OHSMS and Safety CultureWhat is an occupational health and safety management system(OHSMS)?One difficultly in evaluating the effectiveness of OHSMS lies in the different meanings given to the team 。Finding agreement upon criteria for effectiveness， or methods of measure—ment and evaluation is especially hard where basic disagreement exists upon what an OHSMS 。1、The General Characteristics Of an OHSMSAll OHSMS owe something to the legacy of general system theory. Systems theory suggests that there should be four general requirements for an OHSMS ， although how there requirements are met in practice allows for considerable diversity。 The four general requirements are as follows.1）System objectives。2 ） Specification of system elements and their inter—relationship ； not all systems need have the same elements.3)Determining the relationship of the OHSMS to other systems (including the general management system， and the regulatory system ， but also technology and work organization ). 4）Requirements for system maintenance （which may be internal， linked to a review phase ， or external ， linked for example to industry policies that support OHS best practice; system maintenance may vary between systems）.Several Australian authorities upon OHSMS have given definitions broadly consistent with these general system requirements 。 Thus Bottomley notes what makes an OHSMS a system “is the deliberate linking and sequencing of processes to achieve specific objectives and to create a repeatable and identifiable way of managing OHS. Corrective actions … (are also ）central to a systematic approach 。”Warwick Pearse also emphasises systemic linkages， defining an OHSMS as “distinct elements which cover the key ran...
