An Assessment of the Safety Culture of National Railways of Zimbabwe

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to assess the safety culture of the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ). A qualitative research methodology was adopted for the study. Purposive sampling was used to select the study participants and the data was collected through focus group discussions and individual interviews. Twenty three unstructured individual interviews and eight focus group discussions were conducted. The interviews and discussions were guided by five safety culture indicators namely, leadership; two-way communication; employee involvement; learning culture; and attitude towards blame. The findings revealed that NRZ was relatively strong with respect to employee involvement but was very weak in the other four safety culture indicators. The study thus concluded that on the whole NRZ had a weak safety culture.