Safety culture is the term used to describe those aspects of an organisation’s reliability that depend on "shared values and norms of behaviour articulated by senior management and translated with high uniformity into effective work practices at the front line". This definition emphasises the direct and powerful influence of an organisation’s leadership group on the safety attitudes and behaviour of employees. Every individual involved in operations has to support the safety culture, the duty of the "higher levels" of management is to ensure that all required resources are available.

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Dr James Reason has suggested that safety culture consists of five elements:

• An informed culture
• A reporting culture
• A learning culture
• A just culture
• A flexible culture

Informed culture. The organization collects and analyses relevant data, and actively disseminates safety information. This is the most effective culture towards risk management, as more data can be provided to manage/reduce future risks.

Reporting culture. An organizational climate in which people are prepared to report their errors and near-misses.

Learning culture. An organization must possess the willingness and the competence to draw the right conclusions from its safety information system and the will to implement major reforms.

Just culture. An atmosphere where errors and unsafe acts will not be punished if the error was unintentional. However, those who act recklessly or take deliberate and unjustifiable risks will still be subject to disciplinary action.

Flexible culture. A culture in which an organisation is able to reconfigure themselves in the face of high tempo operations or certain kinds of danger – often shifting from conventional hierarchical mode to a flatter mode.