ABSTRACT
The interest in safety culture is based, at least to some extent, on a hypothesis that there is a connection between the cultural traits and the level of safety in an organization. The data material consists of a safety culture survey conducted on the Norwegian oil and gas installation Snorre Alpha in 2003 and the reports of two investigations into a very serious incident on Snorre Alpha in 2004. Methods and data Finding appropriate ways to ‘measure’ different aspects of culture has been a recurrent problem for both practitioners and researchers interested in safety culture. The incident on Snorre Alpha was, of course, investigated by the Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority. The comparison between the results of the safety culture survey and the findings of the investigations after the gas blowout will shed light on the predictive value of the safety culture survey. The safety culture survey results are described in a report by T. Kongsvik.
