Safety Assurance and Promotion: Safety Communication Difficulties and Motives in Finnish Aviation Organisations
Bedalyte, Donata (2022)
Bedalyte, Donata
2022
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-202205047126
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-202205047126
Tiivistelmä
Aviation safety communication via voluntary safety reporting system channels is essential to ensure aviation safety performance by identifying and mitigating safety hazards. Voluntary safety reporting goes beyond the mandatory reporting showing a strong reporter’s commitment to reporting unsafe activities, hidden risks and other safety observations endangering aviation safety. Willingness to report relates to the trust which is possible in having a healthy working environment where employees do not have obstacles and fears to share safety observations. This is significant as only identified safety threats can be controlled by taking actions to prevent safety incidents meanwhile reduce the number of safety occurrences. With this, the safety promotion with the encouragement to report should be done consistently in parallel building and maintaining a positive and resilient safety culture.
The mixed methodology research approach was selected to investigate the link between voluntary safety reporting and safety culture identifying the non-reporting reasons and factors motivating to report as a way to improve safety reporting processes in Finnish aviation organisations. The thesis process started at the beginning of January and finished at the end of April 2022. This included study conduction and thesis report writing.
A survey questionnaire and interviews were used to collect data to reach the study objective by answering research questions. 116 employees working in Finnish aviation organisations participated in survey research by answering a survey questionnaire. The survey questionnaire generated quantitative and qualitative data which was analysed before starting the second research phase to conduct interviews. Two interviews were performed to gather qualitative data for a more profound understanding of the thesis topic and simultaneously support survey research findings to generate the final research outcomes.
The study has indicated the list of non-reporting reasons and reporting motivators (appendix 2) wherein lack of top management commitment towards safety, time pressure to fill reports and fear of reporting consequences were the main factors discouraging voluntary reporting. Having reporting forms easy to use, and knowing how reports are used to improve safety as seeing the value and thereby receiving feedback on reports were the most encouraging reporting elements.
Voluntary safety reporting obstacles and motivators recognised in this study can not be generalised to all Finnish aviation organisations. Every aviation organisation would benefit from identifying reporting weaknesses and motivating factors appropriate for their company to evaluate the current status of the safety culture. This appears as a recommendation for future research in addition to making an investigation of the safety reporting effect on the number of safety occurrences based on the company’s safety data basis.
The mixed methodology research approach was selected to investigate the link between voluntary safety reporting and safety culture identifying the non-reporting reasons and factors motivating to report as a way to improve safety reporting processes in Finnish aviation organisations. The thesis process started at the beginning of January and finished at the end of April 2022. This included study conduction and thesis report writing.
A survey questionnaire and interviews were used to collect data to reach the study objective by answering research questions. 116 employees working in Finnish aviation organisations participated in survey research by answering a survey questionnaire. The survey questionnaire generated quantitative and qualitative data which was analysed before starting the second research phase to conduct interviews. Two interviews were performed to gather qualitative data for a more profound understanding of the thesis topic and simultaneously support survey research findings to generate the final research outcomes.
The study has indicated the list of non-reporting reasons and reporting motivators (appendix 2) wherein lack of top management commitment towards safety, time pressure to fill reports and fear of reporting consequences were the main factors discouraging voluntary reporting. Having reporting forms easy to use, and knowing how reports are used to improve safety as seeing the value and thereby receiving feedback on reports were the most encouraging reporting elements.
Voluntary safety reporting obstacles and motivators recognised in this study can not be generalised to all Finnish aviation organisations. Every aviation organisation would benefit from identifying reporting weaknesses and motivating factors appropriate for their company to evaluate the current status of the safety culture. This appears as a recommendation for future research in addition to making an investigation of the safety reporting effect on the number of safety occurrences based on the company’s safety data basis.