Acknowledging multiple ‘masculine’ organisational identities: Moving beyond the singular model of workplace safety culture to a multiple safety cultures perspective

Abstract

This research proposes a challenge to the singular notion of Workplace Safety Culture (WSC) recurrently popularised in Industrial Psychology and Human Factors scholarships. The investigation explores interconnections between workplace ‘masculine’ identities and institutional safety and risk-taking practices on a remote offshore oil and gas drilling platform: the ‘Point Delta’ oil installation operated by ‘DrillMech’ (both pseudonyms). While WSC is typically defined as the overarching safety attitude of an organisation or workplace locale, findings uncovered four workplace cultures of identity underpinned by four distinct ideologies of oilfield masculinity. Three cultures were symbiotic and performed safety practices to uphold their workplace identities. One culture resisted these cultures, performing risk-taking practices to legitimise their masculine workplace ‘oilman’ identity. Implications for safety culture theorising are discussed, primarily in the context of the inherent ‘blind spot’ of the homogenised ‘single culture’ approach that is ill-fitting for the complexities of contemporary modernity’s organisational reality. This approach fails to acknowledge the presence of multiple cultures of organisational identity with different safety and risk practices that resist condensing into a singular ‘safety culture’. Conclusions drawn suggest that the traditional singular notion of WSC is reductive; failing to account for the existence of multiple, distinct workplace cultures with varied safety and risk practices influenced by different identity ideologies. Regarding practice implications, outcomes highlight safety interventions in the workplace should be tailored to recognise and address diverse cultures and ideologies of identity present, rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all approach to understand and build positive safety culture.