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Safety culture is a term that was introduced by the International Nuclear Safety Advisory Group (INSAG) in a report published on the (post-accident review meeting on the) Chernobyl disaster in 1986.

The International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA (1991) defines safety culture as follows: “Safety culture is that assembly of characteristics and attitudes in organisations and individuals which establishes that, as an overriding priority, nuclear plant safety issues receive the attention warranted by their significance.”

A widely cited definition from the U.K. Health and Safety Commission is "the product of individual and group values, attitudes, perceptions, competencies, and patterns of behaviour that determine the commitment to, and the style and proficiency of, an organisation's health and safety management"

The term safety culture is nowadays used in nuclear power plants and other safety-critical environments such as aviation, offshore industry, and recently also in medical domains.

Safety culture is about improving safety attitudes in people, but it is also about good safety management established by organisations with a holistic, whole of community, whole of life approach. Good safety culture implies a constant assessment of the safety significance of events and issues so that the appropriate level of attention can be given. Establishing and developing positive attitudes towards safety culture in a community is cost effective.

• Human reliability
• Organizational studies

• Roughton, James (2002). Developing an Effective Safety Culture: A Leadership Approach, 1th Edition, Butterworth-Heinemann. ISBN 0-7506-7411-3.