Safety culture maturity and resilience engineering in an oil drilling industry: A comparison study among government-owned and private companies

BACKGROUND: Organizational factors including a proper safety culture are among the important contributors of major accidents in process industries OBJECTIVE: This study evaluates and compares the dimensions of safety culture maturity (SCM) and resilience engineering (RE) among 423 employees of government-owned drilling companies (GODC) and private drilling companies (PDC) located in Azar oilfield, Ilam province, southwest of Iran. METHODS: The maturity of safety culture was measured using the modified version of Hudson safety culture maturity questionnaire and RE performance was studied using the resilience analysis gird (RAG). The relationship between RE and the SCM was discussed according to Hollnagel conceptual model. RESULTS: The results showed that lowest and highest levels of SCM in all dimensions were observed in the pathological (11.75%) and reactive (28%) levels, respectively. However, high levels of SCM have not been established in any of the studied drilling companies. The status of SCM dimensions and levels as well as RE performance was better in PDC compared to GODC which is consistent with their safety performance lagging indicators. CONCLUSION: This study showed that RE abilities could be improved by establishment of high levels of safety culture maturity.