Analysis of the safety culture of the JSC «Russian Railways»

Abstract

The article discusses the definitions of organizational and corporate cultures and the relationship between them. The general concept of a safety culture, given in the order of Rostechnadzor, for the oil and gas sector and the transport company JSC «Russian Railways» has been given. The importance of the safety culture for the development of both the corporate culture and the organization itself is shown. The model of the cooperative culture of JSC «Russian Railways», the block diagram, the principles of creation and the inherent signs of a traffic safety culture are presented, by which its maturity can be assessed. The five levels of maturity  of the Russian Railways company's safety culture are described. The results of the assessment of safety culture in the Irkutsk distance of power supply, carried out by the questionnaire method, are considered. It was revealed that according to the signs: controllability of activity processes, ensuring traffic safety, the leading role of management in providing resources and demonstrating a personal example, the safety culture is located on the pre-positive (average scores received for answers, equal to 3,8 in group 1 of line personnel ) and positive (in the group of 2 leaders of the average scores – 4,3) levels. On the basis of the two-way exchange of information, the safety culture is at a positive level (average scores in group 1 – 4,3, in group 2 – 4,5). Based on the involvement of employees in solving traffic safety problems, the safety culture is located at the average (in group 1 of the average scores – 3,04) and the pre-positive (in group 2 of the average scores – 3,6) levels. On the basis of the continuity of tracking solutions to traffic safety problems and identifying lessons from cases of its violations, the safety culture is at a pre-positive level (in group 1 of the average scores – 3,8, in group 2 of the average scores – 4,0). This indicates the shortcomings of the functioning of the system to prevent the occurrence of risks of railway traffic disruption. Based on recognition of the existence of systemic causes of traffic safety violations, the safety culture corresponds to a pre-positive level (in group 1, average scores – 3,6, in Group 2 average scores – 4,1). This may indicate the shortcomings of the constructed causal relationships and the lack of analysis of traffic safety violations, as well as the employees' uncertainty in establishing the actual causes of the violation and the correct identification of the perpetrators. The results of the activities of the Russian Railways company in 2020 were analyzed. It was revealed that the average assessment of the visibility of the traffic safety culture is equal to 3.80 points for the implementation of key initiatives for the development of JSC «Russian Railways», which corresponds to the «certain» level, characterized by the fact that deviations from procedures are not always tracked. The increase in assessments of all processes of the traffic safety culture in 2020 should be noted.