Given the centrality of trust in current safety management ideas, it follows that industries with trust breakdowns may not be as safe as they could be. Working on behalf of the British Air Line Pilots’ Association (BALPA), the author used a questionnaire to investigate the pilot lifestyle, including this aspect of the work environment. Four hundred and thirty-three responses were received. Three questions explored levels of trust between pilots and managers.
Before discussing the results, it is useful to look at some of the research that suggests trust is the forgotten ingredient in the safety mix.
Leaving aside the tension between normal-accident theory (which posits that accidents are inevitable) and high-reliability theory (which claims that the risk of an accident can be significantly reduced), it is clear that both theories have something to contribute to risk management. For example, Geoffrey R. McIntyre summarizes the main features of high-reliability theory in his book …
