Safety management in production

The last 20 years have seen the development of broad agreement on the necessary functions to be fulfilled by a safety management system and how they relate to each other in a coherent whole. The article describes these functions and reviews subjects that still need study, notably organizational culture, conflict, management in nonbureaucratic organizations, safety auditing, and safety in the learning organization. It is organized under four headings: what we know, what we believe but have no proof of, what we may be mistaken about, and what we face as challenges and unresolved issues for the coming years.