Safety Culture and Resilience in a Petrochemical Industry

Safety has affected the productivity of many industries, including the nuclear power, oil and gas, and railway industry. Resilience engineering is a new field in safety science. This study investigated the dimensions that contribute to safety culture and resilience and their relevance in petrochemical industry.

This is a descriptive-analytical study. At first, a questionnaire was used to assess the level of safety culture in twelve dimensions. Then, a six-factor resilience engineering questionnaire was administered. Data were analyzed in SPSS 19 and EXCEL software programs using statistical tests such as the correlation coefficient.

The mean safety culture score was 290(43.2). The lowest score was related to the training indicator and incident and near-miss reports. The mean score of the resilience index was 201.5(25). The lowest score was related to the learning and reporting culture index. There was a significant correlation between the safety culture score and resilience engineering score (P=0.003). The results also showed that the score of safety culture and resilience increased with age and experience.

Safety culture and resilience are correlated directly, implying that individuals and organizations can become more resilient by increasing levels of safety culture.