ABSTRACT
Culture has a far stronger impact on behaviour. Values can be seen as a kind of corporate 'culture compass' with which to navigate the blizzard of organizational complexity. One of the challenges in achieving a robust safety culture is gaining agreement within the organization on how to implement and manage safety consistently in the workplace. Such an agreement clearly needs to include the buy-in and ongoing commitment of senior executives, the accountability of managers and the active involvement of middle managers and supervisors. The company's efforts to espouse safety as one of their values had backfired. By positioning it as a priority they were doomed to failure. Safety cannot be the number one priority for any organization. In a humorous but extremely insightful study, Dan Gilbert and his partners found that as individuals values change over time.
