Many initiatives intended to improve safety in nuclear facilities have used the concept of "safety culture," which focuses on human and organizational factors and emphasizes the importance of the perceptions, interpretations, and behaviors of the individuals and groups within organizations.Particularly when it comes to risk management, it is widely believed that safety culture can be a used as a lever to strengthen a company's overall structure and organization. But how is it possible to ensure that a new safety policy or organizational infrastructure really will promote safe and reliable operations without unforeseen and undesired cultural consequences? Once recommendations have been issued, how is it possible to assess the extent to which safety culture has (or has not) improved?This paper argues that using what we call a "cultural analysis framework" can be a powerful way to identify and understand cultural elements that have an impact on reliability and safety within organizations. We will use a case study of the introduction of a safety management system in a nuclear facility to present this original approach. Because safety culture is a highly complex topic that can be challenging to address directly, our cultural analysis framework approaches a system at three levels, which, when explored together, can help to develop a comprehensive understanding of the cultural aspects of safety in an organization. First, at the macro level this approach examines the cultural background of a system and how it is integrated into an existing organizational culture. Second, at the meso level it looks at the collective aspects of a given system within an organization. Third, at the micro level it investigates collective and social life (modes of socialization, relationships, trust, practice sharing), as well as the symbolic and identity-related aspects of a system.Based on the findings of our study, this paper concludes that a socio-comprehensive approach to safety can be an effective means to identify "reasonable" actions to be taken in any organization seeking to improve risk management.

Cet article vise à articuler politique d’orientation client d’une entreprise publique de transport, d’une part, et (in)civilité des voyageurs à l’égard des salariés aux guichets, d’autre part, à partir du cas d’une nouvelle ligne de transport public collectif voulant inaugurer de nouveaux modes de relations entre agents et clients, basés sur l’attention et la convivialité. En fait de convivialité, c’est essentiellement l’incivilité que les salariés doivent régulièrement subir. L’énoncé, par la direction de la ligne, de la position centrale des clients dans l’organisation ainsi que l’évolution des missions confiées aux agents en contact avec les clients, viennent modifier la nature des rapports sociaux de service entre agents et clients, qui évoluent vers des rapports de pouvoir en faveur des clients et au détriment de la civilité dans l’espace public.A new public transit line set up a programme entitled “focus on the client” [orientation client] intended to found relations between employees and clients on attention and interaction. In practice, interaction essentially brings incivility, which the employees confront regularly. The transit authority’s announcement that clients were central to the organisation as well as the evolution of employees’ responsibilities when in contact with clients has altered the service relationship. It is shifting the power relationship in the clients’ favour and at the loss of civility in public space

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La notion d’incivilité regroupe un très large éventail de conduites : indifférence, impolitesse, dégradations, agressivité verbale. Les espaces publics de la Société nationale des Chemins de fer (SNCF) comme ceux de La Poste sont des lieux de brassage social, d’attente prolongée, de mélange entre besoins individuels et traitement de masse. La qualité de service y est intimement liée à la qualité du lien social. Les salariés de ces entreprises font remonter régulièrement le poids croissant des incivilités dont ils sont les témoins ou l’objet. Face à ces actes problématiques, la SNCF et La Poste ont engagé des travaux de recherche analysant les facteurs de dégradation et les leviers de régulation de la civilité dans leurs espaces.Incivility covers a wide range of behaviours – indifference, rudeness, insults, verbal aggression. The public spaces of the railways [SNCF] and the post office are places of social encounter, long waits, and a mix of mass treatment and individual needs. The quality of service is intimately linked to the quality of social ties. Employees in these companies must regularly overcome an increasing burden of incivilities of which they are the object or a witness. Faced with such problem behaviours, the railway companies and the postal service are engaged in research to analyse the factors that account for this degradation and the mechanisms for regulating civility in their public spaces