Assessment: Corporate Culture

The development of a ‘Just Culture’ has been extensively implemented in both the airline industry, as well as the healthcare and nursing professions, and is highly suitable for parties in the commodity & energy markets. At the same time, it continues to present an ongoing challenge, finding a balance between unintentional mistakes and wilful negligence as well as balancing opportunities for learning with repercussions for wrongdoing. Embracing these challenges and further developing their implementation requires an ethical component in order for the needed honesty and openness to become pervasive throughout the organization. The ‘Just Culture’ conveys that message and finds that balance. The development of a ‘Just Culture’ is in part the complex result of a multitude of human interactions, but not exactly the result of something meticulously planned and designed, rather, emergence of a new operational resilience within organisations.

In this workshop attention is given to recognition and it builds on these crucial insights for its own application of ‘Just Culture’. This module explores the foundations for the thinking behind ‘Just Culture’ and the often required attitudinal shift required for its implementation.

Looking at history it is clear that there have been countless efforts to discover, articulate and pursue an ever more ‘Just Culture’ in the broadest sense of the term, i.e. just laws and just government to lead better lives that are fair and just. There are endless wise sayings and proverbs scattered throughout classical literature and religious texts. The ancients and the wise have intuitively understood that the foundations for effective and harmonious living must include some set of principles ensuring continuity and prosperity for the tribe, the village or township. From the Code of Hammurabi to Moses to Jesus and today, mankind has tried to come up with some all-encompassing golden rule or set of rules to accomplish this purpose. The medical profession is credited to have coined the “First, Do-No-Harm” principle. Christians have come up with the famous “Do unto Others as You wish Them to do unto You”. From the tiniest business community to the largest cities, people have organically developed principles and rules to ensure their livelihoods and civilizations would evolve, survive and prosper. These guiding principles require people to act responsibly. However, in the absence of that personal responsibility and accountability there needs to be a ‘culture’ in place that supports effective responses to those situations. It is precisely that type of ‘culture’ we aim to dissect, study, adapt and adopt to make today’s workplace and society more resilient and sustainable.