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## 1.2.2 Safety Culture and Promotion: Valuing Safety in the ATO 

## 1.2.2.1 Overview of Safety Culture, Safety Assurance, and SRM 

Safety culture  is defined as the way safety is perceived and valued in an organization. It represents the priority given to safety at all levels in the organization and reflects the real commitment to safety. The ATO uses its SMS to promote a positive safety culture through policies that align safety goals with organizational standards, training, voluntary reporting, and best practices. 

A strong safety culture helps ensure that personnel are trained and competent to perform their duties and that continual training and updates on safety progress are provided. Promoting strong safety values means that all ATO employees share lessons learned from investigations and experiences, both internally and from other organizations. 

SRM and Safety Assurance are the performance-oriented components and results of the SMS, but programs and work that contribute to the Safety Promotion component are vital to achieving positive safety outcomes throughout the ATO. The tenets of Safety Promotion are used to foster a positive safety culture in which ATO employees understand why safety is important and how they affect it, providing a sense of purpose to safety efforts. Each employee must consider the potential effect their decisions may have on safety and is responsible for understanding the significance of his or her job as it relates to safety. SMS training identifies the importance of the 

