Speaker: , Managing Director, Quality Solutions International Limited

The paper explores the effectiveness of safety-risk management in the NZ Army. The research considered how soldiers perceive risk and the implications to the organisation of those perceptions. It considered the concept of safety culture; examining whether the NZ Army has a strong safety culture, whether the organisation is effective at learning from its mistakes, and how it manages safety risk.

The research found that individuals’ perception of risk id focused on the severity of consequences, rather than the likelihood of harm. While this is understandable at the individual level, multiple, low-severity injuries have a far greater impact on the organisation overall.

It found that perceptions of risk can change, and that military training has a positive impact on soldiers’ off-duty behaviours with regard to safety.

The research identified that the army has a positive culture for those activities perceived to be high risk, and a poor safety culture for those activities that were perceived as having a low risk. It also found that some sub-cultures within the organisation have an extremely positive safety culture and that it is possible for it to spread through the organisation under certain conditions. The research also found that organisational learning as it applies to safety could be improved.

There are a number of activities undertaken by the NZ Army’s that are exemplary from a safety standpoint. The culture of safety is exceptionally strong in many parts of the army and around many of its activities; the challenge that it faces is to extend that strong safety ethos to all parts of the organisation.