Japan Nuclear Technology Institute

In the nuclear power industry, a long time has passed since the importance of having a safety culture was pointed out. The IAEA definition of safety culture is widely known in the world of nuclear power, and many people engaged in nuclear power operations have seen and heard it many times. Organizational approaches aimed at fostering a safety culture also ought to be actively advanced at each business establishment, but when furthering such activities, attention is required to cultural diversity as well as intercultural factors held by the organization and individuals.
Even in industries other than nuclear power such as nanotechnology and biotechnology, there presently is a "discord" being seen between technology and society. So, there are concerns that this will result in the technology risks not well understood by society becoming even greater. Thus, it is important that there be constant external communication. One regulatory administrative approach is the policy decided on in regard to "Guidelines for Assessing Efforts to Prevent Deterioration of the Organizational Climate and Safety Culture of a Business." Within this framework, the concept of safety culture is definitely not pedantic, but has retained flexibility.
In a model put forward by Professor Yoshida at Kumamoto University in regard to organizational climate and safety culture, a long period of time is spent following the course of "climate → culture → standards → behavior/conduct → standards → culture → climate," during which interaction occurs, transforming the climate and culture. To the extent that a basic philosophy which values safety is secured, the mode in which a safety culture is embodied may range widely and does not present a problem.
To put it in broad terms, safety culture is communication. However, there are inherent difficulties in communication, so unless circumstances are configured and true motives confirmed, effective communication will not be established.

Some comments from the audience survey taken after the presentation:

• Thank you for the detailed and easy-to-understand guidance on tricks to communicating inside and outside organizations. I will work on communicating with empathy. Thank you.
• Once again, I realized how important communication is. I thought that I would like to communicate while bearing in mind the circumstances configured, sharing with the other person, conducting an assertive dialogue, and other such ideas.
• At our company also, we are providing training and other education, which encompasses contractor personnel, to improve communication as a means of stimulating a sense of unity in the workplace and enhancing the company climate. The content of the session was meaningful in that it renewed my appreciation that another perspective is needed to view the necessity of activities which I myself undertake, and that there is no one scheme which is correct, but continuing such activities is important.
• I have often felt the difficulty of intercultural communication. The environment in which we are all raised is different. So, the ideas of communicating with empathy, furthering communication by deepening understanding, active listening, and an open-end and so on were very useful.
• I was able to get a good understanding of the professor's assertion that giving consideration to intercultural communication is important for promoting a safety culture. I understood that it is effective to have not only the facts, but also a story-line.