Just as there are two ways to look at ‘human error,’ there are two ways to look at safety culture. The research on safety culture (and by now, there is a lot) has been saying this for a while.1 Depending on what view you take, you will either believe or reject the idea that you can “build” a safety culture. Or that a “safety culture” is separable and recognizable as such at all. The two views are:

• the interpretivist view; • the functionalist view.