Safety Culture

Here are some characteristics of a good safety culture:

High priority : safety has the highest priority among competing constraints like cost and productivity
Accountability : processes ensure accountability such that design decisions are traceable back to the people and teams who made the decisions
Rewards : the organization motivates and supports the achievement of functional safety
Penalties : the organization penalizes shortcuts that jeopardize safety or quality
Independence : teams who design and develop a product should be independent from the teams who audit the work
Well defined processes : company design and management processes should be clearly defined
Resources : projects have necessary resources including people with appropriate skills
Diversity : intellectual diversity is sought after, valued and integrated into processes
Communication : communication channels encourage disclosure of problems

ISO 26262 does not cover quality management directly; however, quality management is a required part of safety culture.

Organizations need to have a quality management system in place that complies with quality management standards such as [ISO/TS 16949]( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO/TS_16949
) (replaced in 2016 by IATF 16949 or ISO 9001 .