Shaping Safety from the Inside Out: What Culture Really Means in Aviation

What Don Arendt’s Culture Model Reveals About Aviation Safety

In aviation, we hear a lot about “safety culture.” But what does that actually mean, and more importantly, how do you manage it?

For that, we can turn to Don Arendt, former FAA SMS Program Office Manager. In his 2008 paper A Model of Organizational Culture, Arendt reframes culture not as something intangible, but as a system with observable, measurable parts. Built on ideas from psychologist Albert Bandura and safety expert Dr. E. Scott Geller, his model breaks culture into three key elements:

• System/Environment

• Psychology

• Behavior

Together, these create a practical framework for SMS leaders who want to actively shape their safety culture, not just talk about it. Let’s walk through each layer and how to apply it in your organization.

System and Environment

This is the structural backbone of your organization’s safety culture. It includes the tangible elements, your policies, procedures, equipment, tools, org charts, and accountability structures.

“The organization’s policy, organizational structure, accountability frameworks, procedures, controls, facilities, equipment, and software... all reside in this element.” — Don Arendt, A Model of Organizational Culture

In SMS terms, this is where your documented processes live: hazard reporting forms, risk matrices, audit protocols, safety meetings, and SMS software platforms. It also includes external factors like regulatory obligations and contractual requirements.

Importantly, this is the area where leadership has the most control. Investments in tools and training, role clarity, and system design all fall here.

How to Assess It:

• Internal audits: Help you verify that safety processes are being followed as documented and identify gaps between policy and practice.

• Documentation reviews: Allow you to evaluate whether your manuals, forms, and procedures are up to date, accessible, and aligned with regulations.

• Regulatory compliance checks: Confirm that your organization meets FAA or ICAO requirements and help uncover any systemic shortfalls before an external audit does.

Psychology

This layer is less visible, but just as important. It reflects how people feel about safety, their roles, and their leaders. According to Arendt, this includes broader cultural influences (national, regional, professional), industry norms, and internal perceptions shaped by leadership behavior.

Policies can shape how people think, but they can’t control it. That’s what makes this layer so critical.

“You can’t make how people think and feel a matter of policy, although policies can affect how people think and feel.” — Don Arendt, A Model of Organizational Culture

If your team doesn’t trust the system, believe in the value of reporting, or feel supported by leadership, your safety outcomes will suffer, even with the best systems in place.

How to Assess It:

• Confidential employee surveys: Provide insight into how team members perceive safety, leadership, and the reporting environment—without fear of reprisal.

• Focus group conversations: Allow you to explore specific attitudes or concerns in more depth and identify cultural dynamics that surveys might miss.

• One-on-one interviews: Offer a candid look at individual trust levels, values, and safety-related experiences within your operation.

Behavior

This is where culture becomes visible: how people act, how teams communicate, and how leaders lead. Behavior is shaped by both the systems in place and the psychological environment.

But don’t confuse observed behavior during audits with reality. Arendt emphasizes the importance of anonymous employee reporting systems because they reveal what’s happening when no one is watching.

“Employee reporting systems... provide a means of finding out what’s really going on.” — Don Arendt, A Model of Organizational Culture

Leadership modeling also plays a powerful role. When leaders consistently follow procedures, admit mistakes, and encourage open dialogue, others are more likely to do the same.

How to Assess It:

• Informal peer feedback: Helps uncover how people behave day-to-day and whether they follow safety procedures when not being directly observed.

• Observation of daily operations: Gives leadership real-time visibility into frontline behavior, communication patterns, and procedural adherence.

• Trends in safety reports and near-miss data: Reveal recurring issues or positive shifts in behavior over time, offering clues to underlying cultural habits.

Why This Model Matters

One of Arendt’s most important insights is that culture isn’t binary. There’s no such thing as a purely “good” or “bad” safety culture. What matters is whether it’s actively managed.

“There’s no such thing as a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ safety culture... The important thing is how we manage, measure, and constantly adapt the system to get the safety outcomes that we want.” — Don Arendt, A Model of Organizational Culture

Every organization has a culture. The question is whether yours is intentional, or accidental.

By understanding and applying Arendt’s model, SMS leaders can shape culture from three angles at once:

• Structure (System)

• Mindset (Psychology)

• Action (Behavior)

This integrated view gives you a roadmap for making real improvements in safety, not just checking boxes for compliance.

Final Thought

If you're trying to improve safety outcomes, you can't focus only on checklists and documentation. You need to zoom out.

Culture is a living system. When system, psychology, and behavior are aligned and managed with purpose, your SMS becomes more than a compliance tool, it becomes a catalyst for continuous safety improvement.

Source

This post is based on Don Arendt’s A Model of Organizational Culture (December 2008), which draws on foundational concepts from Albert Bandura and Dr. E. Scott Geller’s The Psychology of Safety Handbook. You can find the full paper via the FAA’s reference library.