The impact of organisational culture on safety management in a South African thermal coal mining operation

Abstract

Organisational culture has increasingly come to the fore as an important aspect of safety management. Very little literature, if any, could be found on the application of the concept within the mining industry. The state of safety in South Africa’s mining industry has been placed under the spotlight after a number of fatalities caused an outcry amongst mineworkers. The research was initiated to gain a better understanding of the impact of organisational culture factors on safety management in a South African thermal coal mining operation, with the view of finding ways to improve mining safety. The research sought to develop a model from the literature to evaluate the safety culture of a coal mining operation. Further analysis compared the perceptions of various groups within the sample, which included contractors, managers and workers. The relationship between some of the factors were also explored to gain a better understanding of the dynamics of organisational factors that influence safety management. The research yielded a useful model for evaluating the safety culture of a coal mining operation, and highlighted strong relationships between shared safety values, management involvement and the safety culture of the organisation. The research also showed that there was no significant difference in the culture perceptions of contractors and mine employees. Significant differences were however found between managers’ perceptions of the safety culture and the perceptions of workers. Copyright