The paradox is that the safety culture concept was originally
introduced precisely because the phenomena affecting safety are
systemic in nature and purely linear models or technological solu-
tions were found inadequate to manage complex sociotechnical
systems. Accidents such as Chernobyl and Piper Alpha showed that
organisations need to pay attention to the so-called soft issues. The
concept of safety culture tried to depict these soft issues in a manner
that would allow their development. Probably due to the ambigu-
ities in the concept itself, the research on safety culture has then
focused inwards on the dimensions comprising the concept. The
systemic possibilities offered by a human-centric concept have so
far been largely lost in this neglect of modelling safety culture in
the context of the sociotechnical system. As a consequence, safety
culture improvements have been made without considering the
overall safety of the system and obvious disappointments in the
applicability of the concept have ensued.