Factors that make up safety culture: a look at mining industry

Abstract The efforts made by researchers to understand the dynamics of work-related accident prevention are remarkable but not enough to exhaust the subject. The occurrence of such events implies significant losses for society, organizations and families, in addition to the injured individuals subject to the accident. This kind of phenomenon that still happens in contemporary organizations requires not only a purely mechanistic view but also the understanding of interpersonal relations in the employment context, which refers to the organizational culture. As a quantitative analysis, this study aimed to test a model related to the culture of safety in workplace, present in the literature, in the Brazilian mining industry. Based on the initial results and on the requirements pointed out by a group of security experts in this field, we suggested adjustments in the model and it was re-tested. The results confirmed the model applied in this study and they indicated that factors related to the culture of safety in this specific environment are organizational learning, information and commitment.