Safety culture and high reliability in public utility services: evidence from the Italian urban hygiene sector

Abstract

Despite substantial improvements in workplace safety at managerial and organizational levels over recent decades, accident rates remain high, with considerable social and economic impacts. This study explores the links between safety culture and high reliability organization principles, providing a multi-level framework to better understand how organizations can enhance safety performance. This study adopts a practice-oriented, qualitative multiple-case methodology, examining three medium-sized Italian companies operating in the urban hygiene sector of public utility services. Data collection involved documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews to explore health and safety performance, management of variables affecting prevention and response to unforeseen events and the connections between high reliability and safety culture. The study shows that safety culture can drive high reliability, but only when its components are understood and applied across the organization in an integrated way. The research also provides urban hygiene companies with an assessment method that combines both formal and informal aspects of safety culture to support their transition toward high reliability. This research fills the gap in the literature regarding the integration between safety culture dimensions in organizations and high reliability principles, through an integrated and multi-level approach to safety.