Janice N. Tolk, Ph.D., P.E. Richard S. Hartley, Ph.D., P.E.

1. Safety Culture Survey at the Pantex Plant Janice N. Tolk, Ph.D., P.E. Richard S. Hartley, Ph.D., P.E. This presentation was produced under contract number DE-AC04-00AL66620 with

2. Goals and Objectives • Background and Motivation • Objectives • Methodology and Progress • Expected Outcome • Summary • Next Steps

3. Background & Motivation • Pantex Plant engages in high hazard operations • Explosives manufacture and testing • Nuclear weapon assembly and disassembly • Protective force operations • Pantex Plant began Highly Reliable Organization (HRO) journey in 2007 • Heavy emphasis on organizational culture and leadership in HRO training • All managers at the Plant trained ( 500) • EFCOG Group on Safety Culture • Pantex Plant took a lead role in 2008 • Pantex Plant continues with new EFCOG group in 2010 • Pantex committed to be a lead Plant in safety culture assessments • Safety culture is a foundation of HROs • Provides feedback as to effectiveness of HRO

4. Pantex Plant Approach to HRO

5. What is Safety Culture? • Deeply held attitudes and values of organization that drive safety-related behaviors • Similar to personality in an individual • Slow to change and difficult to measure • May vary across organizational levels and groups Sub-Cultures

6. Healthy Organizational Culture Espoused Beliefs and Values Underlying Assumptions Balance and alignment between espoused values and artifacts or behaviors indicates employees buying-into safety culture Becoming an HRO Balance and alignment between underlying assumptions and espoused values indicates leaders walking-the-talk Desire to be an HRO Artifacts and Behaviors Adapted from Schein, Organizational Culture and Leadership, 2004

7. Objective of the Safety Culture Survey • Define a safety culture model that fits the context of Pantex Plant operations • Develop a Pantex-specific survey instrument to assess safety culture • Pilot test to verify instrument design • Administer in Applied Technology Division to all employees • Analyze data to identify current performance levels, empirical relationships between culture dimensions, and gaps across employee groups • Develop action plan with metrics • Offer for plant-wide deployment

8. Assessing Organizational Culture Espoused Beliefs and Values Underlying Assumptions Misalignment hints at deeper underlying assumptions keeping the organization from attaining its desired balance between production and safety Determine by observing work Determine by interviewing leadership Below the surface Artifacts and Behaviors Underlying assumptions must be understood to properly interpret artifacts and to create change Schein, Organizational Culture and Leadership, 2004

9. Assessing Safety Culture • Developed class of culture lines of inquiry that would provide feedback on Pantex HRO • Researched numerous survey instruments and guides recommended by EFCOG • Determined outside experts in survey design and analysis would achieve a better response and more accurate results • Contracted with Texas Tech University to design and deliver a survey and conduct follow up interviews

10. Assessment Approach • TTU performed literature review, observed multiple operations, interviewed employees to inform survey development • Interviewed bargaining unit employees • Interviewed exempt employees • Interviewed Applied Technology Safety Team • Will perform additional process observations, document review, and focus groups to further understand results and develop action plans for improvement

11. Pilot Group for Pantex Plant • Applied Technology Division • Approximately 160 people in 4 departments • Operations • HE Engineering and Physics • HE Manufacturing • Materials and Analytical Services • Facility Management • Flat organization with four layers • Division Manager • Department Manager • Section Manager • Employees

12. Characteristics of a Healthy Safety Culture • Common themes (Singer et al,. 2002, p. 113) • Commitment to safety articulated at the highest levels of the organization and translated into shared values, beliefs, and behavioral norms at all levels. • Necessary resources, incentives, and rewards provided by the organization to allow this commitment to occur. • Safety is valued as the primary priority, even at the expense of “production” or “efficiency”; personnel are rewarded for erring on the side of safety even if they turn out to be wrong. • Communication between workers and across organizational levels is frequent and candid. • Unsafe acts are rare despite high levels of production. • There is an openness about errors and problems, and they are reported when they do occur. • Organizational learning is valued; the response to a problem focuses on improving system.

13. Safety Culture Survey Dimensions • Management commitment • Managerial actions • Employee commitment • Employee involvement • Perceived risks • Required work pace • Beliefs about accident causation factors (systems thinking) • Job-induced stress • Safety communications • Quality of safety procedures • Safety training • Quality of physical work arrangements • Effectiveness of safety personnel • Feedback and learning mechanisms • Safety procedure adherence (behaviors) • Safety outcomes • Demographics • Space for additional comments

14. Pantex Plant Safety Culture Model • Developed based on • Literature review (SCART, IAEA guidelines for self assessment, safety culture models from other industries) • Process observations • Feedback from Applied Technology safety team, scientists, and engineers • Cross-walked to Pantex HRO Practices • Provides feedback on effectiveness of Pantex HRO

15. Pantex Plant Safety Culture Model Management Commitment to Safety Shared Accountability for Safety Safety Outcomes Job Design for Safety Learning Process for Safety

16. Pantex Plant Safety Culture Model • Inputs

17. Pantex Plant Safety Culture Model • Process • Outcomes

18. Survey Design • Approximately 170 questions related to safety culture inputs and processes • Five questions related to safety outcomes • Four demographic questions • One free response field • Estimated time to complete = 20-40 minutes

19. Administrative Methods • Group administration in Applied Technology Division by Section and job function • Trained TTU personnel will administer to ensure anonymity • Pilot testing • TTU graduate students • Applied Technology Safety Team • B&W Pantex senior staff

20. Full Scale Data Collection • Full scale data collection May-June • Analysis and action plan formation June – September • Verify factor structure and psychometric properties • Assess within-group agreement and between-group differences • Evaluate gaps across organizational groups and relationships between variables • Meetings, focus groups, process observations, and/or document review to understand findings and formulate action plans • Deliver to entire Plant population next fiscal year

21. Expected Outcomes • Better understanding of the current safety culture within the Applied Technology Division and specific areas of strength and weakness across groups • Identification of specific means of improving safety culture within and across groups • Improved safety culture both within and across groups (long-term) • Improved organizational reliability (long-term)

22. Summary • B&W Pantex continues on leading edge of safety improvements throughout DOE  Integrated Management • BBS • HPI • CFA • HRO • Safety culture assessment and improvement  feedback to effectiveness of Pantex HRO • B&W Pantex approach to HRO and safety culture consistent with DOE • HRO framework integrates HPI, BBS, VPP • HRO Practices fully integrated with ISM • Safety Culture assessment fully integrated with HRO Practices

23. Next Steps • Share safety culture methodology lessons learned with other sites and organizations • Establish the expectations for healthy safety culture at Pantex • Conduct safety culture assessment across the Plant • Periodically (every two years) re-evaluate safety culture to determine progress