ABSTRACT
The chapter discusses the theoretical limitations, ethical and institutional constraints that may affect attempts to change cultures, as well as the possibilities that do exist for improving safety by means of a cultural approach. Safety research is often applied research in the sense that it is intended to have some kind of practical utility, the knowledge produced should provide the basis for improvements. While the issue of cultural change has been largely ignored in research on safety, it has been extensively debated by organizational researchers. In oil-producing countries, a great deal of the research on safety issues is, in one way or another, linked to the oil and gas industry. Evaluating the effectiveness of safety interventions is an important task of safety research since it can yield information about the usefulness of different intervention strategies. Safety is seen as a management responsibility and as something that can and should be directed and controlled by management.
