all areas, the “two” cultures stop being a concept worth debating. They’re just the way things are done. And when they know the answer is the same regardless of who they ask, you’re in a great spot.
In aviation, little things make a big difference. One checklist item, one misaligned screw, one misheard communication. Culture is the same way. It isn’t built by grand gestures and large initiatives. It is built in everyday interactions between human beings. And cultures fail the same way. They don’t go out with a bang; they erode in a cacophony of a thousand whispers. The question isn’t about whether you have a good culture or not. It is about whether your employees believe you do, and it’s about what culture means in the first place. Whether it’s an unsafe practice in the field, a misunderstood message, or a simple paycheck error, you’d be surprised at what contributes.
