Good safety management : a qualtitative study on the practitioner`s view on good safety managment

This master thesis takes a look at what practitioners of safety systems thinks about, and practice when it comes to the safety in organizations. All organizations no matter the size will have some sort of risks and hazards, and they will all experience some sort of accidents. This however, means that they will need some measures as a way to prevent the accidents from happening. The topic of this thesis is: What do practitioners describe is good safety management? The study has used qualitative methods through semi structural interviews to gather the data, nine informants participated in the study, they all worked as managers dealing with safety issues. The analysis produced five themes, “to cope with unforeseen events”, “to set a good example”, “bad things will happen”, “being approachable”, and “distinct communication from the management”. The results provided some concrete examples on good safety management, for example to create a trusting and respectful environment by listening and learning from each other. The theories presented; the normal accident theory, the barrier theory of James Reason, the migration towards the boundaries theory, and the high reliability organization theory, all presents good ideas and theory on what good safety management is, but they say very little about what an organization should do to get there