A Commitment to Change: Safety Management in British Airways

Provides an account of the changes which have taken place in British Airways Safety Services since 1990 and comments on the ways in which a commitment to safety was conceived and interpreted and how changes in the development and promotion of the safety philosophy and style of operation of the Safety Services Unit have brought about significant change. Considers management commitment to safety and the way this has been illustrated in the development of a decision support system, BASIS, for the aggregation and analysis of incidents and accidents. Safety Services in British Airways is committed to: an appreciation of the wider organizational context and its influence on safety; finding ways of identifying those aspects of safety systems which are aspects of emergent processes; promoting a safety‐aware culture through education; and extending the understanding of safety awareness beyond data collection systems. Examines the theory and philosophy of the approach in the context of the day‐to‐day practicalities of its application.