Creation of a confidential incident reporting system to enhance Korea's railway safety culture

Park, Beomjoon (2018). Creation of a confidential incident reporting system to enhance Korea's railway safety culture. University of Birmingham. M.Phil.

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Abstract

Establishing a good safety culture is considered to be an effective approach to reducing railway accidents. A good safety culture is thought to be closely related to an informed culture. Thus, developing effective reporting channels is very important for improving an organisation's safety culture.
The purpose of this research was to identify ways to improve the safety culture of Korea's railway by changing the reporting culture of the companies involved.
Specifically, the author's research dealt with the railway construction field, which has not been properly studied to date. The author assessed the safety culture and investigated the feasibility of implementing Confidential Incident Reporting Systems (CIRSs) in Korea's railway.
To meet the aims of the study, mixed methods research was adopted, which uses both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Based on the methodology, a series of case studies, questionnaire surveys and interviews was conducted.
The research identified that an additional reporting channel is required to complement the existing ones in Korea because the author found a relatively poor safety culture, characterised by, e.g., under-reporting, gaps in the safety culture between job functions and within the hierarchy, severe fear of being punished, etc. Thus, the author developed the concept of a Korean Confidential Incident Reporting System (KCIRS) model, based on existing CIRS examples and addressing the issues found during the research. He expects this KCIRS to lead to an improved safety culture and, thus, system safety.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Masters by Research > M.Phil.)

Award Type:

Masters by Research > M.Phil.

Supervisor(s):