How NASA is Assessing and Improving its Culture and Safety Climate
The safety culture of any organization determines both its successes and failures, but it also points to opportunity. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) confronted this issue after the Columbia Accident Investigation Board found āorganizational causesā for the February 2003 Space Shuttle tragedy. In order to move forward, the board said NASA needed to not just identify specific technical issues, but it also needed to address a ābroken safety culture.ā
To do that, NASA partnered with DEKRA OSR to help the agency develop a process for changing its culture in ways that are systematic, measurable, and replicable on all levels.
The white paper, āHow NASA is Assessing and Improving its Culture and Safety Climate,ā is designed for safety professionals who are interested in how the space agency worked with DEKRA OSR to strengthen its safety culture to create āwidespread and systemic change.ā
In it, the white paper will:
- Outline the steps NASA took to address its culture and safety climate.
- Show what the initial assessment process looked like and its findings.
- Look at the intervention strategy that took place at both the senior leadership and site levels.
- Provide an examination of the six-month results data and the initiatives that followed.