The cultural organisation model: analysing the cultural construction of nuclear safety

Abstract

The economic deregulation of the electricity markets which began in most Western countries in the 1990s has given rise to a previously non-existent field of research. Nuclear power plants have been particularly affected, and as a result of these financial pressures are undergoing significant cultural changes that are having a negative impact on their safety. This research aims to examine this emerging concern from an alternative theoretical framework, the cultural organisation model, which includes the four dimensions that are needed to make a cultural analysis of any organisation: content, consensus, coherence, and consistency over time. The use of this model to analyse the cultural changes taking place in Spanish nuclear power plants provides a hitherto inexistent baseline of cultural research, which facilitates an understanding of the social construction of nuclear safety.