Swiss cheese, butterflies and algebra: Looking ahead at an innovative approach for researching culture and safety

This paper presents fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), a configurational comparative method (CCM), as an innovative research method that may be used to conduct research in the area of safety climate. Data obtained from using the method to research safety climate and views of error reporting in a health care study will be used to demonstrate how the method may be useful for future maritime research.

Results suggest the presence of some non-positive safety climate factors may be more consistent at producing a view that an error would always be reported than if positive all safety climate factors are positive. Hence a view that a positive safety climate is a means of improving error reporting may not be accurate. Results also indicate clear differences in relation to between managers and clinicians in relation to safety climate and views of reporting error.